I did have something to add, the text read,thank you for being so cool today. I was expecting a nightmare and I actually had fun.
It was signedDanny.
Eliot bit his lip.
Maybe he really had been too harsh.
Not that it mattered, since it wasn’t as though he was ever going to see the guy again.
You’re welcome, he texted back.
“That's him, isn't it? You gave him your number,” Meg said, a smug smile spreading over her features.
“Because that's what professionals do,” Eliot defended, setting his phone down.
“What did he say?” Meg asked.
Eliot’s face heated up. “He, uh. He was saying thank you. And that he, umm… had fun…”
The tips of his ears burned with the admission.
The unfortunate truth was that as much as he’d wanted to dislike Danny for a whole host of very good reasons, he sort of…
Liked him.
“You like him,” Meg said, as if she’d read Eliot’s mind. Besides the fact that she was very good with people, it probably didn't help that Eliot was blushing furiously after getting a fairly innocuous text from the guy.
Danny was cocky and a little too self-confident for Eliot’s usual tastes, but he’d been nice. Fun, even.
Eliot really didn’t want to have a crush on him. He didn’t want to admit that Danny hadn’t been at all like he thought he would be. He’d gone in nervous that they wouldn’t be able to find any middle ground, and he’d come away…
Well, he’d come away blushing at a thank you text.
It was just as well Danny was entirely unattainable and not someone he’d ever have to speak to again.
“Maybe I do,” Eliot admitted. He hated to admit it, but he did. As much as he knew he shouldn’t have liked Danny, something about him was very appealing.
Something aside from the fact that the sex would have been amazing. There was no point in pretending that he hadn’t thought about it, even if only for a moment.
“I don’t think he was interested, though. I think he was just relieved to be talking to a gay guy.”
“Whatever you say.” Meg shrugged. “I’d chase him anyway.”
“You’re shameless. I’m not,” Eliot said. He didn’t mean it as an insult. Meg’s complete lack of self-consciousness was an asset in this job. He often wished he was the same way, but he’d never get to that point.
“Your loss,” she said, stepping away from his desk. “I gotta go work, but I’m free for lunch if you wanna hang out?”
Eliot liked the sound of that. He didn’t have a whole lot of friends in LA, and he liked the idea of getting to know Meg a little better. She’d been hired around the same time Eliot had, but Eliot had been too busy trying to cope with suddenly being on his own, thousands of miles from home, to really get to know anyone.
“I’m gonna get a draft of this article down, and then I’m all yours,” he said.
“Awesome, I’ll come by your desk in an hour,” she promised, walking away with a swing of her hips.
If Eliot was at all interested in women, he’d have had the most ridiculous crush on Meg.
Instead, he had an even more ridiculous, uncomfortable crush on a guy he’d just met. At least he’d never be in a position where he could make an idiot of himself because of it again.
