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“Hey there,” I repeated with a grin, pretending I wasn’t slightly out of breath from sprinting across my yard to stop him leaving. “You’re Rafe’s buddy, right?”

“This is serial killer behaviour, man,” he blurted, breathing hard. “You don’t just start chasing a dude through the dark like that.”

“I wasn’t chasing you,” I replied smoothly. “I just… want to talk.”

He shifted anxiously from foot to foot, gaze darting longingly to his car behind me. “Um, nah. No thanks. I’m good.”

“Won’t take up too much of your time,” I said in an overly cheerful tone, then held out my hand. “Don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure. I’m Dan.”

He hesitated, glancing back at Rafe’s house, then sighed and briefly grasped my hand. “Neville.”

“Neville,” I repeated with a wide grin. “Nice name. Pleasure to meet you, Neville.”

He blushed. Oh yeah, I could charm this guy easy.

But then he exhaled forcefully and shot me a little glare. “Look, I’m not going to talk to you about Rafe.”

“Neville,” I said with a chuckle, shaking my head. “Neville, Neville, Neville. We’re just having a friendly little chat.”

“About what?” he asked nervously.

I paused, drumming my fingers on the roof of his car, then eventually began, “I was just wondering if Rafe had—”

“Nope.” Neville tried to reach for the door handle. I smoothly stepped in front of it.

“Neville,” I repeated brightly. “I’m just a little confused, is all. Rafe and I, uh, finally started getting along pretty good—”

Neville snorted, crossing his arms and shooting me a derisive scowl. I paused, not sure what that look meant, before continuing.

“—and now, for some reason, he won’t talk to me. Just as I thought we were on our way to becoming buddies.” I tried giving him an ingratiating smile.

This wasn’t exactly going how I’d thought it would.

“Buddies,” he repeated flatly.

My brows twitched. “Uh… yeah?”

We’d hung out all afternoon on Monday. Wasn’t that what buddies did?

Plus, we’d engaged in some light frotting. Technically, only really good buddies did that.

After a moment of silence, Neville sighed and scrubbed his face. “Look, I get that your whole deal is—” He waved a hand in my general direction. “—this.”

My nostrils flared. I didn’t know whether I was supposed to be offended or not.

“But come on, man,” he continued, frowning at me. “You could’ve been a little more sensitive about it, all things considered.”

I stared at him, nonplussed. All things considered? What did he mean by that? Sensitive about what? About Rafe being embarrassed over trying to kiss me while drunk? I thought I had been. I’d told him I would’ve kissed him back if he hadn’t been drunk. I’d made it pretty damn clear I wanted it too. I’d even kissed him in the end.

“I was,” I said slowly, trying not to let my temper rise.

Neville snorted incredulously. “Dude, it was his first time and you strolled out ten fucking seconds after nutting. That was a really shitty thing to do.”

I frowned. “It wasn’t ten seconds.” Then the rest of what he’d said registered, and I stared at him in confusion.

Was he seriously trying to tell me that Rafe had been a complete virgin? I barked out a harsh laugh, but I was actually starting to feel a little ill, because something wasn’t adding up.

“And that wasn’t Rafe’s first time having sex, for fuck’s sake,” I scoffed. “I live next door to him. I’ve heard him having sex before.”