Page 41

Willow

Willow’s Branches won Pictionary and Heads Up. Jack fought to hide his frustrations. His cheeks were red as his jaw clenched. His fingers dragged through his greying hair and the muscles under his shirt rippled.

The number of close calls with Jack over the last few days had me noticing everything a little bit more and grumpy Jack was a new side to him, an interesting new side. It was difficult to keep my eyes off him at the moment, finding quiet moments to steal glances.

Like when he was desperately gesticulating to his perfect drawing on the whiteboard when his team struggled to guess The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe during Pictionary, or when he stood to shout clues to Jacob during Head Space and he started to roll the sleeves of his blue denim shirt up to the elbow, revealing the tanned arms with dark hair flickering across his forearm.

I couldn’t pinpoint when I’d started finding my boss/now roommate desirable, but it was undeniable. He was the full package – intelligent, sweet and caring, funny, and drop dead fucking gorgeous.

Now I’d noticed it, I couldn’t stop, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

He’d given me the physical and emotional space to figure everything out, to decide who I wanted to be and where I wanted to take my life.

But the longer I stayed, and the more I spent time around Jack, I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave this safe little haven.

“Time for Twister folks,” Mike announced, and I excused myself to the bathroom.

I removed my fuzzy jumper, leaving me in a white vest. To play Twister, one needed full range of motion for the next game and heating up with a woolly jumper was the last thing I needed.

When I returned to the kitchen, the sofa and coffee table were pushed back, leaving a large space for the plastic matting.

Freddie was unravelling it from the box, Lu fiddling with the spin board.

Lu declared herself the spinner due to her vertigo, while Mike decided to be the referee, making it an even game between the four of us .

“Socks off everyone,” Lu called, planting herself on the sofa, Mike joined her, pulling her into his side with a kiss on her cheek.

I followed her instructions, before taking my place on the edge of the plastic mat.

Four rows of four large circular dots lay in front of me, one row in green, yellow, blue, and red.

“Take your places lady and gentlemen. Each team should be on the same side please.” I stepped up, my feet in front of the blue and red dots.

Jack stood across from me, a serious expression on his face, mirroring my stance.

I pushed my shoulders back, cracked my neck until it made an audible click and narrowed my eyes right back at Jack.

It may be just a game, but this was a safe space to prove my strength.

Extra points if I could beat my sore loser roomie.

Friend. Crush. Oh, fuck off, Elle. She’d put the ideas in my head to begin with.

“Let’s go by date of birth.” We all looked to Lu to follow her instructions. “Willow, when’s your birthday?”

“January nineteenth,” I replied.

Jack’s head snapped to me, all the blood had drained from his face. Nobody else seemed to notice, so Lu continued.

“Jacob’s March fourth, Jack’s May tenth and Freddie is November seventh.” I returned my focus to the game, though Jack didn’t. “Your spin first, Fred.”

Lu spun for Freddie, which landed on the blue foot.

Since he was to my left, and the strip of blues were directly before me, he took a long stride in front of Jack to reach a blue dot.

The next turn was mine, a red hand, which was easy to achieve with a bend of the knees and placing my right hand by my foot.

Whether I was looking or not, I felt Jack’s gaze on me with every move.

Seven minutes later, Jacob had slipped on the corner of the mat and Freddie had toppled on top of him. Which left me and Jack.

Jack’s right leg was on the farthest green from me, his left on a middle red.

If he wasn’t careful, he’d have been in splits.

His left hand was on a yellow near my side of the mat.

All his weight lay on his legs and a single arm, his wrist at a painful ninety degree angle as he started to sweat with the effort.

I was managing a little better, with my left foot on the closest green, my right on the second blue in, my right hand on a red and left hand on the closest yellow.

I was comfortable, like Spiderman after landing.

“Jack, hand, yellow.”

“Oh, thank fuck,” he muttered, as he relieved the pressure from his other shoulder, balancing out his weight.

“Willow, foot also yellow.”

I looked around the mat. Jack had just taken up my most accessible yellow, and he knew it.

He smirked watching me figure out the next steps.

Accepting the challenge, I swung my right foot from the blue, under Jack to a yellow circle, settling into a crab position facing the ceiling.

My lower body now sat just under Jack’s chest, and it was my turn to smirk, just as a blush crept up his neck.

“Jack, hand, red.”

Silence filled the room as he figured out his move. Moments later, his left hand moved from the green, over to a red just by my head. His body hovered over mine.

His face sat mere inches away from where my neck met my shoulder.

I could feel his hot, fast breath as he tried to hold himself above me.

His usual citric scent was mixed with musky sweat, and I wasn’t opposed to it.

He started to shake, and his eyes dotted around the space, finally landing on me, they were full of panic.

“You okay?” I whispered, my own body starting to shake as my arms were positioned awkwardly. He couldn’t speak but gave me a sharp nod.

“Willow, hand, blue.”

I searched between limbs and found the only option to move my right from red to blue, a short distance slip, requiring a shift of my shoulder just to move my hand one single space.

The second I moved, I knew it was a mistake. My shoulder knocked into Jack’s arm which wobbled. He cursed in my ear as his body convulsed and he collapsed on top of me, with a communal oof.

Beyond our pile of aching limbs, I could hear the others checking if we were okay, but quickly, the outside world silenced behind a veil.

It was just me and Jack, tangled together.

His head lifted, to look me over, but he only made it an inch away from my face, eyes darting across my cheeks, eyes, then mouth.

I was enraptured by his eyes, his pupils blown.

Strands of salt and pepper hair flopped over his forehead, tickling my skin.

His brows furrowed, creating lines around his eyes I would willingly get lost in.

“Willow,” he whispered. My mouth parted. I wasn’t sure for what, whether it was to finally make good of the kiss we’d been secretly attempting or to reply. I started to wiggle my hips beneath him, shifting against his frame in an attempt to relieve the deliciously painful pressure.

“ Willow stop wriggling ,” Jack seethed, and my eyes bulged in realisation at the accidental effect I’d had on him.

Quickly, he pushed off me and I sucked in fresh air, finding myself missing his firm body. Closing my eyes to rid the images of me and Jack in that position for very different reasons. I was alerted when he called out my name, and I found him holding a hand out to pull me up.

“Sorry about that. Are you okay?” he murmured awkwardly, steadying me with his hands on my shoulders.

“Yeah, sorry, thank you. ”

We were as bad as each other, like teenagers who couldn’t figure out how to talk to the opposite gender. Jack looked around us, at the Johnson family who were mostly talking to themselves. Mike watched from the sofa with a smirk, like he knew what I was thinking. Was he the male Elle?

“We should get going.”

Jack pulled his socks and shoes on quickly. I did the same, before gently stroking the heads of the dogs to wake them. I was greeted with side eyes as if I had to be joking. Jack connected their leads, gently tugging them to stand from the sofa. Darwin stood and yawned, while Dickens stretched.

After saying our goodbyes and thanks to the Johnsons, we were back into the cold dark night, and I was grateful for the short distance we’d have to travel to get home.

“Thank you for arranging tonight, Jack.”

I smiled up at him as we crossed the road and I could have sworn he blushed as he stifled a smile, but the street lights made it difficult to be certain.

“You looked like you enjoyed yourself. It was good to see you laugh again.”

“I did, I really did. Did you really arrange a whole games night to make me feel better?” I asked curiously, opening the gate to Jack’s house.

“If that’s surprising, the bar is low.”

His words felt harsh, though they weren’t intended as such. The familiar heavy weight that had lifted this evening started to seep through. I followed the path to the door in silence, pushing my key into the lock.

“Willow I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s fine,” I mumbled, entering the house.

I moved past the stairs to the alcove to toe off my Ugg boots. This alcove had haunted my dreams to such an extent, I’d found myself running past it as quickly as possible. Once I’d removed my shoes, I looked up and found a camera following the movement in the hallway. Had that always been there?

Jack cleared his throat behind me.

“It really isn’t.” He spun me round to face him, though my eyes didn’t meet his until he pushed my chin up.

Why was that such an endearing gesture? “I didn’t mean your bar is low.

I mean you deserve so much more than you’ve been given and that’s their fault, not yours.

I’d plan endless games nights if it meant you were happy and smiled like you have tonight but that’s what we’re all here to do.

This circle that’s forming around you? Every single person wants to be here.

Every single person will spend however long it’ll take for you to realise what you deserve. ”

I blinked, listening. A smile started to sneak through but before he could panic anymore, I pulled him in by the waist and squeezed a grateful hug. His arms wrapped around me, and his chin rested on my head after a soft kiss to my hair .

“You’re a good man, Jack.”

I could hug him for a lifetime. We had a habit of just standing in a hug, and it was my favourite kind of moment.

“Get yourself to bed, I’ll do the dogs.”

I smiled and moved past him to climb the stairs.