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15

Jared

I picked up the call before the first ring had even finished. The caller ID told me it was Liam, but I would’ve known without it. “CreamyJoe? Your name’s not Joe!” I shouted, laughing, into the phone. I felt light and bubbly, effervescent with this new discovery. Liam and I had been so close this whole time!

“It’s a coffee thing. Joe, get it? And I like my joe creamy. What about you, MuffinTop?”

I leaned back in the couch and grinned up at the ceiling where the setting sun was painting an ever-changing landscape of pink and orange. “I mean… I’m a top who likes muffins? And you have to agree that the tops of the muffins are the best part.”

“Well, yeah, duh.”

I just listened to him breathe for a second, finding a surprising amount of comfort in that sound. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like to have him here with me instead, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, breathing the same air. I would reach for his hand, and maybe he might even reach back.

“What now?” he finally asked, breaking my daydream of a possible future, suddenly closer than it had been five minutes ago .

“Now?” I repeated, my dreamy smile widening. “Now I take you on a proper date.” I glanced back up at the ceiling, the color deepening as evening encroached on the day. Both our cafés were early-morning establishments, catering to the eager caffeine-deprived breakfast crowd, which meant our evenings were clear. “Are you busy?” I asked.

A pause. “What, like, right this instant?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not doing anything.” His voice had gone a little breathy.

“Let me take you out for dinner tonight. I don’t want to wait to see you.” An idea began to form in my head.

“Can I… have a few minutes? I haven’t even showered yet.” He laughed, this self-conscious sound, and I swore I could actually hear him blush. I knew the precise shade his cheeks were currently turning. “I might’ve been a little excited when I got home, if you hadn’t noticed all the caps I used in the chat.”

“I might’ve noticed.” I imagined the chat was probably blowing up since we’d both suddenly disappeared. I hoped we’d have good news when we came back.

For the first time in forever, I missed my old truck. When I first got my job at Crave, Hugh had taken the time to teach me how to drive after he found out I didn’t have a driver’s license. For my first vehicle, the old rusted Ford truck was all I could afford, and it had served me well, but it died a few years ago. Since then, I hadn’t minded walking or taking the bus because I had everything I needed nearby. Now, though, there was somewhere special I wanted to take him.

I hesitated for a moment before swallowing my pride. “I hate to ask…” I began, but before I could finish asking if he would mind driving, he interrupted.

“Do you mind if I drive? I get carsick.” Whether that was true or he was just saving me from having to ask, I accepted the lifeline .

“That’d be great. Thanks.”

I gave him my address, and we agreed to meet in an hour. I took a shower too but found myself spending a little too much time soaping up my dick. It hardened in my fist as I thought about Liam, but I forced myself to let go. I didn’t want to give my body the wrong impression about tonight. I’d promised old-fashioned, and that definitely did not include naked time.

“Sorry,” I mumbled down at my aching erection. “Maybe later.”

The second I saw a car slowing down to turn into the parking lot, I was out the apartment door and down the stairs, hopping into the passenger side before he’d barely had time to stop the car.

“Hi,” I said, breathlessly. What was protocol here? Did we hug? I mean, we’d already had sex. Surely we were past shaking hands.

Liam went for a hug as I leaned in for a kiss, and then we both laughed. “Hi,” he said back, then carefully leaned over the console to kiss me softly. It was over too quickly, but I had a feeling if we let ourselves get too invested, I would drag him upstairs to my apartment instead, and that wasn’t what I’d promised.

So instead, I buckled in and gave him directions.

“Turn here,” I told him, trying to hold back my grin as I directed him into the drive-through lane of a burger restaurant.

He shot me an amused look. “When you said you wanted to take me for dinner, I kinda thought we’d be sitting at a table. Not that I’m complaining. It’s a solid choice. GG’s onion rings are the best.”

“Trust me. There is method to my madness,” I said with a wink. “Order anything you’d like. It’s my treat.” We both laughed, because there wasn’t anything on the menu over six bucks.

Five minutes later, the car was filled with the most delicious salty, greasy burger smell, and I fed Liam some of my fries as we made our way to our final destination .

“Okay, pull over here. Anywhere along the curb is fine.”

Liam turned off the car, the running lights still cutting their beams ahead of us through the darkness. He shifted in his seat so he could turn to look at me, his face scrunched in confusion. “It’s a good thing I trust that you’re not a serial killer, because otherwise, I might be freaking the hell out right now. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Not nowhere,” I said, biting my cheek to keep in my grin. “Come on.” I grabbed the bag of food and the blanket I’d stuck in the back seat, and Liam carried the cardboard drink tray.

He was right that there wasn’t much here, just a sleepy residential street lit by a row of lampposts casting cones of yellow light. I gestured to a path that cut through a park and up a slight hill. When we reached the top of the hill, I passed him the food and laid out the blanket. He just stood by watching in confusion as I settled on the blanket, then patted the spot beside me. “You’ve trusted me this far. What’s one more step?”

“Okaaaaay,” he drawled, lowering himself into a cross-legged position.

It was fairly dark off the pathway, but our eyes quickly adjusted as I fished through the food to pass him his bacon double cheeseburger and onion rings.

When I didn’t give him any further information, he huffed out a laugh. “Okay, I give up. Why are we here? We could’ve had a picnic in the park by your place.”

“Sure, we could have, but look around. Do you see anything familiar?” I unwrapped my mozzarella mushroom burger and bit into it, watching him casually as he turned to look around. I knew the exact moment he recognized where we were.

“Is that… the Lonely Alpha house?” He turned his widening eyes on me. “Like, for real? ”

“Yep.” I popped the P, pleased as punch at the awe-struck look on his face.

The show had a different filming location every season, and I’d looked it up online to see if it would be doable for us to take a peek. We weren’t all that close to the house, but from this higher vantage point, we could just see over the fence into the backyard. The pool was lit up from below, and I swore I could see figures in the water, their limbs tangled.

“Sorry, I should’ve brought binoculars,” I lamented, but Liam nudged my shoulder with his.

“Nah. That would probably make this creepy.”

He was so enthralled talking about his favorite episodes that I had to remind him to eat before his food got cold. I shared the rest of my fries with him, and in return, he shared his onion rings with me so we would both have onion breath. That seemed promising for a goodnight kiss at the end of the night.

Even though nothing exciting happened at the house, it was still a perfect evening. We simply enjoyed each other’s company, letting the conversation flow wherever it took us. We had more in common than I could’ve guessed. We’d both been raised by single parents, though where my mother had been without any kind of support system, his dad had Liam’s pops.

Liam sat as close to me as he could get, leaning on my shoulder where I’d propped myself up on my hands. “I hate how alone you were,” he whispered, nuzzling into me. “I can’t imagine what it must’ve felt like, not having a stable place to call home.”

“I don’t blame her for moving us around like that,” I said, and though I meant it now, that certainly wasn’t always true. With age came perspective. “She did the best she could. She needed to go where the jobs were. I can’t imagine it was easy for her either. ”

“Do you still talk to her?”

“Sometimes, but we’re nowhere near as close as you seem to be with your dad.”

Liam laughed. “Yeah, my dad’s great. But honestly, if we hadn’t had pops, I doubt my childhood would’ve been so different from yours.”

“I wish I could’ve met your pops. It sounds like he was a pretty great guy.”

“He was.” Liam’s smile turned wistful as he tipped his head back to look up at the starry sky. “He would’ve gotten a real kick out of you.”

The evening had turned cool, goosebumps rising along my arms, though I still hated for this night to end. But I told myself the sooner this date ended, the sooner we could get to the next one, and the one after that.

We cleaned up our garbage and folded up the blanket, before bidding good night to the few remaining contestants of Lonely Alpha .

Liam pulled up in front of my apartment building, and we sat there for a long moment with the engine idling. This was the moment of truth. He could park, come upstairs, and we could lose ourselves in each other for a few hours. But I felt like I’d only just truly found him, and it seemed too soon to get lost.

I blew out a long shuddery breath. “You have no idea how much I want to invite you in, but if I did, we would probably have sex… really, really good sex. And I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. I skipped too many steps with you. I wish we could go back to that speed-dating event, and we could exchange phone numbers. We could go for coffee and date properly. I could meet your dad, and you could meet my dog. You deserve to be wooed, Liam. You deserve the whole shebang, and I really don’t want to screw this up.” I leaned across the console and cradled his face between my palms. “You’re something special. ”

He looked about ready to swoon. “Damn. I was all ready to be pissed that you didn’t want to have sex with me, but then you had to say something like that.” He put his hands over mine on his cheeks. “You’re pretty special too, Jared.”

I leaned in and poured everything I had into this one kiss. There would be no regrets this time around. I needed him to know that he was worth the wait.