Page 66 of Under the Mistletoe with You

And just as he’s very almost convinced himself of this, there’s a knock on the bathroom door.

‘Are you okay in there?’

‘Do you mind?It’s the bathroom,’ he replies haughtily.

‘Right, and I need to use it too.Just wanted to make sure you hadn’t fallen in.’

‘I’ll be out in a minute,’ he grumbles, and all the wild, wriggly feelings worm back in as he brushes his teeth a little too vigorously.

Just to be polite, he decides to put on some deodorant.After all, no one wants to share a bed with someone who smells as if they’ve been stress-sweating for the last ten minutes (which he has).It’s just courtesy.

He puts on some moisturiser too.Just for good measure.

There are only so many ablutions he can do before it swings towards activelymaking yourself look nice, so Christopher calls it a day and instead cleans up the mess he’s made, takes a deep breath and steps out into the bedroom.

And almost crashes right into Nash who is standing just on the other side of the door, leaning on the door frame.He’s still topless, but thankfully not trouserless.

‘Christ, sorry,’ Christopher says as they both stumble away from each other.‘I wasn’t expecting you to be listening in.’

‘I really need to pee, so was coming to ask you to get out.’Nash rubs his forehead where Christopher’s chin had bashed him.

‘Sorry about that.’

‘Can you move?I still need to pee.’

‘Sorry!’Christopher squeaks, as he squeezes out of the way so Nash can use the bathroom.

All this means that he’s then standing uselessly in the middle of his bedroom.

Keep it together.Just put on some pyjamas.

God knows where last night’s pair went after he overheated in the blanket mound, and instead of faffing about looking for them, he decides to just put on a nice pair of button-up flannel pyjamas that his mother bought him for Christmas last year.After all, he’s not getting new Christmas pyjamas this year, so these will have to do.He undresses and redresses at lightning speed, lest Nash catch him in his pants again – it was bad enough the first time, but somehow now would feel even more mortifying.But once he’s dressed, he doesn’t really know what to do next.

Should he get into the bed?Or is that a bit too suggestive, like he’s waiting for him?Plus, he hasn’t asked if Nash has a side preference and seeing as Nash’s stuff is on both bedside tables, he can’t infer either.Perhaps he just sleeps right down the middle.Either way, if Christopher gets in first he might be forcing him to sleep in the wrong place and that seems rather rude seeing as Nash invited him to share.

He’s dithering, but his mind keeps whirring.And before he can make a decision, Nash leaves the bathroom, and dives onto the left side of the bed, pulling the duvet up over his chest to right under his chin.And, as though this wasn’t a big deal, he just starts flicking through something on his phone.

Maybe itisn’ta big deal to him at all.

Everything he does seems at once so intentional and also without hesitation or thought or worry.What must that be like?Christopher’s brain is still whirring, and yet he hasn’t moved an inch.

‘Are you getting in?Your hovering is weirding me out,’ Nash murmurs.

‘Oh, err, sorry,’ Christopher mumbles, abandoning the plan he was conjuring up to busy himself in the kitchen to put off the next step.

‘Stop apologising too.’

‘Right.I’ll take this side then.’He folds back the duvet on the right-hand side, and sits down on the sheet, his feet on the floor.It’s an improvement from standing awkwardly by the bed, at least.All he has to do is swing his legs up and lie down, and that’s it.

Simple.

He’ll just lie down next to an extremely attractive man in his bed.

This is fine.

Except, what if their feet touch when he does that?What if he’s too close to Nash when he lies down and they both feel weird?How close to the edge of the bed should he be?

‘Would you prefer to be on this one?’Nash asks, which sends alarms in Christopher’s head blaring before he realises Nash is asking if they need to swap sides of the bed.