Page 19

“Zach?” Mali calls from the living room. He hops off the bar stool with a quickness he’ll ignore because he’s been waiting for her to call him. They spent the evening together at the Adebayos’ a few nights ago, then he saw her basically all of Sunday while he was fixing electrics in the outbuilding, and he’s been terrified to overstep ever since.

The past few weeks have been awkward. Not a bad awkward, but a good, stomach flipping whenever he hears her walking around awkward. He doesn’t know if he can sit in the front room with her in the evening awkward.

He’s got a Herculean crush on his roommate awkward.

That’s the main reason he runs to the front room and pops his head around the door instead of just calling out.

“What’s up, bro?”

Mali frowns, tilting her head back against the armrest to look at him upside-down. She’s lying on the couch with a blanket half-covering her body, but her leg sticks out. She’s wearing his top, and maybe also his boxers. She’s going to kill him, and he’s never been so glad that their washing got mixed up.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

What was he doing? Beyond sitting in the kitchen after he put everything in the dishwasher, hoping she might come back? Zach isn’t used to doing nothing in the evenings. Usually, he’s meal prepping, or he’s going shopping for his mum, or Kai has dragged him to a club. Now, the thought of doing anything that doesn’t land him within twelve steps of Mali sounds like something he isn’t going to abide.

“Er, looking for places for Mum,” he says. It’s not a lie. He has looked at some places—a few he might even be able to afford when the sponsorships come in. Mali spins. Well, she attempts to spin. Mostly, it’s a lot of grunting as she tugs at the blanket that has worked its way around her thighs and waist.

“Any success?” she asks, like she’s not in a fight with an inanimate object.

Zach laughs and finally moves into the front room. He pulls at the blanket, lifting her calves lightly until she’s free. How is she so soft? He wants to let his hand linger, but he pulls back.

“How were you hoping to lie?” he asks, blanket in hand. She pouts.

“I was spinning to see you because looking at you upside-down felt weird, but now you’re here. I guess I’ll just take the blanket back,” she replies, with grabby hands. Zach fluffs out the blanket a couple of times, and then a few more because Mali starts laughing.

“It’s cold!”

“You were half out a second ago,” he replies, though he lays the blanket on her all the same. He tucks the corners in, and the urge to kiss her on the forehead hits him square in the face. She’s wide-eyed when he stands back up, unsure of where to go or what to do. She hasn’t asked him to leave, so he doesn’t want to, but he is standing here like a weirdo.

“Why did you want to know?” he asks.

Mali frowns. “Why did I want to know what?”

“What I was doing.”

“Oh!” she says, shuffling her feet closer. “Wanna watch Quizzickle with me?”

“Okay,” he replies too quickly. “What’s that?”

“What’s that?! Only the best quiz game in existence.”

Zach laughs and turns to figure out if the chair is too far away, but before he can move, she speaks.

“No,” she says, with a light whine. “Sit here.” She taps her feet against the spare seat. It’s not spare so much as half a cushion and her feet, but he does as she asks. When he sits, her toes don’t touch him. He spends the first three questions wondering how to move so they do.

“You know how I’m your favourite person in the entire world?” Mali asks. He can feel her toes flexing against the cushion next to him, a taunt at how badly he wants her on him.

“You already stole my top,” he replies, leaning his head on the back of the sofa. She pulls the blanket higher towards her chin like he wouldn’t let her have anything she asked for. He groans. “What do you want?”

“A tea.”

Zach laughs. “I should have guessed.”

“I’ll give you a fiver.”

“No you won’t,” he replies, though he stands up all the same. “Where’s your cup?”

By the time Zach has made the tea, given himself a pep talk to go and sit back down, and his tea is drinking temperature, he’s managed to say a total three words, none of which were the correct answer to the question on the show. He thinks about what he wants to talk to her about. Anything, probably. Maybe that he misses her during the day but he’s not sure if he’s supposed to. Maybe that he wants to know everything about her. Maybe that he thinks about her all the time.

As always, Mali beats him to it.

“So, don’t be mad, but we’re doing a team-building day at work.”

“Mali.”

She giggles. “You can’t be stern with my name. That’s just your voice, and my name doesn’t get any longer.”

“Maliariah.”

This time, she throws her head back and kicks him lightly on his thigh as she laughs. “Stop making me sound like a tropical disease.” She stops tapping her feet, but she remains touching him.

“What team-building?”

“I am so glad you asked,” she responds. “You know the photos I took a few weeks ago?” He nods. “Well, as predicted, everyone loved them because they’re dirty, dirty, dirty. So…”

“More objectification?” Zach jokes, though it might not come out as jokey as he hoped, because Mali’s face drops.

“Oh. Well, we don’t have to do that. I—didn’t you say you don’t mind? Did you feel forced into it? Either way, you can totally change your mind, obviously. We’ll do something else.”

“Mal.”

“So, don’t even worry about it. I think there’s a team—” Zach tugs on her foot, and if the motion brings her farther into his lap, she doesn’t call him out on it.

“I was joking.”

She narrows her eyes. “Can you tell your voice and your face that you’re joking?”

“Don’t think so.”

She smiles, then sits up, coming closer. As if he can deal with having her closer. She rests her elbow on top of the sofa cushion, her head in her hand.

“Are you joking because you’re actually joking, or because you feel uncomfortable telling me you don’t want to do it?”

“I don’t feel uncomfortable with you.”

Mali smiles. “Then why do you always sit in the kitchen? ’Cause you stopped coming to the office during the day, and what happens when I miss your grumpy face?”

She misses him.

“You said I wasn’t grumpy,” he whispers, digging his fingers into the soles of her feet.

“That was silly.”

Zach hums. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m everywhere. At your job, in your home, on your couch.”

“It’s sweet that you think I don’t want you everywhere.” Zach swallows, but before he can act on her words, her eyes widen. “I mean, like, in the house, and at work, not like—uhm…”

Zach laughs, and she screws her face up like she knows she’s the cutest thing alive.

“You have the hots for me so bad.”

“Oh my God,” she groans, pushing away from him. “You’re the worst.”

Zach holds onto one of her feet. “What’s the team-building thing?” he asks, half paying attention to the quiz show she said was amazing and then ignored. “Earth.”

“What?”

“That’s the answer. What electrical wire is yellow and green? Earth.”

“You being an electrician is wild.”

He raises his eyebrows. “Hot, right?”

“Why do I talk to you?”

Zach laughs. “Baby, tell me what the team-building is.” He stills, the endearment falling from his lips before he even realised he wanted to say it. In his head, he calls her Mal. Baby wasn’t even something he registered. She goes still next to him, and he swears he can hear her heartbeat from here. She called him honey, and he didn’t say anything. Though he was being a prick at the time, and he wasn’t sure if she called everyone honey. (She hasn’t said it again to him, or to anyone else, which isn’t helpful and could mean nothing at all.)

He could apologise and say it was all a mistake. There’s a chance she’ll believe him, even if she can see the ways he cares for her in his everyday life. She might not have picked up on the fact that he makes her a tea at eleven every morning because she gets too engrossed in work and gets a headache from refusing to drink water. The way he restocks the laundry tablets into the bowl she has for them in the back room (even though she hates filling it up; she just likes how it looks). The way he’s always waiting for a time to help her.

She turns to look at him, her cheeks slightly pink. “I will, but I just remembered—can you remind me to get the electrical stuff you need?”

“I’ll get it,” he replies immediately.

Mali chews on her cheek. “Online? Because you can use my card, or I can transfer to you if you’re risking trying to go out without my dad as a tag-along.”

Zach frowns. “In what world would I take your money? And Mosi is great. He can come anytime.”

“Zachariah.”

“Mali.”

“You can’t get the materials! If I don’t pay you, that’s basically stealing, and I don’t know about you, but I’m against stealing. Please, add it to your invoice.”

“What invoice?” he says, laughing. Like he’d ever ask her for anything. As if she hasn’t given him enough.

“Zach!”

“Mali.”

She pulls the blanket over her face, but he tugs it back down, crawling towards her to see her face again.

“It’s unreasonable to use your strength like this!” she says, but she’s laughing all the same. He realises all too slowly that he’s basically lying on top of her. He makes sure to keep his weight off her. His locs fall to the sides of his face, and the movement sucks all the air out of the room. He is just a man, and he might combust if he doesn’t kiss her right this second. Her eyes flick to his lips. He thinks. Maybe. He hasn’t been this close to her since she hugged him in the shop and he was unable to form a coherent thought, let alone hug her back. He’s going to mess everything up, and the last thing he wants to do is mess it up with her.

“I’d do anything for you. I just need you to let me.”

She blinks. “You would?”

Zach leans back, and the air finally comes back into the room.

“Obviously,” he says, his voice low. He drags her feet back into his lap. “So, I need you to tell me every single thing you need doing so I can level the playing field a bit.”

“What?”

“Well,” he says, clearing his throat. “You let me live here, and you take my mum to the garden centre, and you put up with me stealing your cat.” As if Buffy knew he was being summoned, he strolls into the living room and jumps on the sofa. It takes a moment of pushing his paws into Zach’s thigh, but he sighs and drops onto Zach’s lap. Mali grunts, and Zach rubs his hand against her ankle. Zach wonders if it’s truly insane to get another cat. Then Buffy would have a friend, Mali would have a cat, and Zach would have a reason to never leave.

“You don’t owe me anything. I don’t want you to think that you do.”

Zach shrugs. “Even if I didn’t, I’d want to do it for you.”

Mali looks at him, and his heartbeat doubles. She looks unsure, and then she smiles brighter than he’s ever seen her smile.

“Are we friends? Honest-to-God friends?”

Zach laughs. “What do you mean? Mali, you’re my best friend.”

“I am?” Her eyes widen, her brows tilting at the middle like she might cry.

Zach scoffs. “I can’t believe this is how I’m finding out I’m not your best friend.”

Mali moves closer, her toes wiggling between his thighs. She leans on the back of the couch again. She’s so close he can see the smattering of freckles on her nose. The way her eyes track his face like she doesn’t know if he’s lying. The way she rolls her lips.

“You’re my best friend,” she whispers.

“Fibber,” he mutters, but she laughs and presses her forehead against his shoulder. “What’s the team-building?”

She kisses his shoulder, and he almost misses what she says. “Oh, yeah! Have you seen those videos where the gym guys try yoga?”

He swallows. She kissed him, and now she’s asking him questions like anything else matters.

“Kai sends like fifteen thousand videos a day. It’ll be in there somewhere,” Zach says.

Mali laughs, sitting up and grabbing her phone from the coffee table. Her top, which is his top, gets caught. He can see the skin on her back, and he’s going to think about it for the rest of time. Zach twists slightly, resting his arm on the back of the sofa. When Mali moves back, she leans closer to him, bringing up a video of massive men crying, sobbing, and throwing up while attempting to do some pose he’s not sure he could get into if he tried.

“You wanna torture the team?”

Mali laughs, showing him another one. “Yes.” She sinks closer to him, her back almost resting against his side. Buffy pushes his paws into Zach’s thigh like a warning, but he jumps ship when Mali scratches under his chin.

“Oh, hey, baby boy,” she whispers, kissing him on the forehead. Where’s Zach’s forehead kiss?

Zach pouts. “Who’s going to teach us?”

“Me.”

“You can do yoga?”

Mali shrugs. “Yeah. I haven’t been since I started work, but I doubt my legs will snap the first time I try.”

Then, the worst thing happens. She opens her photo app, and he tries to catalogue everything in it, but she’s scrolling too fast. Selfies he would kill for, a few photos of the team from the other day… though his eyes only fall on his. He has no idea what anyone else looks like. Shit, hopefully. Then, she pulls up a video.

“So, I wanna do this, but I don’t want anyone to injure themselves.”

Zach feels like there’s a rock in his throat. Mali’s on screen, her phone propped up, and she’s in a lunge position. She moves slowly, the skintight leggings she has on hiding nothing. He shifts in his seat. She places both her hands flat on the ground, and leaving one foot on the ground, lifts the other high in air.

“You’re trying to kill me,” he whispers, and she laughs, turning her phone off.

“You’ll be fine. I took a photo last week where Ezra basically had Kai bent in half.” Hot , but also not what he meant. He’s survived two out of two slip-ups, so he doesn’t mention it. Zach rests his ankle on the coffee table.

“Can I see the photos?” he jokes.

“Perv,” she mutters back, placing her phone on the coffee table. When she falls back against the couch, the back of her head rests against his arm. “And I deleted them. They’re all on my work computer.”

But he just saw them on her phone. It was definitely him. An accident, maybe?

“When are we doing it?”

“Mmm, this week. I need to talk to Frank, and this time, you all have to repost things. I am on my knees, begging and trying to get the team’s social media up, and you all ignore me.”

“You’ve never asked me to repost anything,” he replies, instead of making an inappropriate comment about how he’d do anything to get her begging on her knees. She’s already dangerously close to him, and his erection was growing after seeing seven seconds of her doing exercise.

“I messaged you,” she replies, rolling her neck a couple times until she shuffles, and the side of her face hits his chest. He waits for his kiss. “I could definitely win this game,” she says, watching the show.

“You haven’t said a single right answer,” he replies, his fingers absentmindedly running along her arm. The place he would kiss her if he were brave enough.

“I have in my head.”

“When did they open the London Underground?”

Mali turns to look at him. He could kiss her so easily from here. “What?”

“You said you knew the answers in your head. When did they open the London Underground?”

“Are you here to ruin my life?” she says, poking his side. “Who sent you, with your arms and your voice and your face, just to taunt me over my quiz shows?”

“It’s not my fault you’re a dirty liar who likes bad television.”

Mali hums against him. “We don’t have to watch tele,” she says, though she makes no move to turn it off. “What do you do in your spare time? Wait, that sounds like an interview question. Do you play games or anything?”

Zach does have a console, but it’s in his room, and she’s not in his room, and he can’t invite her into his room because he’s already having dangerous thoughts about her while in his room.

“Kai used to try and drag me out to a club, but I have some games. Usually, I’m at home or at mum’s.”

“Why aren’t you going out with him? Everyone at work is nicer now, right?”

“Yeah,” he replies, and he wonders how much is from him trying and how much is Mali’s influence. “Well, it’s usually just to pick up girls.”

“Oh,” she says. She sits up a bit straighter, and he wonders what he’d have to say to get her to go back. Buffy is clearly thinking the same thing. “You can bring someone back if you want.”

“I don’t.”

She looks at him, then rubs the heels of her hands against her eyes. She should have her glasses on, but he doesn’t want to tell her that in case she puts them on and he’s harder than he is right now.

“You can put your game thing down here.”

“Then what will you do?”

Mali shrugs and leans against him again. She pulls Buffy closer under her arm, and Zach wonders if everything he needs is right here. “Read. Watch you play something and hope you’re bad at it. I just like being in the same room as you. Do you have Mario Kart?”

He shuffles until he drapes the blanket over her. “I can get it.”

“I’m so good,” she replies, but her voice isn’t as bright. She starts playing with the edge of his shirt. He wonders if she’s tired. “Why are you so comfy?”

He slides his hand down to her waist and tries to keep still when she rests her ankle over his shin. She’s lying on him. That’s like three steps away from sex. Sex is what he’s supposed to care about. It’s all he used to care about. Now, he wants her to be safe. He wants her to be comfy. He wants her.

“As good as you are at this quiz game you haven’t answered a question correctly on?”

She hits his chest, and her hand slips down slowly to rest against a fold in his jumper.

“Shh.”

He brings her knuckles to his mouth, but he thinks she’s out by the time his lips touch them.