Page 21 of From LA to London, With Love

I felt a little apprehensive about Chris coming. He should get on well with everyone…as long as they weren’t too starstruck in his presence. Josh was my main concern.

“I will be super chill, babe,” Josh said, looking anything but chill, his eyes flashing with anticipation.

Soho was buzzing as we got out of the Uber. I bounced up the stairs to the karaoke lounge, unable to contain my excitement. When we arrived, performances were in full swing. Sharon and Tina, who’d been together since university and had booked a babysitter for their twin daughters for the night, were belting out Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball”, while Amir, Khanh, Mia, and Rose cheered them on, already tipsy. They gave an even bigger cheer when they saw Josh and me walk into the dark room. Warmth filled my chest. This was my crew.

I grabbed a drink at the bar and selected a few songs. You had to get in early with this lot–there were a number of attention hogs in the group. I took a seat in between Josh and Rose on the long couch and watched Sharon and Tina’s grand ending.

It felt so amazing to be hanging out with everyone, just like old times. While they’d been checking in with me regularly since Elliot’s appearance and I’d caught up with them all individually, we hadn’t gotten together as a group post-Elliot.

Looking around the room, it dawned on me that, possibly for the first time in his life, Chris might feel like a minority among my friends. I wondered if I should have given him a heads-up. Then, I remembered all the times I’d been the only queer person or person of color in the room. No one had ever warned me in advance. And it would be kind of weird to say, “Oh, by the way, you might feel a bit out of place tonight as the only white, probably straight cis man.” It wouldn’t do him any harm to experience that for once. In fact, it could probably do him some good.

A familiar tune started playing.

I’m not an amazing singer, but I’ve done enough karaoke to know that energy is significantly more important than voice quality. I downed my drink, channeled my inner Whitney, and grabbed the microphone.

I was pouring my heart and soul into singing “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the door open and somebody walk into the room.

Chris.

He looked straight at me and smiled.

A million-dollar smile. A smile that lit up his eyes and sent an electric shock reverberating through my body.

It felt like that smile had summoned Cupid to this karaoke room in Soho, sending an arrow directly into my heart.

Yes, as much as I’d been denying it, I was already attracted to him. But this was different. A bolt of intense attraction that made me freeze in place and stumble over my lines.

My stomach flipped.

I struggled to keep singing. Everything around me except Chris seemed to fade away.

We stared at each other. I couldn’t break eye contact; a magnetic force was pulling us toward each other. With some effort, I turned to the screen and used all my energy to concentrate on the lyrics. I knew the song by heart, but I needed something to focus on, something to draw my gaze away from Chris.

Panic rose in my chest, and the warm fuzzy sensation I’d been enjoying being surrounded by my friends was replaced with blood pounding through my body and sweaty hands. What the hell was going on? I’d never been this attracted to anyone with such intensity before. How had I gone from platonic—well, mostly—friend vibes to intense romantic feelings with one look? I was sure Chris and everyone else in the room must have witnessed my reaction, it felt so extreme. But if they had, they didn’t show it.

Please, please, please let me not have fallen for him.

That would be really annoying on so many levels. He was already an unlikely friend. He was an even more unlikely object of my affections. I had flashbacks to high school, when I had a huge crush on my best friend. My straight, female, best friend. It had made things so awkward between us that we’d grown apart. In Chris, I’d finally found someone I enjoyed spending time with while everyone else was at work, and I didn’t want our new friendship to be similarly jeopardized. I could only hope that I’d wake up tomorrow morning and all my feelings toward Chris would have reverted to purely platonic. Or even how I was feeling before tonight. I could handle—well, ignore—a few sparks of attraction, but not this.

I struggled through the rest of the song, took some deep breaths, and walked over to introduce Chris to everyone. My mind and body were whirring, but I focused all my attention on trying to behave normally.

While I was completely thrown by the intensity of my feelings for Chris, as I’d expected, Chris hit it off with everyone. Before I could blink, Chris and Josh were up on stage, doing a duet of “A Whole New World” and tipsily trying to recreate a carpet ride. Josh got so into it, his curls bouncing at double time, I was concerned he might incur another head injury. Just as that thought popped into my mind, Josh tripped over the microphone stand. Chris caught him, earning Chris a round of applause and cheering from the group. Josh looked absolutely stoked to be in Chris’s arms and took a bit too long to stand back up, milking the moment for as long as he could. I chuckled, shaking my head at Josh’s antics.

While I tried to concentrate on the music and enjoying the evening with my friends, I couldn’t stop thinking about Chris. When he wasn’t performing or buying rounds of drinks, he sat next to me on the couch. I was acutely aware of his presence. Each time our legs touched, an electric shock traveled up my thigh. Each time Chris leaned over to speak to me, my heart picked up pace, conscious of his face close to mine.

Shit.

About two hours in, Chris put his hand on my back and asked if I wanted another drink, sending an intense euphoric sensation washing over me. I had to excuse myself to go to the bathroom. I needed a cold shower, but since that wasn’t possible, cold water from the sink would have to do.

I bumped into Josh on the way back.

“Chris is awesome, Soph!” he exclaimed. “And even hotter in real life, if that’s possible. I don’t know how you aren’t head over heels for him.” Josh’s hair was flopping all over the place with excitement. “Arrrgh! I can’t believe I just did a duet with Chris Trent. Did you see how he caught me when I fell?”

“Shhh! Please don’t scream his name like that, Josh. We don’t want people to know he’s in there.” I glared at him. “Are you sure you should be drinking with a head injury?”

Josh looked at me, and despite his head injury and alcohol consumption, he knew something was wrong. I’d never been good at hiding my emotions from him.

“What’s wrong?” Josh narrowed his eyes and stared at me.