Ezra raised an eyebrow. “Because we’re both weird?”
“Because we’re both the samekindof weird,” Mike corrected.
They’d always just… gotten each other, even with things they probably shouldn’t have. With things like thinking a decorative pine cone looked edible, or that there was just somethingwrongwith chicken-flavored corn chips, or any of the other thousand tiny things they had in common.
On the surface, they couldn’t have been more different people. But underneath, in the ways that mattered, they were the same.
Mike wasn’t planning on losing touch with Ezra again after this. He’d forgotten how good it felt to have him in his life.
“You know,” Ezra said. “Now that we’re both in this together, we oughta really sell it.”
“Sell what?” Mike asked.
“That we’re dating.” Ezra looked over at Rachel and Rick again. “And that our sex life is hot, fulfilling, and maybe a little kinky?”
This time, it was Mike’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “And you wanna sell thathow? Because I know I said the pine cone was sexy, but I was joking.”
Ezra offered his hand across the table. “Come dance with me?”
Mike stared at Ezra’s hand, then glanced over at the dance floor.
It wasrightin the middle of everything. Everyone was going to see them.
And it wasn’t that he was ashamed of the idea of being seen with Ezra, exactly. Anyone Ezra was genuinely interested in would have been lucky.
But…
The knot of anxiety that Mike had almost forgotten about seemed to grow three sizes in the pit of his stomach. This was what he’d been worried about, wasn’t it? That now that he’d told a lie, he’d have to maintain it.
He wasn’t much of a liar. Not like this, not with big things.
Hell, he wasn’t even great at tiny white lies. He didn’t have the face for it.
Ezra was offering to help him with this, though. His entire reaction had been to keep wanting tohelpMike. This was just in the service of that.
Mike never liked being the center of attention, but Ezra was offering to help him. After dragging him into this, how could he say no?
Besides, if Ezra wanted to dance, it wasn't like he could just do it with someone else now. Not without exposing Mike's lie.
So really, this was the least Mike owed him.
“Why not?” he said as he came to a decision, slapping his hand into Ezra’s a little too forcefully. Ezra grinned at him all the same, closing his fingers around Mike’s and standing, dragging him toward the floor.
Now was probably a bad time to mention he couldn’t dance to save his life, Mike thought. Not that anyoneelsehere seemed to be much better at it.
Ezra would be. Mike had never really paid attention, but that was something he just…knewabout Ezra. The guy would be a good dancer.
Of course, that didn’t help Mike at all, who had no idea where to even think about putting his hands.
After a few awkward moments of standing in front of Ezra and silently pleading for help with his bestI’m patheticlook, Mike started to worry that this was just going to expose him anyway. He wasn’t comfortable with Ezra.
Notnow, anyway. There was a time when Ezra falling asleep against his shoulder made him grin the way he did when a new rescue approached him to take food out of his hand. They’d been best friends. He’dlovedbeing close, curling up on the couch together, navigating the space around each other with so much ease that they never got in each other’s way.
But that was so long ago. They were both different people now.
“I’m not venomous,” Ezra said. “Even if Idobite you, you’ll be fine.”
Mike considered responding thatactually, human bites were some of the most deadly because of all the bacteria in their mouth and the amount of damage they could do, but that wasn’t what Ezra was saying.
