“Pleasure to meet you,” Flynn said, offering his hand, and itwasa pleasure to meet her.
Not just because she was sizing him up like an artist’s model and clearly didn’t hate what she saw. Because she was Zach’sfriend, and they’d reached the meet-my-friends stage of this, and that seemed like a big deal.
Obviously it wasn’t what Flynn had beenherefor, but he realized now that Zach had fully expected at least one of his friends to be around.
“Husband, huh?” she said after a moment, looking over at Zach. “Well, I like this one. He seems… mature.”
“Hey!” Flynn protested.
Zach burst into laughter, so he was no help at all.
“What? You’ve got that hot older man vibe.” Suki shrugged. “I bet you work in IT.”
Flynn blinked at her. How the hell did she—?
“Youdolook like you work in IT,” Zach said before Flynn could even finish that thought. “It’s just a… young professional who doesn’t have to care all that much what people think, but still maintains a reasonable standard of personal grooming kinda… vibe.”
Flynn raised an eyebrow. “Reasonable standard.”
“Compared to me.” Zach shrugged. “I haven’t had a haircut in three months and I only bothered to shave this morning because I knew you were coming around.”
Some part of Flynn was honored by that.
“Yeah, well… you two look like artists,” Flynn said, shrugging. “I guess?”
Suki laughed this time.
“You can keep him,” she said. “He’s cute.”
“Thanks.” Zach smiled wryly. “I’m actually about to take him to lunch, so you’ve got the place to yourself. Are you still covering the market stall this weekend, or…?”
“Yeah, I’m covering this weekend,” Suki said. “But you’re right, we need to re-check the roster. I’ll… draft an email.”
“Awesome.” Zach grinned at her, reaching out to grab Flynn’s hand.
Flynn’s heart fluttered in his chest, his whole world narrowing down to where his hand was in contact with Zach’s. He didn’t even hear the rest of the conversation before Zach tugged him away to the elevator, still holding his hand.
He was too busy marveling at how much the simple gesture meant to him, how good it felt.
“You’ve gone quiet,” Zach said once the elevator doors closed, and Flynn was only now realizing that he’d climbed all those stairs for nothing. The elevator had been tucked around a corner, just out of sight.
He’d been so excited to see Zach that he hadn’t even looked for it.
“Just thinking,” he said. “About you, actually.”
“I hope they’re good thoughts,” Zach said, squeezing his hand a little tighter.
“They are,” Flynn murmured. “Definitely good thoughts.”
