Page 49 of Beyond the Hedge Maze

Oliver leaned around Michelle. “What are you on about?”

“I’m going to marry her. She was passing me on the way to the bathroom, and I’m in love.” Isaac sighed.

Rachel pressed the back of her hand against her brother’s forehead. “Do you have a fever?”

The siblings began to bicker, but Jesse’s attention had been pulled towards the person heading for their table.

“You came!” Jesse exclaimed as Charlotte approached the group. Her blonde hair had been neatly curled, and she wore a black mid-length dress that hugged her full frame.

Isaac stumbled out of the booth and was standing there, staring at Charlotte like he had seen a ghost. Charlotte awkwardly shifted her gaze between Isaac and the rest of the table. “I hope that’s okay?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Isaac stammered. “It’s great that you’re here. Please, sit down. Can I get you anything?”

Jesse turned to Oliver and lifted his eyebrow in question, but by the way Oliver’s head was cocked—studying his friend with wide eyes—he was just as confused by Isaac’s bumbling word vomit.

Charlotte purposefully chose to sit next to Sean at the other end of the booth as Jesse spoke. “Uh, everyone, this is my friend and coworker, Charlotte Taylor. Charlotte, this is everyone.”

Introductions were made, and Oliver reached across the table to shake Charlotte’s hand. “Jesse’s told me so much about you. I’m so grateful for your help.”

“Hello. I have also heard a lot about you. Apologies for the crusty comment,” Charlotte responded.

Oliver turned to him, a small divot between his eyes that Jesse kissed. “Don’t worry about it.”

Jesse met Charlotte’s stare and lifted an eyebrow, challenging her to say something about their conversation earlier, but she merely lifted a shoulder, and Jesse relaxed. He needed to be the one to talk to Oliver in private, not in front of his friends.

The dinner extended late into the evening, both friend groups meshing seamlessly. Oliver was leaning comfortably against Jesse’s side, listening to Michelle talk about the current piece she was writing, when he whispered in his ear, “I want to take you home.”

A faint blush crept up the back of Oliver’s neck, and it took everything Jesse possessed not to press his lips against it. He wanted to feel the warmth of Oliver’s skin under his tongue. He wanted to see if he could make the rest of Oliver’s body flush to match.

He loved his friends, but it was time for them to leave.

Oliver continued listening to Michelle, but gave Jesse’s thigh a squeeze under the table. Jesse took that as confirmation that he was ready to leave as well. “Well, everyone, we should probably be leaving. It’s a long drive back.”

Michelle gave him an unimpressed look. “You’re driving back? Tonight? To Glos?"

“Early morning meeting for me,” Oliver supplied.

“Sure. Whatever you say. Well, I’m not ready to go home yet.” Michelle turned to Isaac and Rachel. “Do you two fancy a trip to the pub?”

The twins looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders in unison. “Sure, why not?” Rachel replied.

Isaac turned to Charlotte, his eyes bright and hopeful. “Will you be joining us?”

“Unfortunately, I also have an early morning meeting.” Unlike Oliver’s blatant lie, she probably did have an early morning meeting. She shimmied out of the booth and the rest of the group followed suit. “We’ll have to take a rain check.”

Isaac held his hand out to Charlotte to shake. “I’ll hold you to it.”

Jesse’s gaze darted between Charlotte and Oliver’s best friend, but he was more eager to leave than he was to dissect Isaac’s tragic, one-sided flirting. After a prolonged goodbye in front of the same unimpressed hostess from earlier, Jesse dragged Oliver back over the threshold of the restaurant and to his car.

When the car was in sight, Jesse picked up his pace with Oliver barely matching him stride for stride until they reached the passenger side door.

“We’re not actually driving all the way back, are we?” Oliver asked.

“Fuck no. My flat is twenty minutes away.”

Jesse roughly pressed Oliver against the side of the car and covered his mouth in a bruising kiss. Oliver responded just as intently, tangling his fingers in Jesse’s hair as Jesse’s hands skated down Oliver’s front. He palmed Oliver’s already hardening cock through his jeans, and Oliver groaned into the kiss.

They continued making out against the car like rowdy teenagers, dangerously close to breaking one or more laws when Oliver smacked Jesse’s hand away and flattened his hands against Jesse’s chest, pushing him lightly away. “Drive fast.”