Tim rolls his eyes and picks up the jug full of frothy, murky orange liquid and refills my glass. “Here, you earned this for the longest, most ridiculous story of the day.”
I grin and pick up my drink, tipping my glass in silent cheers. “I’ll drink to that!”
“So, what have you been doing for your two weeks off?” Tim asks.
“I can’t believe my holiday is almost finished,” I groan. “But it’s been fun, and I feel so relaxed. I went to see my mum and nan for a few days last week, and then this week, I’ve just been hanging with Jared a lot. We painted my bathroom the other day and went bowling. Other than that, we’ve just been chilling. Oh, but we have been watching Stranger Things.”
Tim’s eyes grow excited at that. “Have you finished the new season? Did you cry?”
“Whoa, spoilers!” I hold my hand up and shh him loudly. “No! Turns out, Jared hadn’t seen any of them. Can you believe it? I told him we had to watch it. We went back to the beginning and started over, so he could catch up, and then we’ll watch the new episodes together when we get there. I’ll admit, it’s slow-going though. We’ve been watching almost a week now and still haven’t made it through season one.”
Tim frowns in confusion. “How come? It’s only, like, eight episodes. You can do that in a couple of days, easy.”
My eyes drop to the table, and I fight a smile. “We get distracted a lot.”
He scoffs, and Heather giggles.
Where I’m sitting, facing the door, I see Jared step in, and my heart stutters in my chest. “Ooh, there he is!” I squeal excitedly and stand, balancing precariously on the footrest of my stool, wobbling uncertainly as I wave to get his attention.
He takes a couple of seconds but finally sees me waving like a loon over the crowd and raises a hand in acknowledgement.
“That’s him?” Tim asks, staring at Jared as he strides confidently towards us, struggling because the room has really filled in the hour we’ve already been here.
I nod proudly and notice Tim’s frowning—scowling in fact.
“What the hell, Amy? Why is he good-looking? You normally drag home geeky, nerdy guys with crap haircuts, who look like they got dressed in the dark. They usually make me feel good about myself.” He turns back to me and looks a little affronted about it. “I’m always the good-looking male when we double date.”
“Really?” Heather says, faking disbelief before sending him a playful wink.
“Ha-ha,” he scoffs and looks back at Jared, who’s still working his way through the crowd. “Jesus, he looks like he should be in an aftershave advert. He’s every girl’s wet dream. Ugh, I should have put on a shirt.” He looks down at his jeans and T-shirt he’s wearing. He looks smart-casual, like he always does.
“He’s come straight from work; that’s why he’s dressed up.” I let my eyes wander Jared’s exquisite form in his black suit trousers and white shirt with the sleeves he’s rolled up to his elbows.
He definitely looks like a wet dream.
Heather leans in and pinches Tim’s cheek. “Looks like you’ll have to up your game if you want to try and compete for best-looking male in the group now.”
He groans and shakes his head. “I’ll have to settle for being the funny one.”
As Jared steps to the side of our table, I smile reassuringly, sensing his unease as his eyes flick from me to Heather and Tim. He nods a greeting and starts to say hi, but I throw my arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer to me.
“Me first,” I grumble, raising one eyebrow.
Where I’m still standing on the footrest, we’re the same height, our eyes meet, and his hands reach for my waist, steadying me as I wobble.
When he presses his lips to mine, I melt against him and sag in contentment. It was yesterday morning that I last saw him—he made me coffee in bed just before he left for work—but it feels like forever. I am quickly becoming addicted to him. We’ve been exclusive for five whole days, and in that time, we’ve spent more time together than apart. He’s stayed at my place every day this week—apart from last night. Hello, Tequila Thursday!
He breaks the kiss, his eyes remaining locked on mine as if we are the only ones in the room. “Hi, beautiful. God, you taste good.”
I glow with pleasure at his compliment. “It’s the cocktail. Between the Sheets, it’s called.”
He raises one eyebrow. “Oh, really? And is it good, Between the Sheets?” His hand slides down to my bum, squeezing gently.
I grin at his double entendre. “I have no complaints.”
Tim clears his throat, and Heather says sarcastically, “Oh, you two just carry on. We’ll wait.”
I giggle, and Jared pulls back but leaves his arm around me.
“Hey, sorry. I’m dating a pathological attention seeker. What you gonna do?” He playfully rolls his eyes and shrugs. “I’m Jared. It’s nice to meet you.”
As I sit down on my stool and pick up my drink, Jared holds out his hand, and Tim shakes it, smiling warmly.
“This is Heather”—he quirks a thumb at her—“and thanks to you, I’m now the DUFF, Tim.”
We all burst out laughing, and I almost choke on my drink at the movie reference, but Jared misses the context of the Designated Ugly Fat Friend joke, so he smiles politely but doesn’t seem to get it.
Instead of sitting, Jared nods at the almost-empty drink jugs in the middle of the table. “I’m not late, am I?” He frowns and checks his watch, the muscle in his jaw tensing. Jared abhors lateness.
I smile, slipping my hand into his. He’s right on time. “You’re not late. We got here an hour ago, so we could get a good table.”
He seems a little relieved and nods in understanding. “Ah, good. Well, shall I get a round in?”
Tim grins. “I like you already.”
“I love it when a plan comes together,” Jared replies, and I can tell the retro A-Team reference wins Tim over that little bit more. “What are we drinking?”
Tim laughs and reels off the drink order. I send Jared a wink as he heads to the bar, and then I look back at my friends and raise an eyebrow.
“Well, he certainly raises our group’s average hotness score a couple of points. But I’ll reserve my character judgement until a little bit later,” Heather says, nodding.
I chew on my lip, hoping tonight goes well. Things are going great with Jared, and these two sitting opposite me are as good as family to me. It’s important that they all get along. I’m not sure what I’ll do if they don’t like each other. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
It takes a while for him to get served, but when he finally comes back with a fresh jug of orange-coloured cocktail and another one full of beer, I smile over at him and pat the seat next to me. He pulls another glass from his pocket, followed by two packs of plain crisps, which he sets in the middle and sends me a knowing smile. He sits, pouring himself a drink, while I reach for the crisps, tearing open the packet so we can all share them. I grin, happily munching away. He already knows me so well.
“Amy’s told me a lot about you. It’s so nice you’re so close after all this time. You and she went to secondary school together?” he asks Heather.