Page 18

Liam

Was this a bad idea? It was starting to feel like a bad idea.

Jonah was a few minutes late, and it was probably Liam’s imagination, but he was beginning to think that the front desk staff were getting suspicious of him.

He’d strutted in a few minutes before nine, as planned, with all the false confidence of an honest-to-God patron. The original plan had been to walk past the desk without acknowledgement, but halfway through the execution, his Midwestern-bred manners kicked in and he shot the girl a panicked smile that definitely looked completely natural and not at all guilty or constipated.

Fortunately, the bored-looking young woman at the counter didn’t appear to give a single shit where Liam was going, as long as he wasn’t making excessive noise or dripping pool water all over the lobby.

He had been standing in the first-floor vending machine room where they had agreed to meet for a solid fifteen minutes. He leaned against the ice machine, the steady mechanical hum sending vibrations through his back. Liam’s lifetime record of general rule-following was making itself known in the anxious tap of his fingers on every surface he could touch.

Sneaking around wasn’t really in Liam’s repertoire. For that matter, neither was commuting to the city every weekend to live out some fucked up Pretty Woman fan fiction, but hey. Life comes at you fast.

Liam was anxious by nature, but it was only exacerbated by this particular set of circumstances, including the fact that he had no way of contacting Jonah to see what was going on.

Thankfully, he didn’t have much longer to ponder all the possibilities, because the sound of footsteps in the hall was ample distraction. Part of him expected to see an annoyed hotel manager, who had been watching him hover like a freak in the snack room for fifteen full minutes on the security cameras. But relief melted over him when a familiar buzzed head rounded the corner, peeking through the rectangular panel of glass in the door.

Liam pushed off the ice machine and crossed the room in three steps. He flung the door open and, before he could stop himself, pulled Jonah into a hug.

There was a half second of hesitation, maybe less, before Jonah was returning the gesture. “Hey,” he greeted him, the vibration of his throat against Liam’s shoulder.

“Hey, you.” He pulled back after only a couple seconds, taking a step back to give Jonah space. “It’s good to see you. ”

“I hope you weren’t waiting long,” Jonah said.

“I wasn’t,” Liam lied, then immediately realized he didn’t want to lie. “Well, fifteen minutes. Not that I was counting. I mean—it’s fine. I was just...” he swallowed, gesturing around at the closet-like room, wondering why he couldn’t shut the hell up. “Um. Hanging out.”

Jonah raised an eyebrow, concealing the smallest of smiles. “Are you alright?” he asked. “You seem nervous.”

“Nervous? Nah.” Again with the honesty. “Maybe a little? It feels like we’re sneaking around.”

“We are.”

Liam bubbled out a nervous laugh at his deadpan rebuttal. “That explains the nerves, I guess.”

“Do you know where you want to go?” Jonah asked.

“Actually,” Liam said. “I did have an idea I wanted to run by you. And just to preface, you can absolutely say no.” He took a breath. “I wondered if you might be interested in coming home with me? Not...I mean, you don’t have to come back to my actual house if you don’t want to, and we don’t have to stay all night. It’s a little over an hour away, so I just thought, since we have the whole night, there’s plenty of time to get there and back. Does that...? How does that sound?”

In the quiet of Jonah’s answering stare, Liam felt the wind leave his sails. The selfishness of the suggestion was suddenly so obvious, in the way that it could only be once it’d already left his mouth .

“You’d really want to bring me there with you?” Jonah asked.

“Only if you want to,” Liam reiterated. “It could be a change of scenery. I thought maybe I could show you around? Give a little tour of the world’s most boring suburban life? I don’t know.”

“Yes,” Jonah said, nearly cutting him off with the immediacy of his response. “Let’s do it.”

Liam deflated with relief. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Okay.” Liam couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Oh, here. Before I forget.” He crouched down to his backpack on the floor and pulled out Jonah’s usual sweatshirt, along with an old winter coat and a knitted hat. “It’s freezing out. I didn’t think a sweatshirt would cut it tonight.”

Jonah accepted the clothes with the same heartbreaking gratitude he afforded to every small kindness Liam offered.

They waited a few minutes, wanting to be sure that whoever dropped Jonah off was gone before they left the hotel. When they stepped outside, passing the bored desk attendant, Jonah pulled the hood of his coat over his head for reasons, Liam assumed, that had nothing to do with the cold. He kept vigilant watch, sneaking glances over his shoulder every few seconds until they ducked into the train station.