5
Ty
Itold Liam aboutThe X-Filesall the way back to my place, and he asked questions about the main characters, Mulder and Scully, and about the crazy adventures they got into. I figured he was humoring me, but the way he encouraged me along only made me feel that much more like he at least wanted to talk to me.
Like he enjoyed the time we spent together as much as I did.
I was stunned he’d told me as much as he had—about being in a shelter…and then being homeless as a kid.
I imagined this strong man who walked alongside me, as a kid walking the cold streets of New York, wondering where he was going to get his next meal.
I had so many questions: How had he survived? Was he picking food from trash cans? Shoplifting? Had he found any friends who had helped him out?
Just like Liam to offer answers that only led to more questions.
I wanted so many more answers. I greedily wanted everything from him.
However, I could tell by the way he quieted after he offered as much as he had that I wasn’t going to get any more. Not that night.
I would have to accept it was enough, since it was far more than he’d offered previously. And even more significant, he told me this after I shared more about my mom. It was as though he wanted to open up so that I knew I wasn’t alone.
The moment gave me hope that if I just stuck around, I’d chip away at his barriers until he was forced to show me more and more of the beautiful man I knew was beneath his beautiful flesh.
As we reached my building, I didn’t hesitate, kept right through the entrance, into the elevator, without acting like there was anything unusual about him coming to my unit with me.
He didn’t say anything either, and I was glad because I wanted him to come up, even if only for a minute. When I reached the door, I inputted my key code in the pad under the door handle and opened it, leading him in, the door clicking as I shut it, as if I were locking him in.
“Well, you’re back and safe,” Liam said, smirking as though he enjoyed our little game of him walking me back to my place. Certainly he knew I wasn’t that drunk or in that much danger, but that hadn’t been what any of this had really been about, had it?
There was something else there—he must have felt that too.
“This is the part where you’d find out that I’m some tentacled creature bringing you here to impregnate you with my alien baby.”
“What?” His brows pulled together as he seemed to miss my reference, but just as quickly he smiled. “Oh yes.The X-Files. I was thinking more of a needy man-eating incubus.”
His gaze shifted around my unit, to the living area, then to my kitchen.
“You want some water?” I asked. “I’ll get you some water.”
I walked into the kitchen, fetched a bottle from the fridge, and handed it to him.
And then it was just the two of us, no more distractions, both of us seeming to wonder what we were to do now that we’d arrived…knowing what I wanted to do, but also knowing better than to believe Liam would give that to me.
“You can crash if you want.” My words were filled with desperation. I wondered, given how much attention he seemed to be paying to my lips in that moment, if he had picked up on that. Surely he had. Liam was an observant guy—alarmingly so.
“I have a hotel room,” he said matter-of-factly.
“But maybe you want to stay anyway. You can camp out on the couch. It’s pretty damn comfy. I’ve fallen asleep there a few times myself, and Jesse’s passed out there after some big drinking nights. I mean, we’re friends, right? A friend can certainly loan a buddy a place to sleep if he’s too drunk to make it back to his hotel room.”
“I’m not too drunk.”
“Can’t you just pretend you are?” I knew as soon as the words escaped my lips just how pathetic I sounded, but I wouldn’t need my pride if he would just stay.
He studied my expression, his lips curling into a soft smile. Would he make fun of me for my ridiculous request, brush me off?
“I guess I’m feeling a little tired,” he finally said.
I took a deep breath, relieved he’d surrendered.
