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“Mind if I share your wall?” Owen startled me when he brushed my shoulder and leaned back next to me. He handed me a cold bottle of water. “I’m sorry for assaulting you with so many names at once. It’s a lot to keep track of.”
I took a long swallow of water. The icy cold froze my uncertainty. I looked up to find Owen watching me. I turned away before eye contact could become more. “It’s fine. I’m good with names.”
“I should have guessed that. Let’s see... you give each one of them a nickname, and associate their real names with whomever you’ve decided they are?”
I didn’t like being pegged so easily, even if it was exactly what I was doing with everyone else in the room. “Maybe.”
“Care to share?”
“No.”
“Why not?” Kingston seemed to appear from nowhere, and planted himself between us and the rest of the room.
“People never appreciate the instant judgment, even when there’s truth to it,” Owen said. “So many want to categorize everything around them with neat little labels, but apply one of those labels to them...”
It was both terrifying and enticing that he understood where I was coming from. “What he said. And if I picked the wrong trait to focus on with your friends, I’ll find myself walking home.”
“Never.” Kingston didn’t look fazed. So, status quo. “But people, am I right?” He rolled his eyes, but never stopped smiling.
I gave an exaggerated sigh. “It’s true. Life would be so much easier if it came with anime narration that explained every single intent and power—”
“In excruciating detail?” Owen pushed away from the wall to look at me. “You want a diatribe about everything except the one thing that matters?”
“Which is?” I had to know.
“I like you, let’s fuck,” Owen said. “When was the last time you heard anyone say that in an anime who wasn’t cast as the overbearing love interest?”
“I’ve all but said that, what does that make me?” Kingston asked.
Far more appealing than he should be. “The enemy,” I teased. “I take back what I said. Endless grandstanding and super villain monologuing suck.”
Kingston rested a finger under my chin and raised my gaze to his. “You don’t get out of it that easily. I like you. Let’s fuck.”
Heat flooded me, and I broke the connection. It severed the spark flowing between us, and I instantly wanted that feeling back. “You like my café. We’re not going to screw. And you’re definitely not what snap judgment says you are. Neither of you.”
“Is that good or bad?” Kingston asked.
I didn’t know yet. “It’s certainly interesting.”
“I’ll take interesting. Life can always use another surprise.” Condensation had formed on Owen’s bottle, and when he tiled his head back to drink, several drops ran down his chin, over his throat, and dampened his shirt enough to tease.
Kingston dragged his thumb over Owen’s chin, wiping away some of the water.
Thirsty took on a literal form as I suppressed the desire to lean in draw my tongue along a similar path. I had male friends who were close to the point of playful flirting, and I’d never seen them do anything that intimate. “Not all surprises are good.” I pressed my own water bottle to my cheek. Dribbles hit my chest, and both their gazes followed. I wanted to turn in on myself and hide, but I pretended not to notice.
“Agree to disagree.” Owen looked me in the eye again. “Even the bad kind of unexpected leads to change and growth.”
I couldn’t argue that, but it didn’t make me like the idea of bad surprises any more than I had thirty seconds ago. “Change can be scarring.” Sometimes those scars were invisible. I certainly went out of my way to hide mine.
“Come join us.” Peter interrupted, saving me from my thoughts, and pulled us into their group of two. “We want your opinion on this start-up coming out of Phoenix. The newestwe’ll beat Facebooksite.”
They didn’t want my opinion, or Kingston’s it seemed. They were mostly interested in what Owen had to say. I wasn’t surprised they ignored me, but how surprised would they be to know Kingston had more to offer than he let on.
We moved between groups for several hours. Lunch was an informal buffet of more fresh fruit. I was grateful for that on a lot of levels. And by that afternoon, I found myself in a lawn chair, in a small clearing a bit back from the lake. The trees blocked the sun, and the cool breeze was enough to tease the heat from my skin.
Owen and Kingston were with me. They hadn’t left my side much, which was odd since we were here to see their friends, but I was grateful at not being left to fend for myself. What was I thinking? I wasn’t the kind of person who mingled and made connections.
We had company, though, and it was exactly who I needed it to be. Ravyn had been my favorite person to talk to so far, aside from my not-dates, and her brother Ramsey was on the city council.
