Page 26 of My Brother’s Best Friends Entanglement

I continue, "I mean, I never thought that..." I take a deep breath. "I'd almost be broken by having to face the difficulties of navigating all the stairs at Adelaide Uni."

He was ready for something else. I can see it, the rearrangement of his face from 'you can tell me' to 'what in the hell'.

It almost makes me chuckle.

"Stairs?" he asks.

I nod, seriously. "Yeah. I'm getting old. My knees barely made it through the day."

"That's what you've got. Coming back after six years, some of the most formative years of your life, and all you can talk about is that your knees aren't what they used to be?"

I shrug. "It's a legitimate concern!"

He shakes his head, disbelieving. "Fine. As ridiculous as that admission was, let me give you a homecoming gift then. Back of the Napier Building, there's a service elevator. Should get you to most levels. Hardly anyone knows it's there. Your knees will thank you. And in turn, you can thank me. By giving me the last Tim Tam."

He reaches for it, but I grab the packet and pull it towards me.

I narrow my eyes in suspicion. "Wait. How do I know you're not just telling me that to get the last Tim Tam?"

He gasps and grasps his imaginary pearls. It makes his shirt bunch up over his jeans, and I catch a glimpse of his toned stomach again.

Okay.

Well.

Shit.

I do not need to be seeing that right now.

It's been hard enough not reliving the feeling of his body against mine when he'd reached over me for my mug, his chest pressed against my back, his arm grazing my shoulder.

The visceral reaction I'm having to a two-centimetre strip of skin? It's a sign that I need to get out of here.

Now.

But I don't want to.

"I would never taint the sanctity of The Final Tim Tam by trying to steal it using unscrupulous tactics. How about this...you give me the last Tim Tam, and if tomorrow you do not find the service elevator I'm talking about, I'll owe you a whole packet."

"You'll owe me ten packets! One of each of the flavours. And I get to listen while you call your trainer and tell them that you ate a whole packet of Tim Tams by yourself and that you want them to work you extra hard this week."

His jaw drops open. Then his eyes narrow. "Wait...what's the name of what you're studying again?"

I grin. "I'm getting a PhD in Political Power and Conflict."

His eyes narrow further. "I feel like there's a power imbalance right now!"

"Not if you're telling the truth. You have nothing to worry about. I mean...we could just drop the whole arrangement, and I'll eat the last Tim Tam, right now!"

I raise it to my lips, but just before I can bite, he grabs it from my hand. He's cramming it into his mouth when I jump off my stool and use one of the self-defence moves Leon drilled into me before I moved to Sydney, twisting his wrist around as I turn and jut my hip into his stomach.

The Tim Tam falls onto the kitchen floor with a crumbly thud.

We both stand there, staring at it for a moment. Then Zachary leans over and picks it up and throws it in the bin.

"What? No five second rule?" I ask.

"What week is it?" he asks. "Like, of the month?"