Page 19 of Up All Night
No, no, I couldn’t get too hopeful. I listened to him rattle about nothing in particular, his words growing faster and his pace quickening without him realizing it.
“Where do we go now?”
“Well, I like karaoke…”
“Karaoke? Oh, I’m not good at karaoke…”
Karaoke is perfect, though! Imagine me and Hadrian in a cozy little karaoke booth where I can use the shadows to snuggle up next to him? Or, you know, he could try to score with a hot woman, if I do say so myself. Karaoke is basically foreplay in Japan.
“Do you have plans tomorrow?”
“Not really.” Bullshit. I was going to a concert in the evening.
“Oh, I see. We could go to karaoke…”
I sighed, watching where I stepped in the darkness.
“There’s another coffee shop…”
Was it getting colder? It was getting colder.
“We could go to hotel…”
I stopped. “Yes,” I said in such haste that I think I gave us both whiplash.
Hadrian likewise stopped. His face was the epitome ofholy shit.
“Really?” He laughed. “You sure? Hotel?”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
“Fine? Wow.” He turned away, hand on his mouth. When he turned back around again, it was with that false confidence guys love to espouse when they take on the dominant role of a situation. When, you know, deep inside they’re crumbling and convinced the world is playing a dirty trick on them. “We go?”
“We go, dude.”
On the outside, I was cool and composed. On the inside?Dying!
