Just friends

4

Addy

My mouth went dry as my eyes widened. I'm sure if I had a drink in my mouth I would have spit it out. I blink rapidly as Liam grabs the back of his shirt and pulls it over his head. Holy shit he's serious. 

I jump up off the couch. "What are you doing?" I practically shout at him before looking around me as if someone is going to walk in at any moment and catch us. 

It's not like I haven't seen Liam shirtless. Hell, I've seen his bare ass when we do episode watches together and I've seen his perfectly sculpted abs when we've gone to the beach together but this just feels....different. 

Liam pauses for a second, watching me as if I'm a wild animal being approached and he doesn't know if I'm going to attack him or run away. He throws his shirt on the couch in the spot that I just vacated without breaking eye contact with me. "Addy, take a breath. It's just me."

I close my eyes and do just that because I don't know why I'm freaking out like this. All he's doing is taking off his damn clothes! It's not like anything is going to happen! And even if it did would you really be so opposed to that?

The stupid voice in my head makes me groan out loud because I don't need this right now. That little bit of crush that still lingers needs to die. I need to stomp out what little flame there is left of the fire and fucking be professional here. Liam is one of my best friends and I know for a fact he wouldn't do anything to hurt me or make me feel uncomfortable. So why does getting naked with him bother you so much? I don't know!

When my breathing finally slows and I feel like I'm more like myself, I open my eyes back up and give Liam a small embarrassed laugh. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten into me. This whole scene is just..."

"A bit overwhelming?" he supplies and I nod in agreement.

"I get it," he shrugs, "my first intimate scene I threw up three times."

"You did?" I ask, baffled because he's always got it together on set. Liam nods his head before sitting back down on the couch and kicking off his shoes and socks. 

"Yup. I was terrified and my stomach was in knots the entire day. I kept trying to do push ups and crunches thinking that it would make me look buffer on screen," he laughs and shakes his head at the memory playing in his head. "And the second I had to take off my robe for the scene I broke out in a sweat, my stomach made a god awful sound and the leading lady gave me a funny look. I was embarrassed beyond belief but then the coordinator came over to talk to me and it helped."

I sit next to him on the couch, enraptured in his story that I miss him unbuckling his pants and pulling them down. 

"She let everyone know on set that it was my first time shooting an intimacy scene which I think helped a lot because they were a lot more understanding and relaxed. The girl I was shooting the scene with told me that it was okay to be nervous and that the key was to be comfortable with each other." He lets out a laugh while shaking his head, "Needless to say the scene came out horrible."

"What?" my eyes widen in shock, getting my nerves worked up again.

"Relax," Liam says rubbing his hand up and down my arm before playing with the hem of my shirt. "We redid the scene after we had been working with each other for a while and when we saw the difference between the first take and that one it was like night and day. That's when I realized that the more comfortable you are with your castmate, the better the chemistry will be portrayed through the screen."

I stare at his fingers playing with the hem of my shirt. "Yeah. I mean it makes sense," I look back up into his eyes. "It's not like I don't trust you, or feel comfortable around you...it's just...,"

"Everything else," he whispers to me while staring straight into my eyes, "I get it, Ads, I do. But I think the first step in this is to make sure that you and I are beyond comfortable with each other so that way when the day comes, we focus on each other and not everything or anyone else around us. We do what we've always done and act our asses off."

I laugh at that before taking a deep breath. "Okay." It's only now that I realize he's sitting in front of me in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs. My eyes take in every inch of him before I scold myself for it and shooting them back up to meet his. Only now he's smirking at me because I was just caught looking at the goods. 

I can feel my face turning red but Liam doesn't call me out on it. Instead he sits there patiently with that stupid smirk on his face that makes me feel giddy. It only takes a few more minutes before I fully give in. 

"If you say one word about my underwear I swear to God I'm going to punch you in the dick."

Liam throws his head back and lets out a loud laugh while covering said dick at the same time. I criss cross my arms, grab a hold of my shirt and pull it over my head. His laughter dies slowly as I'm pulling my shirt free of my hair and when I glance over I see Liam's eyes roaming my chest which only makes me want to cover them up and hide.

Instead I take a deep breath and unbutton my shorts before pushing them down and exposing my pink leopard cheeky underwear that match. My fingers knot together before I sit down on shaky legs. We stare at each other in silence and my mind starts to wander. On the one hand I completely get it now. I feel so self conscious just sitting in front of him in my underwear that I'm fidgeting, so I can only imagine what it would be like being naked and having a whole camera crew around me. On the other, there's a small voice yelling at me that I'm an idiot because we're just sitting here in our underwear and this is what any guy would want. East access. 

Before I work up the courage to say anything Liam turns, grabs the remote and leans back on the couch turning the TV on. "So, what are we gonna watch?"