Page 39 of Demon Dating Service
LUKE
Even after leaving both jobs, Luke still took more than a week to arrange a time for Matteo to come over to the house. That meant Luke had to initiate a text conversation with Matteo.
Fuck, it was a wonder how he’d ever managed to date someone in the past. Of course, the last people he’d dated hadn’t been people he’d been crushing on at first sight with the danger of it wildly veering into love-at-first-sight territory. His previous boyfriends had been friends or blind dates who’d turned into brief partners. Matteo, on the other hand, was hotness personified, and he just left Luke tongue-tied and insecure.
But he persevered. He was a grad student, for fuck’s sake. If he could survive college, he could do this.
The demons had tried to help him compose the perfect, non-dorky, non-pervy text, and it hadn’t gone too well.
In the end, he’d cornered Harper and convinced her to help him write the perfect text.
Naturally, it started with an icebreaker meme about being a poor, overworked student. From there, he asked when Matteo would be free to hang out.
How the hell did she make it all look so damn easy?
The demons were less than impressed with Harper’s cool texting skills, but they were pleased with the outcome. Matteo replied with a laughing emoji and suggested the upcoming Friday.
Such a tempting day. Friday meant that there were no morning classes that could force them to end their evening early. They could hang out, doing…whatever…for as long as they wanted.
Not that Luke was expecting to do…whatever.
He was trying to keep his expectations low. Sharing a few laughs and some food would be nice. Learning they had a lot in common would be amazing. A kiss? Okay, now he was getting greedy. A kiss was too fast.
A bitter icy wind blew across the quad, and Luke ducked his head to his shoulders, trying to shield his face as best he could. Winter was moving in too damn quickly. The temperature was dipping below freezing more often, and the brief flurries were threatening to become substantial accumulations of snow.
Knowing all this, Luke still chose to meet Matteo in the quad rather than in one of the nearby buildings where he could have stayed warm. Thinking and Matteo did not go hand in hand. He couldn’t use his brain when he talked to Matteo. That was a situation that needed to be remedied fast, or he was going to freeze to death.
“Luke!”
He swung his head at Matteo’s call to see the young man hurrying across the grassy space to him.
As Matteo reached him, he pinched the sleeve of Luke’s puffy coat and pulled him toward the nearby science building. “You look frozen! How long have you been waiting for me?” Matteo asked, his face nearly covered by the beanie pulled low and the scarf wrapped around his neck.
“Not too long. Just a few minutes.” Which was true. He didn’t think it had been more than ten minutes.
“Well, we got lucky. Dr. Lawrence ended the class early. I think he has a cold and didn’t feel like lecturing. He assigned some reading and cut us loose.”
“I wish more of my classes would end early like that,” Luke murmured.
Matteo laughed, his eyes becoming narrow slits as his cheeks rounded. “Right?”
They slipped inside and wandered to a lobby that was sparsely crowded with other students who were reading, chatting, or curled up asleep in hard, uncomfortable chairs. The sharp bite of cold that had gnawed on Luke’s fingers and toes was receding as warmth cuddled him close.
“We still heading to your house today? You sure your landlord doesn’t mind you having a guest stop over?”
“Yep, it’s a few blocks away from here. I was thinking…there’s a pizzeria on the way. We could stop in, grab a pizza, and take it with us. Though…” he paused, glancing at the windows that gazed out on the frigid scene, “the pizza might be cold by the time we get it to my house.”
Matteo paused in his attempts to unwrap his scarf and shrugged. “That’s fine. We could always shove it in the oven for a few minutes. Or eat it cold. Either works for me. I figured we could hang out. Or study.”
“Yeah, okay.” Luke’s heart fluttered at Matteo’s easy smile. He was so damn cute and seemed so happy to simply spend time together. Could this be real? Was it a prank? An elaborate joke? Matteo didn’t feel like the cruel type, but Luke couldn’t understand why Matteo wanted to be with him.
Regardless of the reason, Luke was determined to soak up this happy moment while he had it.
They lingered in the science building for several minutes, their heads together over Luke’s phone as he pulled up the website for the pizza place. They debated toppings before deciding on pepperoni, sausage, and green peppers. After placing their order, they bundled up and headed out into the cold.
The walk to the pizza parlor was brisk with only light conversation, as speaking stole their warmth away. A few blocks from the school, they reached the pizza parlor as their pie was being pulled from the oven and slid into the box. Luke had offered to pay for the whole thing, but Matteo was adamant about paying for his half. Luke didn’t press it. Would Matteo mistake it for Luke assuming this was a date?
No. No. They were friends. Or just starting to be friends.