Page 19 of Hidden Plays
“Oh, sorry.” He freed a short laugh and released my hand. “It’s a habit now.”
Strolling beside him, I rubbed my fingers into the palm of my hand. Holding hands hadn’t felttooweird. But it was time it stopped.
JJ halted at the pizza place, filled with younger people and a terrible rendition ofBye, Bye, Byeby NSYNC floating in the air. “We’ll go in the back. The booths are always empty there.”
He must come here often. “Okay.” I followed him inside the dark bar, snaking through people, eyeing me and smirking. The place had some fun paint splatters on the yellow concrete floor, along with drawings and song lyrics written on the dark walls.I’d forgotten I’d dressed for a gay bar. Did these people think I was gay?
Dropping onto a red vinyl bench seat in a booth at the back wall, JJ said, “I told you there’d be seats back here.”
“Yep.” I sat across from him, resting my forearms on the black table. If I started drinking water now and ate some pizza, I might not have to leave my car.
A server stopped by, left a menu and we ordered waters.
Maybe JJ had the same idea regarding the water. Holding the menu to my face, I studied it. “What kind of pizza do you like?”
He chewed his lower lip. “How about the Arizona Pizza? It’s got hot ranch dressing and chicken with bacon and shit.”
“Uh, okay.” I usually went with the standard pepperoni and sausage. “That’s new to me, but it sounds tasty.” As I put my menu on the table, the server dropped off our water.
JJ ordered the pizza, and she left again. “Tell me, what did you honestly think of the gay bar?”
He was being…pleasant? “It was an eye-opening experience.” In more ways than one. I took a sip of water.
“You seemed to enjoy parts of it.” He hooked a brow and smirked, leaning against the seat back, focusing on my mouth.
Could he feel my boner on the dancefloor? I took a hard swallow. I’d felt his, so of course he had. “Bodily responses are just that.” I was being vague, but he was smart enough to know what I meant.
“And the kiss? It was nothing, right?” His grin faded, and he unrolled his silverware from his paper napkin.
“I…” I had felt something. But he didn’t need to know. “Nope, nothing.”
He winced, setting his napkin on his lap. “Of course, because you’re straight.”
“I’m not homophobic, though. Is that settled?” I shifted. I had to steer this conversation toward the original purpose of tonight.
“I’m not quite convinced.” His smirk returned with a vengeance. “You seemed pretty uncomfortable in that place.”
“Yeah? Well, you told me you didn’t like it because you felt uncomfortable there. Does that make you homophobic, too?” Touché. I drank more water.
“Of course not. Don’t turn this back on me.” With a tsk, he shook his head. “You insist on being right, don’t ya?”
“What? No, I can be wrong. If I’m wrong, I admit it.” But hadn’t I been telling him lies about how tonight felt? I studied him. Did he know somehow?
“Could have fooled me.” With a scowl, he drank his water.
And just like that, we were back to hating each other. I slumped my shoulders. Getting to know JJ could be infuriating.
The server dropped off our pizza and some small plates.
“Good, can’t wait to eat and go home.” He pulled a slice off the pizza, the melted cheese pulling, and set it on his plate. As his gaze found mine, he licked ranch dressing from his finger, his tongue taking a long stroke.
My cock took notice. Oh, fuck me. Everything JJ did was a turn on for my dick. It was so confused. I slipped a slice of pizza onto my plate. “So, we’ll be cordial on Monday, right? I passed your little test, and now you can trust me?”
“I suppose. I don’t know if I trust you all the way, though. You still sabotaged my high school stats.” He bit into his slice.
“I did not.” I huffed a breath. What would make him trust me? Maybe he never would. “So, but you’ll do the stretches I gave you and you won’t fight me on shit.”
“I’ll try. Maybe I’ll get a second opinion.” A wicked grin spread over his lips. “I’m allowed to do that, right?”
