“Thank you for joining us,” Deb said to David, softly, so his dad couldn’t hear. “He might not have acted like it, but Chris was pretty nervous. I think he was worried you wouldn’t approve of me.”
David grinned wide.
“Well, I do.”
“Thank you. And speaking of…” She nodded toward Farzan, hovering outside the door. “He seems like a keeper.”
David followed her gaze and swallowed away the food-laden butterflies trying to flutter in his stomach. “Yeah. He does.”
Once the SUV pulled away, David joined Farzan beside the door, waving goodbye. There was no awning, but at least the building itself blocked some of the rain.
“Hey,” David said, bumping Farzan’s elbow. “Sorry for ambushing you like that. I didn’t know Deb was going to bring us here tonight.”
“It’s fine,” Farzan said stiffly.
David did his best not to bristle. It wasn’t his fault (well, maybe a little bit for not checking the map more closely), but he hadn’t done any of this on purpose.
The problem was he kept hearing Farzan saying no in his head. “Still, you didn’t have to throw me under the bus in front of our parents.”
“So lying to them was the better choice?” Farzan crossed his arms and shifted out of view of the windows. “You made it abundantly clear that this was never going to be anything serious. Just friends with benefits. Which is a far cry from boyfriends.”
David rolled his eyes. “Oh, did you want me to tell your mom we were fuck buddies instead?”
Farzan looked away, but his lip quivered and his ears were turning red.
Shit. That was a dick thing to say. What was wrong with him?
“I’m sorry.” He reached for Farzan’s face, but Farzan leaned away.
David’s insides went colder than the rain.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Farzan said.
“What?” David croaked. “Why?”
And why did it hurt so much?
Farzan bit his lip and shook his head. The rain was picking up, and David couldn’t tell if those were tears at the end of Farzan’s eyelashes or raindrops.
He blinked away the burning in his own eyes. It couldn’t just… end, could it?
They had a real connection. Didn’t Farzan feel it? It wasn’t just about all the wine they’d shared, or the flash cards and movies, or even the best sex of David’s life. It was about kissing and cuddling, smiling and laughing. It was about feeling exactly right in someone’s arms.
Fuck.
He’d walked right into it, hadn’t he? He’d gone and caught feelings. And he wasn’t ready to let Farzan go, not if he could help it.
“I don’t want this to end,” David finally said.
“Don’t you get it?” Farzan snapped. “I like you. I more than like you. I can’t do casual. Not anymore.”
“Well, I more than like you, too!” David snapped back. “It’s not casual for me, either!”
Farzan blinked at him, mouth hanging open. A raindrop slid off the end of his nose.
“Maybe it hasn’t been for a while,” David finally admitted.
Maybe it had never been in the first place. Because no matter what he told himself, from the moment David saw Farzan sitting in Aspire, he’d wanted him.
