Chapter Nineteen
When he saw a text from Reid that had been sent four hours ago, Gabriel’s heart sank. He hadn’t intended to ignore him, but he’d been absorbed in the work he’d put off yesterday so he could see Reid in the first place.
This was why no one would date him. He took on more work than he could possibly do, more work than any one person everneededto do, and then he was surprised when he didn’t have any free time.
His heart clenched when he unlocked his phone to read it, a smile spreading across his face.
Reid had a good time. Gabriel wasn’t totally alone in enjoying whatever it was they had going on, and Reid obviously still wanted to talk to him.
Gabriel grinned as he started a reply, his stomach fluttering at the thought of getting to talk to Reid again.
He’d never felt like this about anyone. He’d never had time to. Relationships—even friendships—had been the last thing on his mind since he was in high school.
At the time, that had worked for him. No one had really wanted to be friends with the class know-it-all, so throwing himself into study, and then work, had been safeguards against feeling rejected.
Now he just felt lonely.
Except when he was with Reid. Reid made the loneliness lift instantly, as though he was personally reaching up to part the clouds and let the sun shine through.
Reid’s presence was always warm, and he was funny, and kind, and much smarter than he let people see. Gabriel saw it, though. Reid just had a lot more emotional intelligence than he did, which meant he knew how tobearound other people.
And that was awesome, because Gabriel didn’t have to feel awkward around him.
Gabriel liked everything about the way Reid made him feel, and he wanted more of it.
Sorry this is so late. Work stuff. I had a great time, too.
Gabriel chewed on his lip as he hit send, excitement welling up in his gut. He’d been afraid that Reid would get tired of him, but it didn’t look as though that was happening.
No problem,Reid texted back within seconds.
As much as Gabriel knew that didn’t necessarily mean he’d been watching his phone for a reply, it was nice to get an instant response like that.
I was thinking…Reid added before Gabriel could type a response, his fingers refusing to cooperate as fast as he would have liked.
Dangerous. Can’t recommend it, Gabriel texted, taking advantage of the pause.
Reid sent back an emoji with its tongue sticking out. Gabriel was fairly sure he would have actually stuck his tongue out if they’d been having this conversation face-to-face.
He liked that about Reid. His easy comfort with himself, his warmth. It made him easy to talk to, easy to be around.
Gabriel remembered this feeling. This was what a crush felt like. Except, for once in his life, he was aware of his feelings being returned.
I was thinking,Reid repeated.That if your experiment is over, you might be open to a real date.
Gabriel stared at the text for a few seconds, a high pitched sound of excitement escaping the back of his throat.
Reid wanted to go on adate. With him.
The thought alone was enough to make his heart beat faster, the sound of his pulse rushing in his ears.
Gabriel’s fingers trembled with excitement as he typed out his response, forcing him to stop and delete words he’d misspelled so badly that even autocorrect didn’t know what to do with them.
I think now that I’ve finished that experiment, I could be persuaded to run a boyfriend experiment.
Was it too much to use the wordboyfriend? He still barely knew Reid, and he’d never had a boyfriend—he’d never really had a girlfriend, either. Gabriel wasn’t sure at what point it was appropriate to say that.
The thought made his heart swell, though. He didn’t need Reid to declare Gabriel his boyfriend rightnow, but it would have been nice to think that they could be headed in that direction.
