My Brothers Best Friend [18+]

Chapter Twenty Seven

My mother stutters when she first sets eyes on Noah.

Stutters. 

He appears in the living room on boxing day mid-afternoon in sports gear. His hair is wet and pushed out of his face and his shirt is half-stuck against upper body. Muscles bulging. Tattoos on full display. 

I forget how to breathe as my eyes dart over him. 

For a second I don't remember that Noah actually lives here or that he's Matt's best friend. Suddenly my heart is beating through my chest because I'm worried that I have to introduce Noah, my - person I'm sleeping with, to my parents. I'm sweating. I have to tell them it started in a wardrobe in the house of a person I barely even know. 

Or did it start before that? 

"Hey!" Matt's voice breaks me out of the internal sweat. "You're home man, welcome back." 

"I'm just dropping by," he smiles, like he's charming and not scary-as-fuck to strangers who don't know he's all dimples and curly hair with no bite. 

He looks unnatural shaking Paul's hand. 

Matt is excitedly introducing him to the family. Mum can't believe he exists. 

I can't seem to stop staring. The kitchen feels like a warm blanket around my shoulders, shielding me from the warm family moment of Matt introducing his best mate to our parents, despite it being open plan and not actually shielding me from anything. 

I hold the tea-towel and a wet bunch of spoons in my hands. 

Only when my mother glances over to me do I bring the two together and continue drying the dishes. 

They chat casually about anything and everything. Noah talks about meeting Matt at a bar, talks about work, about their friendship. While I'm making a pot of coffee and gathering a plate of pastries and cakes (as per my mothers instruction) Paul and he are talking about classic cars. 

I try not to look at him as I carry coffees back and fore, eventually handing him his own - no milk, two sugars - and sitting in the empty space on the sofa. 

Mum picks at a scone. 

"So Noah," she begins. Matt and I share a look. "What's a young lad like yourself doing single, hm?" 

"Mum, seriously." 

I nod along with Matt, trying not to die from embarrassment. 

Next to me Noah smiles, taking a sip of the coffee I know is scalding hot. It's the only indication that he isn't entirely comfortable with the question. 

"I guess I'm waiting for the right girl to come along." 

She likes that answer. A lot. She's nodding and grinning at me. Matt looks horrified, as he always did whenever one of his friends would come round after school and she'd start with the same line of questioning. Some things never change. 

To my left, Noah snorts. 

"I wish my son shared the same sentiment." 

Matt says, "trying before you buy is not a crime." 

"That sentence in itself is a crime," I scoff. 

Noah's leg bumps against mine by accident and my breath hitches. I try to ignore his looming presence next to me as well as the familiar smell of the aftershave I really like that he's wearing. 

"Maddie needs to move out." 

"Oh shut up," Paul laughs. "You said just yesterday when she went to the bathroom that you've never been closer."