Because he looks fucking gorgeous.
He always does, but this is something else. The way the light hits his skin, the way the glasses sit on his face, how effortlessly handsome he looks here. It fucking wrecks me.
He looks up and our eyes meet. I swear his face changes for a second like he didn’t expect to see me. Because of course he didn’t. I didn’t text him and let him know I would be showing up when I practically chased Hugh down on campus.
He shifts in his seat and gives me a friendly smile that goes straight to my gut.
“Hey,” he says, voice soft.
I nod back and try not to stare like a love sick fool. It’s exceptionally hard to not to focus on his mouth, or his shoulders, or the way he smells like his citrus body wash. I try, and probablyfail, not to let it show that I’ve been thinking about him every fucking day.
Hughie tosses the pizza on the counter in the kitchen.
I sit down in the living room and try to act cool. This isn’t the first time I have been here. It’s just been, well, too long. This is what life what like freshman year before I let girls and booze and parties ruin my first college friendship.
Jacob keeps reading at the dining room table and I keep trying not to put my full attention on the gorgeous man.
Hughie grabs a couple slices and strolls over to him. He grins down at Jacob, still buried in that damn textbook. “You cool if me and Griff play some games? Or are we killing your concentration?”
Jacob glances up, glasses slipping just a bit down his nose. “Thanks for the food. No, you’re good. I’m almost done anyway.”
He’s so calm and at ease that it’s unreal. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here wondering how the fuck I’m supposed to function with him five feet away.
Hughie walks back to the couch, and my limbs finally remember how to move. I look over at Jacob again. I want to go to him. I want to kiss him. I want to curl around him and not have to pretend anymore.
And then I shove all of that down. Hard.
I grab a slice of pizza and take a bite. The pizza’s good. It’s from the spot downtown that we used to get all the fucking time freshman year. Hughie’s got the game loaded on the TV. I hit my slice with hot sauce because obviously I do, then slump back into the couch.
I get focused on the game and it’s unreal how easy it is to fall back into a friendship with Hugh. I won’t say it out loud but I missed this so much. The ease that his presence gives.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Jacob standing up and slipping out of the room. He disappears into his room like I’m not here.
The controller’s in my hand, but my brain’s shorted out.
Hughie snorts and then he shifts, looking over at me. And I already know what’s coming.
He lifts a brow, slow and obvious.
I shoot him a look.What?
The asshole fucking smirks at me, “You should go invite him to play.”
I don’t move. I keep my face forward. The truth is that I want to go grab Jake and make him hang out with us. I want to spend time with him around his brother and best friend. I want a normal fucking relationship where we are around each other without hiding. But we haven’t had that discussion and I don’t know how he would respond.
“Nah,” I mutter, feeling dejected. “Let him do his nerd shit.”
His smirk grows like he’s watching a rom-com play out in real time. Then he hits me with, “Just go, you fucking weirdo.”
It’s not mean. It’s Hughie-code forI know you’re a dumbass, but I still support your emotional nonsense.
I sit there for one more second. Then I drop the controller.
I stalk down the hall to Hughie’s quiet snickering and I stop at Jacob’s door. I knock once and then wait.
“Yeah?” he says from inside.
The door cracks open. He’s pulling a shirt over his head. It’s plain white, tight across his chest. I catch just enough skin to have my heart racing and my cock stirring to life. His hair’s still damp, his skin flushed, and my brain just stops working.
