Chapter Ten
Zach supposed he should have expected an upmarket bar in the nice part of town when an IT professional invited him to a networking event, but hehadn’t, and at first he’d felt a little out of place among the mood lighting, glossy black glass bar, and beers he’d never heard of being offered to him by an obviously nervous Flynn.
On the other hand, being introduced to a few people as Flynn’shusbandwas nice, and the rooftop beer garden full of shrubbery and what he supposed were ironic mass-produced Greek-style statues was nice, and no one seemed to care that he was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers.
Not that he would have had the wardrobe to dress up nicely even if Flynn had told him to.
Flynn was wearing beautifully-tailored charcoal pants and a fitted deep indigo shirt that looked incredible on him and was giving Zach ideas for new glazes and combinations he planned on experimenting with when he next had the chance.
The thing was, though, that Zach wasn’t theonlyone who’d noticed that Flynn looked amazing.
When he got back from peeing—this was why he’d avoided drinking beer at Flynn’s house on Tuesday—he found Flynn cornered by a woman who’d definitely been looking at him with interest earlier.
Everything about Flynn’s body language said he was stressed and wanted to get away, from the way his eyes were darting around the room to the grip he had on the table of the booth they were in, hard enough to make his knuckles go white.
This, Zach realized with a rush, was what he was here for. To save Flynn from being hit on by people he didn’t really want to be hit on by.
The woman who had him trapped was pretty, long copper curls cascading down her back, contrasting beautifully with her forest green and black lace dress, but Zach got the impression thatprettywasn’t enough for Flynn.
Actually, he got the impression that Flynn wasn’t really interested in what people looked like at all.
Taking a deep breath, he approached from the side, catching Flynn’s eye just a moment before sliding into the booth beside him, taking the hand that had been gripping the table, and resting his head on Flynn’s shoulder in one fluid movement.
Zach’s heart pounded in his ears at the contact, so much more intimate than anything they’d shared before, but the woman sitting across from them finally seemed to falter in her relentless pursuit of the beautiful, apparently single man she’d set her sights on.
Zach couldn’t exactlyblameher. Under other circumstances—ones, for example, where he thought Flynn was anything other than completely straight—he would have done much the same.
Well, no. He would have backed off if Flynn looked uncomfortable.
Or… he probably would never have actually approached him, because Flynn was several orders of magnitude out of his league, and rejection stung, even if he knew Flynn would have been really nice about it.
“Introduce me,” Zach nudged, squeezing Flynn’s hand lightly in a show of support. He really hoped he was doing the right thing. The last thing he wanted was for Flynn to be mad at him.
Flynn cleared his throat, and Zach could feel the tension easing out of his shoulders as he did it.
So this wasprobablythe right thing to do.
“This is my husband, Zach,” he said, and he even managed to sound cheerful. “He’s studying for his MFA right now. He’s a potter. Zach, this is Elouise.”
Elouise smiled the iciest smile Zach had ever been on the receiving end of. It was enough to make him shift a little closer to Flynn.
For comfort, obviously. Not out of possessiveness. Flynn didn’tbelongto him, and he wasn’t about to mark his territory or anything…
Okay, maybe a little. Helikedthe fantasy of pretending they were married because Flynn wanted him. That was all.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Zach said, offering his free hand across the table. “Do you do what Flynn does, or…?”
“I’m a community manager, actually,” she responded, looking between the two of them. “But you probably don’t care all that much about the ins and outs of my job.”
Zach shrugged. “Oh, no, I love hearing about what people do. I’m a people person,” he lied.
Hopefully his enthusiasm would be enough to scare her off without putting Flynn in an awkward position later. He couldn’t berudeto her, because then Flynn was the guy with the rude husband.
If Flynn was the guy with the insufferably cheerful husband instead, no one could complain about it without sounding like an asshole. Zach being enthusiastic and curious wasn’t a bad thing. As long as he was polite, this wouldn’t come back to bite Flynn.
He cared about that a whole lot. Flynn had been kind to him when he really didn’t need to be, and that, apparently, was the key to his undying loyalty.
“I’ll leave you two in peace,” Elouise said, as though Zach hadn’t just asked her to explain her job. Her interest in Flynn had all but evaporated the moment he’d sat down, which meant Zach’s presence was working as intended.
