Damian held out his hand. “Hey, man. Nice to meet you.”
“You too.” I shook it before introducing him to Kira and Ali, and…holy fuck, I didn’t stumble over my words or anything. Granted, there were only two of them, but it was a start.
“Damian’s new to Atlanta. He graduated from USC and came here to stay with his parents.” Mom gave me a thumbs-up behind his back, and I wanted to die.
“That’s awesome. I love Atlanta. I don’t think I’ll ever leave.” Holy shit. I did it again. Were orgasms from someone else all it took to fix my rambling craziness around guys I was attracted to?
Mom stayed and chatted for a moment before saying, “I need to go find your father. He’s introducing his new PA to everyone. He really likes this kid. Anyway, I figured Damian could hang out with you guys since he doesn’t know anyone else here tonight.”
“Yeah.” I tried to smile authentically when I just wanted to groan. “Of course.”
After another smile, Mom disappeared.
“Sorry, man. I hope this isn’t awkward,” Damian said.
And it wouldn’t have been, had my mom not tried to score me a man, because obviously she thought I couldn’t on my own.
“No, it’s cool.”
Damian was nice, and the four of us chatted for a while. He was an English major, which I had to admit was pretty cool. He was considering graduate school too but was taking a year off, and damn, I waited for my nerve endings to start tingling and for my body to start going haywire. Damian was not only hot, but we had things in common. I could see why Mom thought he’d be a good fit for me, and it was only a summer fling with Will, nothing serious, but the thought of even being interested in anyone felt…off.
I looked over, and Ali was standing in front of Kira. They were smiling at each other as Ali wiped something from under Kira’s eye, and…that was different. I’d never seen them look at each other like that before. It shouldn’t matter, and it didn’t, but I was slightly thrown by it, my chest feeling a little tight, when I heard my dad say, “Jameson! There you are.”
I looked over right as the blond guy with him turned. Both of us froze, my heart the only thing moving as it plummeted to my gut.
“Oh shit,” Kira said.
“What’s wrong?” Damian asked.
“Nothing,” Ali answered for me when I couldn’t find my voice. My vision went blurry, and I just stood there watching as Will recovered. As Will smiled. As Will walked over with my dad.
I was going to be sick. Oh God, I was going to puke all over the place. How could this be happening? I couldn’t make sense of it, and I didn’t want to. Maybe it shouldn’t be a big deal, but it was. To me, it was.
“Will, this is my son, Jameson.” Dad put his hand on Will’s shoulder and beamed. “Jameson, this is Will, the new PA I’ve been raving about.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Where were my words? I’d lost my fucking words. And then I closed my mouth because, yeah, still felt like I might vomit.
“Hi…um…Jameson? It’s great to meet you.” Will put his hand out, but I didn’t move, didn’t grab it.
“Hi.” I couldn’t handle much more than that at the moment.
Will frowned a little, his eyes still wide and…confused. I was pretty sure he was confused. He couldn’t have known who I was. He wouldn’t do that to me, and obviously he would have known he’d get caught tonight.
When I realized he still had his hand out, I shook it, feeling numb.
“This is Jameson’s date. Damian, right?” Dad said.
Will flinched.
“He’s not my date!” I rushed out. “I mean, sorry. You’re not, and I’m sure you don’t want to be, but my mom, did you know she probably invited you over to set me up? This is some kind of blind date. Sorry if you didn’t know. I’m sure you have better things to do and wouldn’t want to date me anyway—” Holy fuck. I was doing it again. Shut up, shut up, shut up!
Dad chuckled uncomfortably. He got like that when I was nervous or awkward because he didn’t get it. It would never happen to him. He could fake his way through any situation if he needed to. He was always more collected than I could ever be.
Damian smiled. “It’s cool. I thought that might be the case.”
I looked at him and couldn’t read his expression, then back to Will, whose jaw was tight and his eyes…hurt? Was that what I saw?
As always, Kira saved me. “I’m Kira, the best friend.” She shook Will’s hand. “This is Ali…and you’re Will…and you work for Crane Entertainment…um…small world. Or city, I guess.”