Page 33 of The Easy Way
[Cam:]Good night,Cort.
Cam staredat his phone as it buzzed on Tuesday evening. He’d just sat down to re-watch an old season of Leverage, and was massively annoyed with himself. Cort hadn’t texted all day - which was great, totally great. Exactly what Cam had wanted. They’d do the thing this weekend, and then they wouldn’t ever talk again, which was exactlyhow…
[Cort:]Okay, new game. Youready?
Cam’s heart did not start to beat faster at the knowledge that Cort had been thinking about him. It didn’t. It was probably the extra caffeine he’d had thismorning.
[Cam:]Will it matter if I sayno?
[Cort:]Two truths and a lie. I’ll gofirst.
[Cort:]I know all the verses of The Star-SpangledBanner
[Cort:]I have seen every episode ofBaywatch
[Cort:]I really hate when you’re all bitchy and silent during theseconvos
Notcharming. Or cute. Hedidn’tlove how random Cort was, or seeing the man drop his guard this way. Hedidn’tlike the way Cort constantly surprised him and charmed him withouttrying, without puzzling out the things Cam wanted tohear.
[Cam:]You know how this works, right? Two of those things are supposed to be true and only one is supposed to be alie?
[Cort:] Yep. The instructions are in the title, badass. I getit.
Cam snorted. He hadn’t even been going for bitchy and silent, more like annoyed and scared shitless. He didn’t need to know Cort any better. He didn’t need to like him any more than he already did, when he knew he couldn’t trusthim.
[Cam:]Whatever. You’re an FBI agent. Maybe they make you memorize the anthem. Baywatch is alie.
[Cort:]Nope.
[Cam:]I callbullshit.
[Cort:]Ha! One of the houses I stayed at while I was a kid had a TV that only played videos. Like on tapes. And it was either that or CopRock.
[Cam:]I don’t know what thatis?
[Cort:]Google it. I’llhold.
[Cam:]God. I would have chosen Baywatch too. There were hot people,anyway.
[Cort:]There was this whole shark storyline. People died. You should watchit.
[Cam:]I’m not watchingBaywatch.
[Cort:]You’re totally gonna go watchBaywatch.
Whatever. David Hasselhoff was kinda hot in a bossy way, which got Cam thinking about all kinds of things he really didn’t want to be thinking about,and…
[Cort:]And for the record, the lie was me not liking when you’re bitchy. I like it a lot. It totally turns meon.
What the hell was Cam supposed to do with that? He didn’t want this. He didn’t trustthis.
[Cam:]Good night,Cort.
And okay, so maybe he might have checked whether there were any old episodes of Baywatch onNetflix.
Cam wokeup on Wednesday morning, a little hungover from a restless sleep and trippy dreams. He’d found episodes of Baywatch to stream, and he wasn’t exactly proud of it, but that guilty pleasure had nothing on the dreams that had followed. He knew exactly what Cort looked like dripping wet and barely dressed, and so maybe it wasn’tentirelybizarre when in his dreams, The Hoff had suddenly morphed into Cort, running down the beach with that weird torpedo thing under his arm, broad chest gleaming in the sun. But waking up with a hard-on for the guy who’d been a one-night mistake waslowering.
Cort didn’treallylike him. Cam wasn’t sure exactly what game he was playing, but it was time to regaincontrol.
