“Thank you.”
Braden chuckled before taking a bite of pizza. “Mmm.”
“Can’t go wrong with a meat-lover’s supreme from Louie’s. I love that place.”
“Me too.” He swallowed his food and tapped the side of the paper plate. “I guess we should talk.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Fine. Me either,” Braden agreed.
“Really?”
“Yeah, mainly because I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, you could start by admitting you’re hot for me,” I teased around a bite of pizza.
He snort-laughed. “Okay, fine. I think you’re hot.”
“Thanks,” I said, holding his gaze until his cheeks turned pink. Fuck, he was so damn pretty. No. He was sexy and sweet and nerdy and cool all at once. I had it bad.
“What did you tell Colby?”
“I said we were about to have a pizza picnic and sadly, there wasn’t enough room on my blanket.”
Braden rolled his eyes. “I’m being serious.”
“Okay, fine. Colby is all for us doing whatever makes us happy. He’s not going to judge, and he’s not going to say anything. So, don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried. I’m just not as good at going with the flow as you are. I don’t take many chances, and I don’t veer from the path very often. The craziest thing I’ve done lately is…”
“What? Give your roommate a hand job?”
“Yep.” Braden chuckled. He wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin before continuing, “I just don’t want it to backfire. I mean…I moved to Long Beach to be in a play. And that was ‘wild and crazy’ of me. But then I didn’t get the part. So now I’m a coffee runner for a dickwad director, and I’m lusting after my roommate.”
“Hey, I lust you too,” I joked.
He smiled wanly. “I’ve thrown myself at you three times. It’s embarrassing, but that’s apparently how I operate. One step forward, two awkward steps back.”
I instinctively reached out and traced his jawline. “Bray, I didn’t exactly push you away. My dick was totally on board.”
“Your ‘dick was on board,’ ” he repeated. His lips twitched with humor. “You really are an overgrown kid.”
“So I’ve been told.”
He set his hand on my knee and shook his head. “I meant that you’re carefree…not too serious. Life is complicated enough. You have a talent for staying positive.”
“The way I see it, if you can find something funny in an awkward or sad situation, you give yourself a glimmer of hope that life won’t always seem bleak.”
“It’s a good philosophy.”
I shrugged nonchalantly. “Works for me, though not everyone would agree. My ex didn’t.”
“Anna?”
“No. Drew. Screw him. I still think I’m right.”
“Hmm, so he broke up with you because of pizza picnics?” Braden asked softly.
“We never had a pizza picnic, but yeah…that was the gist. He said he liked my enthusiasm, but that he couldn’t get past my lack of maturity. His voice was kind of snooty too. Like a college professor. I remember feeling like I was pleading my case for a better grade on a homework assignment.”
“That sucks.”
“It did. He blindsided me. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’re on the same page with someone and finding out the only thing you really had in common was sex,” I huffed. “It wasn’t like that with Anna and me at all. We had an arc in our relationship where we grew together before we grew apart. It wasn’t easy, but it felt natural.”
“Breakups are tough.”
I wrinkled my forehead. “Doesn’t matter. I’m out of the boyfriend game. I suck at relationships.”
“I bet that’s not true.”
I smiled. “What makes you think so?”
Braden pursed his lips as he reached for his beer. “Well, we’re roommates only, of course, but…I bet a girlfriend or boyfriend would like your pizza picnic idea. It’s cute.”
My grin took on a life of its own and nearly split my face in half. “You think I’m cute?”
“No, I think you’re annoying.”
“Liar. You like me.”
“I do, but Elliot…I don’t know if we sho—”
“Nope. Don’t do that. Not yet. We’re actively avoiding reality, remember? Let’s stick to fun topics. Tell me something silly you did as a kid.”
Braden furrowed his brow. “I didn’t do anything silly.”
“Kids are silly. It’s what they do best,” he prodded.
“Maybe, but…”
“You want me to go first?” When he inclined his head, I cleared my throat theatrically. “When I was a kid, my sister and I had a picnic every night in a different country.”
“How?”
“We spun the globe in our room, and wherever it landed was where we ate that night.”
Braden grinned. “What happened if you landed in the ocean?”
“Ah! That was the best! We’d pretend to be on a raft on magical waters where anything was possible. Mermaids might jump on board with Pop-Tarts, or some mean-ass pirate might try to take over and make us eat fish sticks and celery…together, no less. It wasn’t about the food, ’cause there usually wasn’t much in the pantry anyway, and we only knew how to cook basics.”