Page 59 of Heartstruck at Dawn
He bit the corner of his lower lip and flared his nostrils just a tad. But I noticed. He probably wanted to know what happened to my arm, but he didn’t ask.
And since we were all clearly out of things to talk about, I grabbed Nathan’s hand, making sure our fingers were intertwined in such a way that would make William cringe. But his acting skills were top-notch, as expected. He did a great job with his rendition of:This is my I don’t give a fuck face, have a good night.
“See you around, mate,” Nathan said as we stepped inside the elevator.
I needed to move out of the building. It was getting harder to watch William with other girls. Every time hurt more than the last. But watching him act like he cared one day and didn’t the next was the worst part of all.
He probably didn’t care.
“DO YOU WANT TO COME IN?”I asked Nathan as I unlocked my apartment door. Our previous interaction with William still had me shook. I wanted to distract myself, and Nathan had proved to be a great distractor. I wasn’t ready to say good night to him either.
“I’d love to.” He smiled and walked in.
“Do you mind if I change first?”
“Just a little,” he replied, taking one last look at my dress. I guess he was joking, but he didn’t laugh. “I’ll wait in the living room.” He looked a bit serious now.
I changed out of my dress into leggings and an oversized hoodie. I pulled my hair back into a pony and joined him in the living room.
Nathan raised a brow when he saw me come back. I offered him water, but he declined. I poured myself a glass and sat next to him.
“Ishethe other part of the reason?” Nathan asked, his face unreadable.
“Yes,” I replied, looking into his eyes, both of us aware of whohewas. “He is.”
I couldn’t lie to him. Enough lies had been spilled in the last months. I wanted a clean slate. Nathan needed to know because as much as I tried to deny it, I liked him. And I could tell he liked me too.
It was stupid to think he wouldn’t eventually notice the weird interactions between William and me, especially with how he usually handled things.
“Was it that obvious?” I asked, feeling a crease taking shape in between my brows.
“Sort of,” he quickly replied.
I bit my bottom lip and shook my head a couple of times, looking away from Nathan. I didn’t want to cause any drama between them. They knew each other from way back. Nathan could choose any other girl in New York City, and being single was the convenient choice for me.
“You’re close with the Sjöbergs. You have known them since you were a kid,” I said, feeling sad about it. I wished they didn’t know each other at all. “I had fun tonight, but I think it’s best if we just—leave it at that.”
“Joel’s my friend, and William is Joel’s brother. That’s it. It’s always been like that with him. We could never really get along,” he said, searching for my hand. “Is there still something going on with him?”
“No, of course not. I-I—don’t trust him. We had this”—I shook my head trying to push the images away—“twenty-four-hour summer fling where we kissed a few times, and that was that. He then got back together with Erin. And I thought they were still dating until a few minutes ago when I saw those two girls coming out of his apartment. Maybe he still is. With William, you never know, but you can count for there to be a few girls circling around him all the time, whether he’s single or not.” Bitterness gushed out of every word I uttered. “I’m sorry, I—I’m sure you weren’t expecting any of this.”
“The only thing I wasn’texpectingwas meeting you on day one,” he said, drawing a line with his finger on the back of my hand. “I’m fresh off a three-year relationship, and to be honest, I thought I didn’t want to jump into anything serious for a while too, but your hand feels kind of great in between mine.”
Nathan’s fingers found mine and melded into a single perfect fist.
“I agree.” I squeezed his hand with a soft smile.
“We could take it slow. I know you’re still dealing with your totally mental ex-boyfriend. Plus, that dodgy upstairs neighbor of yours isn’t going anywhere.” He grinned. “Perhaps I could do a thing or two to help out with everything. To help you sort things out.”
I laughed. Nathan had this incredible sense of humor that helped me relax and stop taking things so seriously.
“We could start going on a pretend date or two if you will. See where it goes from there,” he proposed. I nodded and smiled. “It wasyouridea, after all. The pretending part.”
“Well, you didn’t seem uncomfortable with the idea.” I teased, dropping my head back on the sofa’s backrest.
“I also need to teach you what a proper snog is.” He licked his lips and came closer to my face, realizing I wanted to be taught. I’d always been quite the teacher’s pet.
His lips were right there in front of mine. Eager and waiting. “Is it something like this?” I leaned in and pressed my lips into his for a short but gentle kiss.
