We didn’t speak for a moment. I had no idea what to say next, and I figured neither did he. Did we say goodbye? See ya around?
“Were you serious?” he asked, and I frowned.
“About what?”
“The dance class. You don’t have to. I know you said that to make everything seem more realistic, but now you have me thinking of trying ballroom dancing. I’ve never done that, and it feels wrong not to do it with you. I mean, I’m sure you’ll be horrible and I’ll get to laugh at you. I’m always looking for new ways to make fun of you.”
An unfamiliar warmth spread through my chest, and a laugh started deep in my bones. “I’m good at everything I do, I’ll have you know. Ballroom dancing will be no different.” Holy fuck, I had to find a way to be good at dancing. I wasn’t the most coordinated guy on the planet.
“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want you to feel obligated to give me a reason to laugh at you.” He took a drink of his wine, looking at me over the glass.
“But you see, what you don’t realize is that the more time we spend together, the more I get to annoy you. It’s one of my favorite things, and quite frankly, a little too easy. I think I can help you there too—lighten you up, teach you how to be fun.”
“I’m fun, you fucker!”
“Yeah, okay, sure.” I exaggerated a nod. “So…let me get this straight, just so I understand what we’re doing. There will be no more fake flirting and pretending to be interested in each other, but we’ll take dance lessons together, maybe have dinner sometimes and things like that, all for the sole purpose of annoying one another and finding new ways to laugh at each other. Not because we’re friends or anything.”
“Well, I hadn’t planned on the dinners and hanging out, but I would be agreeable. I mean, the more ways I can find to annoy you, the better. And the rest you have right.”
Sparks of enjoyment shot off beneath my skin. He was fun and kept me on my toes, and I could never, ever let him know I thought that.
I held up my wineglass. “To annoying each other.”
Elijah smiled and clinked his glass with mine. “To annoying each other.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Elijah
I hadn’t known exactly what I was going to say to Shaw before I’d gotten to his apartment the other day. No, that wasn’t true. I’d known I was going to tell him that we had to stop our fake-dating scheme. I wasn’t cut out to play the whole make-someone-jealous game, especially not with Danny. I’d been fooling myself by thinking I could do it.
What I hadn’t known was that I’d basically invite Shaw to take dance lessons; well, at least one dance lesson, until we saw how it went. The conversation probably should have been something I’d worked through and planned before I called him or texted him or went to his apartment. Great. Now I was a stalker.
All I’d known was it had been important to talk to him, which gave me hives, but Shaw had that effect on people. Maybe there was a lotion that could help with that.
Now it had been a few days, and our dance lesson was coming up on Wednesday. We lucked out in that it was the first class in a new group session where we would be learning the cha-cha.
Since leaving his apartment the other night, we’d randomly texted a few times, stupid things—he’d ask me if I still had no life, and I’d counter by checking on his status of being annoying before promptly telling him he was and there was no hope for him.
He signed his texts Cocky Neighbor and took a screen shot of how he had me saved in his phone under Annoying Neighbor, which maybe made me snicker before I forced myself to frown because it absolutely was not cute. It was annoying as fuck, as was Shaw.
And, well, I was slightly frustrating myself as I looked at my phone before a Pilates lesson and realized I felt a stab of disappointment he hadn’t texted. So I shot off a quick message to Danny. Hey, you. Wanna grab lunch?
My phone buzzed a few minutes later. I wish. I feel like shit. I have a stomach bug .
Oh no! I’ll come sit with you after work. Last time I was sick, Danny spent two days at my apartment, taking care of me. He ended up with the flu, like I’d had, because he’d refused to go home. He’d fed me medicine and taken my temperature and rubbed a wet washcloth on my face when I got sweaty. Those were some of my favorite moments with Danny, when he showed me what friendship was.