Been Hit Before - Brian Quinn

Time to play.

Red faced and on edge, I sat in the offices the following morning awaiting the arrival of the guys. Something of which I was extremely dreading. I was mostly worried about seeing Q for obvious reasons, but I had the feeling that at least one of his friends would know about the embarrassing end to the night. After all, that's what best friends do, right? They tell reach other everything.

As I stood printing something off, I heard someone enter the room behind me, so I pretended that I hadn't even noticed until I heard footsteps coming closer to me.

"Morning"

I turned around to see a smile form on Q's face, like he had just replayed the moment in his head because it was one of those genuine yet awkward smiles. All before he leant in to kiss me on the cheek - which I allowed him to do this time.

"What's up?"

"So I was allowed to do that this time, eh?" He chuckled softly, trying to make light out of how awkward we both felt.

"Oh my god, don't." I managed to laugh at myself whilst covering my face with my hands to cover what had to be obvious blushing.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad."

"You can say that, you weren't the one that did it!"

"I was still the one that ate a mouthful of your hair, so I think we're pretty even." He smirked as I brought myself to look back up at him once more.

"You might have some better luck today."

"Oh, really?" Q raised an eyebrow, thinking that I was suggesting something rather than looking at their work sheet for the day. I turned the sheet that I was reading around so he could have a look. "Oh, my bad."

"Kissing strangers was one made up for your guys' pleasure, wasn't it?" I wanted to see him squirm to such a question but instead he grinned mischievously before tapping his nose and walking towards the table.

"You wanna do something else tonight?" He asked as I collected some sheets and joined him at the table.

"Sure, what do you have in mind?"

"A couple of old buddies are having a party for a friend moving back into town. You down?" He questioned, yet I stammered over the thought in my head, wondering if meeting endless amounts of his friends was a wise thing to do as a second date. We still barely knew each other, after all. "If that's not your thing we could do something else?"

"No, no. It's your friend, I don't want you to miss out." I started, but I was still going to gently decline his offer to join him.

"Great, it starts at 8, but we could grab something to eat first?" He continued, obviously not picking up on my tone of not really wanting to go.

"Yeah, sure." I sighed lightly, not wanting to be a part of this. I did like him, sure I did, but the last thing that I wanted to do was get close to someone and everything and everyone around them for that to change again.

"Morning future love birds" Sal announced as he walked into the room. Seeming a much bubblier greeting than the first few times I had been greeted. I guess we finally bonded slightly yesterday. Which I wasn't complaining about, he seemed very cold at first that it almost made me uncomfortable. "How was the big date last night?" He turned towards me.

"It was great." I replied, being genuine. Other than the kiss part, but that part was to remain left out.

"He didn't get too drunk and make an ass of himself then?"

"Nope, he was very well behaved, actually." I smiled.

"Don't listen to him, I wouldn't have gotten drunk." Q added into the conversation.