Leaving him to sway on his chair, I headed over to the front door and yanked it shut, pulling at the latch until it locked again and trapped us both inside. Nothingseemedbroken... so either Charlie was an idiot and forgot to latch the lock all the way or Avery was somehow clever enough to pick the lock while drunk and let himself in.
Why the hell was he here again?
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said, turning back to him. “Why are you here?”
He smiled. “Came t’ see you.”
I hated the way my heart stuttered at that. “How come? Worried about your cars?”
“Nah.”
He leaned back until his head was resting against the window behind him, both of his eyes fluttering shut. I had half a mind to yell at him for trying to fall asleep in my lobby at ten o’clock at night and scaring me half to death by breaking and entering.
But as he hummed a soft song to himself, I found my own heart melting just a little bit. Avery was always too charming for his own good.
“You’re not going to answer me, are you?” Walking over to him, I stopped in front of his chair and reached out to put my hand over the top of his head. His hair was just as silky feeling as it looked, tempting me to run my hand through it.
His eyes fluttered open again. “I did.”
Wanting to come see me... for what, though?
To hang out?
I found that hard to believe. Especially with him coming here after clearly visiting a bar.
“Did you go out with someone tonight?” I asked.
He nodded. “Friends. From Ellington... They asked ‘bout you...’
“Me? Why?”
He grinned. “‘Cause I told ‘em ‘bout you.”
My face flushed.
It was all innocent. It had to be. He’d obviously told them that I was working on his cars and nothing more. Probably bragging that he got an entire shop dedicating the next few weeks exclusively in getting the cars back on the road so that he could sell them.
I hated the way my mind was filling in the blanks with more romantic intentions, trying to read between the lines to decipher if he was bragging about me in a friendship sense or something more. I doubted it was either of those things and more likely my first theory.
So then why the fuck was my heart so hell bent on pretending it was something more?
That was the problem with having crushes on straight men. They weren’t ever going to reciprocate any feelings, let alone read into situations that could be misinterpreted as romantic. I doubted any of his buddies were hassling him for reconnecting with his childhood best friend and asking him what was going on between us.
Unlike my dumb ass.
“Aw, what’s the face for...?” Avery reached out and pinched my cheek. “I don’t like it.”
“What face?”
“Y’ look sad, Bran. Stop it.”
Ugh, leave it to drunk Avery to see right through me.
“Maybe I’m annoyed that you showed up at my workplace wasted.”
He barked out a laugh. “Nah. You missed me.”
I did. Desperately.
