“For hot people?” Noah snorted. “Not just that, but yeah, I suppose, for content creators. My followers like you.”
I drank my rapidly cooling latte. “No. They like us together.”
“Will you take me over to Lone Fox next week?” he asked, switching topics.
“Sure!”I’ve been waiting for you to let me take you home for weeks. But maybe he isn’t ready to talk about it yet.
“Thank you.” He squeezed my thigh. “I really want to go and see Mads again.”
“Oh, that’s a great idea.” It would make him see that I wasn’t the only one who wanted him to stay, and that he still had roots here. “She’ll be so excited to see you.”
“You think so? I’m not sure. She contacted me a while ago. I’ve been meaning to stay in touch, but then all life happened, and we sort of ….” He trailed off and stared down at his fingers.
“Don’t worry about it, Puppy.” I took his hand in mine and rubbed a thumb over his knuckles. “She’s been so busy. But I know Maddie. She’s the kind of person who just loves you from afar until your paths cross again.”
“That sounds a lot like me.” He gave me a little embarrassed smile.
“I think a lot of neurodivergent people can relate to that.“
“Yeah.” He sounded relieved that I understood.
“You know, when Maddie and I became friends, I asked her to tell me about her brain.”
“You did what?” Noah’s grin widened.
“Well, I wanted to learn. Maddie and I, we clicked immediately. We’re pretty close, and I thought it was important for me to know how her brain works, you know?”
I did not tell him that I’d learned even more about ADHD right after he had come back to Scotland. I wanted to be a good fake boyfriend to him.
“That is so sweet, Lewis. I wished any of my friends had done that for me.”
I knew he didn’t mean me. Our friendship had ended, or paused, when we were still very young. I still felt guilty, but I alsoknew I couldn’t go back in time to fix it. I could only try to be the best person I could be now.
I slipped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him into my side. “I’m sorry, Puppy. You would have deserved a friend like that.”
“Oh, I’m not sure about that. I’ve always been shitty at friendships.”
I pulled away, angrier than I should be. “No you weren’t! You were anamazingfriend.”
I was mortified when Noah’s eyes filled with tears.
Shit, Sinclair. You have so much to make up to him.
“I should have been that friend for you, and I am sorry I was too much of a cunt to realise that. I really don’t deserve your forgiveness.” Our situation had been so messy, and I had chosen Ollie over him—‘mates before dates,’ or however the saying went.
“A lot of people are cunts as teenagers. And believe me, Lew. I understand that you were confused. I was too.” He chuckled as the tears spilled over, and I hugged him. Somehow his lips landed on mine, and we sat there on the cold bench in Kalon Gardens snogging for a very long time.
I held his hand the entire time under the pretense of keeping it warm, occasionally switching sides so I could warm both equally. The truth was that I didn’t want to let go of Noah Bright, never again and not even for a moment.
Chapter 21
Lewis
Once we got moving again, we left for Kirkmuir’s hippest quarter that lay just beyond the park. Every few steps I shot glances at Noah’s bruised lips.
Gods, he looks pretty like that.
“Wow.” Noah’s face lit up. “When I last visited Kirkmuir, Pear Mill was boring as shit.”
