Page 24 of Total Creative Control
A jolt of something electric shot through Lewis, shocking him right to his marrow. Pleasure, he realised as his lips curled into an irrepressible smile.
No,triumph.
Which didn’t make a lot of sense until he made the obvious connection that, with Colin out of the way, Aaron would have a lot more time forhim. Specifically, more time for him this weekend. At Safehaven.
Thank fuck.
“Things hadn’t been right for a while,” Aaron was telling Jason. “I suppose we just grew apart. It wasn’t really anyone’s fault...”
“Either way,” Lewis said, delving into the lunch bag for his sandwich—it was his favourite: white bread, butter, ham, nothing else—“it’s excellent news.”
He was about to take a bite when he realised that Aaron was staring at him. And not in a good way. “You know,” Aaron said tartly, “most people would say something like, ‘I’m really sorry to hear that. Are you okay?’”
“Would they?” He shrugged. “Well, I’m not sorry to hear it because Colin was a boring prick. And you’re obviously okay.” He waved the sandwich at Aaron, who appeared as perky and wholesome as always. “I mean, look at you.”
Warily, Aaron glanced down at himself, then back at Lewis. “Colin and I were together for almost two years,” he said. “We lived together for one of them. That’s a long time to be with someone.”
“No shit,” Lewis said, with feeling. “I can’t believe it took you so long to dump him. What a waste of two years.”
Beneath his breath, Jason muttered, “Christ on a pogo stick....”
Lewis glared at him, then turned his attention to Aaron. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. An eye roll, perhaps. A sigh, or a tut. Perhaps a swallowed smile and a flicker of amusement. It certainly wasn’t the tight look that dimmed the brightness in Aaron’s eyes or the way he turned back to his computer and coolly said, “Dot’s waiting for you, and she has a meeting at two, so you should probably get in there.”
Damn. Had he hurt Aaron’s feelings? Frowning, he tried to run over his last few comments in his head, but he was distracted by the unhappy line of Aaron’s mouth and his determinedly averted gaze.
And fucking Jason giving him the evil eye.
Aaron tapped away on his keyboard for a moment, and when Lewis didn’t leave, he looked up and said tightly, “Was there something else?”
The hint of challenge in his voice made Lewis pause warily. Clearing his throat, he said, “Yes, there was—is—something else. We’ll need a car tomorrow morning. Buggered if I’m driving up there myself. Send one to my place for half-seven, will you? We have to be at Safehaven by ten, and we’ll need time to pick you and Toni up as well.”
Aaron held his gaze. “I haven’t actually agreed to go yet.”
“Yeah, but you will, won’t you? I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t really need you there, Aaron. Please.” Their shared look lingered, becoming uncomfortably intense. Lewis broke it, turning away with a shrug. “After all, you won’t have to watch Colin dribble his way around the football pitch on Saturday morning.” When Aaron’s brows drew together in annoyance, Lewis added in a wheedling tone, “And if you don’t come, who’ll stop me from drowning Charlie Alexander in one of his awful fucking cocktails?”
Finally, Aaron’s lips twitched with a reluctant smile. For several long heartbeats, he seemed to be thinking. Then, at last, he sighed. “Fine. I’ll order a car.”
Lewis resisted the urge to punch the air in triumph.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, but as he turned away from Aaron’s desk, his face broke out into an irrepressible smile, the weekend suddenly a far less horrifying prospect than it had been just a few minutes earlier. “Oh, and pack something half-decent to wear,” he said over his shoulder. “Charlie will probably have one of his godawful dinner parties on Saturday night.”
His buoyant mood sank as soon as he noticed Dot Thomas leaning in his office doorway, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow lifted in a disapproving expression he knew all too well, a sheaf of papers in her hand.
“Lewis,” she said, stepping aside and inviting him in with a sweep of her arm. “A word?”
He sighed, took a big bite of his sandwich, and followed her inside.
Chapter Six
Aaron
Since he was giving up his weekend, Aaron felt justified in buggering off at six on the dot that evening. He had plans—his fortnightly meetup with Janvi and their small group of real-lifeLeechesfriends—and for once he’d actually like to arrive on time.
Before he left, he poked his head around Lewis’s door and found him, feet up on his desk, chewing the end of a red pen as he marked up a script.
“Hey. Anything you need before I go?”
Lewis glanced up. “Hmm?”