Call me kitten (boyxboy love) ✓

3. Eager (NSFW)

Zoey was already at our usual table when I entered the bar. Sweat was running down my back after my panicky walk, I had planned on taking the bus but the encounter with Ash had made me jump out of my skin and I had to get rid of the excess energy. Zoey gave me a quick hug and handed me a beer.

"Damn you're sweaty, did you run all the way here?"

"Almost, didn't want you to have to wait for me. It'll dry."

I took a deep swig of the beer and my body started to slowly calm down. I was on safe ground now. No new co-workers with too much confidence and sapphire eyes. Just Zoey. She asked how I was doing, and I shrugged.

"Ok I guess, same old," I said and pressed the frosty beer glass to my forehead.

"Jay, don't give me that crap, I can see that you're upset about something. Is it work?"

She could see right through me as always and I didn't like it. I didn't know how to respond, but I knew she would just keep on pressing until I did, so I had to come up with something that was at least partly true. Because if I lied, she would spot that too.

"Meh, nothing special really. Just a new... co-worker that I don't know how to handle."

Zoey leaned across the table and squinted her eyes.

"What do you mean 'handle'? Details, please."

I squirmed in my seat, but I knew I had to give her more.

"Lots of ambiguous signals or whatever you call it. I don't know how to act on it, if I should act at all. You know when they look like they're flirting with you but maybe they don't. I don't know."

"Of course you should act on it!" She clapped her hands in excitement. "Otherwise you won't find out if it's real or not, What kind of signals?"

The moment in the copier room played in my head, making my insides tingle. I was sure as hell not going to tell her about that.

"Nothing special, just glances and smiles. Stuff like that you know," I said vaguely. "But I won't act on it, it's at work and all."

"Screw that, you don't have a policy against that stuff, right? You're 24 years old, God damn it, not a fucking teenager. Ask her out for coffee or something. Easy."

Her. Right. Of course, Zoey would think it was a girl I was talking about. She would go nuts with questions if I told her that it was I guy, so I decided to keep my mouth shut about that. I just needed to change the subject.

"Yeah, right. I'll think about it. But enough of that, how are you doing? Is everything ok with you and Daniel now?"

A dirty trick, but I was desperate. If you asked my sister about the relationship with her boyfriend, she couldn't help herself. But anything other than the subject of office dating. And she fell for it instantly, throwing herself into a lengthy tirade about what Daniel had done or not done, how she interpreted his actions, and I could just lean back and agree with her in everything she said, all the while order more beer for her, as I stuck to my one. When she was halfway through her fourth beer she suddenly rose from her seat.

"Christ, I need to pee!" she exclaimed to half the bar. "Keep an eye on my purse, I need to go like yesterday."

I nodded as I realized that I was in the exact same situation as her. But she had beat me to it, so I just had to sit here waiting for her like a nice little brother, with my hand on her purse. The problems my sister had spewed out really made my own problems just wither away and nothing seemed important anymore. Not my job, not Ash or how I felt about him. I couldn't care less.