When It Hooks You (It #1) (7 page)

“I’m not gay,” Trish said. “That horrendous kiss we had back in college—I’d had gyros earlier that night, so the garlic breath held me back. Plus everyone was watching. It was far from my best work.”

“What are you talking about?” Cliff’s mouth was only inches from her face, and the rich, Turkish spices wafting on his breath elicited an even clearer memory of that night.

“Abby’s great,” Trish continued. “Very pretty and sweet, but I’m not interested in her romantically.”

Cliff scrunched his dark eyebrows together, hitching one of his pale, rounded cheeks upward in uncertainty. “That’s good…’cause she’s my date.”

“
Your
date?”

“Yeah. Who else’s would she be?”

“I thought…I thought you brought her for me.”

“You?”

“Yeah, that’s what I meant by double blind date,” Trish said. “You bring someone for me; I bring someone for you.”

“You never said blind.”

“I didn’t?” Their hushed tones grew increasingly tense.

“No, you didn’t. I thought it was a bring-your-own double date. So—wait a minute. You thought I brought Abby for you, which means you brought James for me?”

“Ehhh…”

“You think I’m gay?” His breath blew hotly onto her face. His deep brown eyes flashed.

She loosened her grip on his arms and let her hands fall limply to her side. “You’re not?”

He raised his hands to the side of his head and pressed his balled fists to his temples, squeezing his eyes shut. His jaw was stiff as he said, “No, I’m not. Why did you think that?”

Her mind raced over all the clues, landing on the one that had convinced her he was now open about his homosexuality. “You said a few good men had earned the right to call you Cliffy.”

One eye snapped open, and he glared at her through it. “My maternal and paternal grandfathers.”

“Oh.” She cautiously moved a hand to the hard knot of his balled bicep, not quite able to reconcile with the new concept that her gay friend was straight. His muscle relaxed and softened as she rubbed her fingertips slowly back and forth over it. “Please don’t be mad.”

Gradually, he lowered both arms and rested them on her hips, pulling her close to make room for the same woman as she exited the ladies room. “We have to get back to the table before they come in after us. How do we handle this?”

Trish groaned. “Poor James. He was so looking forward to tonight, and he’s such a great guy. Most men would die for a chance to go out with him. Are you sure…”

Cliff’s hands clamped around her hips, and he gritted his teeth. “Don’t even.”

“All right, all right. But you should really be a lot happier about this situation.”

“Happy?”

“You’ve got two people out there who want to be on a date with you, while I’ve got exactly zero. I’m the one who should be grumpy.”

His head bent forward, the side of his hair brushing across Trish’s forehead as he glanced beyond the curtain. Keeping his eyes turned away from her, he said in a low voice, “You had one person who wanted to be on a date with you. But then you suggested a double.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “You?”

One corner of his lip twitched up as he swiveled his face toward her. “Yeah me.”

She stepped back and playfully swatted his chest. “We can’t date! It’s against company policy.”

“It is? Nobody’s said anything to me about it.” His hands dropped from her hips.

“It’s one of those unspoken rules.” Trish peeked through the fringe toward their table, seeing James and Abby engaged in conversation. “Let’s skip dessert if they haven’t already ordered it, then you make an excuse to get Abby out of here, and I’ll let James down easy on the way home—or at a bar so he can drink off his disappointment. Sound good?”

“I guess. Give me a second to screw my brain back together before we head out there.”

Trish held in a laugh and shifted her gaze to see him scowling.

He stared hard at the wall across from him and chewed his lower lip. After a moment of silence, he asked, “For how long have you thought I was gay?”

“That kiss sort of confirmed it.”

He let out a rough exhale and refocused his stare toward the ceiling, tapping the back of his head against the wall.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Trish said. “Next weekend I’ll take you to Second City. My treat.”

“I’d like that.” Finally, he looked at her. The intensity of his warm brown gaze rendered her momentarily mute. Flicking a glance toward the tables, he let out another breath. “Let’s do this.” He pushed off the wall, and as they passed beyond the curtain, he added, “Just so you know, I’d had onion rings that night. Wasn’t my best work, either.”

Keeping her expression as natural as possible, Trish led Cliff back to the table. “Look who I found wandering around back there,” she said with a nervous laugh, realizing it might seem strange for them to be returning at the exact same time.

“I’m really full from dinner,” Cliff said, resuming his seat and glancing around the restaurant, Trish presumed for the waiter. “If you haven’t already ordered us dessert, mind if we skip it?” He didn’t waste any time setting Plan Get the Hell Out of There into motion.

“Why would I have ordered dessert without asking if you wanted it?” The pitch of Abby’s voice was a note higher than Trish had heard it all night, magnifying her fairy-like impression. Now, however, she seemed more like the angry Tinkerbell variety as she leveled a hot look at Cliff. “I’d never assume your preferences without talking to you about it first.”

Trish flicked her eyes toward James. His lips drew tight and his eyebrows arched in an expression that very clearly said,
Wuh oh
. Trish suddenly wondered what the two of them had been talking about while left alone at the table. She turned her attention back to Cliff to watch him stammer.

“I…uh…appreciate that. So, then, we’re good?” His hand shot into the air, flagging down the waiter.

“I was better fifteen minutes ago when I thought you were actually interested in me,” Abby said.

His hand stayed awkwardly suspended, but his fingers stopped moving. “I am.”

“More like interested in whoring me out to your lesbian friend so you can get a piece of James’ ass.”

The waiter approached, his eyes drifting to Cliff’s elevated hand. Cliff glanced up and slowly lowered his arm as the waiter asked, “Would you like to see the dessert menu?”

“No. Just the check, please,” Cliff said, a note of desperation in his voice. While the waiter flipped through the papers at his waist, Cliff shot a burning scowl at Trish.

James blocked her from the heat when he reached between them to snatch the bill. “I’ve got this,” he said.

What little color Cliff had in his face drained, and his eyes went straight to the table.

“It’s my way to apologize for speaking out of turn,” James explained when the waiter left. “I didn’t realize you hadn’t yet told Abby of your intentions.”

Oh, James
, Trish thought as she watched him. He was so kind, so diplomatic, so damn freaking sexy as he took charge to diffuse the situation. She knew she needed to stop him before he said something that would make him feel foolish later. But she had nothin’.

“Listen,” he continued, “I know a great little club just up the street. We can grab a cozy booth there and have a laugh about all of this.”

Trish dared a glance at Cliff, who looked very much as if he was in danger of never laughing again. She opened her mouth to say something, but again—nothing.

“My intentions,” Cliff said slowly, “were to go on a date with Abby.” He lifted his eyes to James and shifted in his seat to throw a stiff arm around the confused girl next to him.

The wrinkles on Abby’s scrunched forehead smoothed and her mouth melted into a soft, satisfied grin. She turned sheepish eyes up to Cliff. He pulled her a little closer, smiling down at her.

While those two exchanged a tender moment, James snapped his face toward Trish. “You set me up with a straight guy?”

“Sorry,” Trish said. Every tensed muscle in her face backed up her sincerity. “I honestly thought he was on your side of the fence.”

James shook his head, giving her a pitying smirk. “Trisha, Trisha, Trisha.”

“Hey! You thought he was, too,” Trish argued.

“Mmm…that’s not quite true,” James said. “I wanted to believe he was, so I let some things slide. But he definitely has straight guy tells.”

“Like what?” Cliff asked, breaking into the conversation. His tone carried a hint of challenge.

Trish snickered. “Why do you sound offended, Cliffy?”

“I’m not offended. I…” He gave his hand a nonchalant wave, looking at James. “I’m curious, is all. What were my tells?”

“Number one, this is the longest you’ve held eye contact with me all night,” James said. “Which could’ve merely meant you weren’t into me, but then I watched you walk to the bathroom, and your butt was clenched way too tight.”

Trish snorted. Meanwhile, Cliff held a poker face, his eyes steady on James as if trying to prove a point about his comfort with manly eye contact. Trish shifted her attention to James as he continued.

“I brushed that one aside, too, considering that the urgency and nature of your bathroom visit could’ve been cause for the clenching. What I shouldn’t have ignored was the wistful way you looked at—” He paused, half turning toward Trish before redirecting and nodding at Cliff’s date. “Abby.”

Abby nuzzled into Cliff.

“Wait a minute,” Trish protested. “You’ve known me for what? At least two years? Haven’t you seen enough tells from me to have known right away I wouldn’t be getting set up on a date with a girl?”

James gave his head a quick shake. His grin was far too cocky for Trish’s liking. “I thought you were bi at best. I feel your lecherous eyes on me when I’m doing squats at the gym. You’ve got ‘I love dick’ written all over you. You might as well be wearing a T-shirt proclaiming it.”

Trish’s mouth opened wide in a silent gasp.

“See?” James pointed at her lips, his finger rotating. “The perfect shape and size. You know what you want in there.”

Trish desperately wanted to clamp her mouth shut, but her shock wouldn’t allow it. Instead she threw a hand over her gaping hole and laughed.

“Do me next. Do me!” Abby squealed.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you, li’l mizz cheerleader,” James taunted. After an exaggerated appraisal through narrowed eyes, he shook his head. “Actually, I’m not sure you would.”

“What do you mean,” Abby asked.

He shrugged. “You don’t have any straight tells.”

Abby let out an indignant huff and shimmied against Cliff, rubbing an open palm over his chest. “This isn’t enough for you?”

James chuckled. “That’s all fine and good, but tell the truth—you ever kissed a girl?”

Abby sat up straight, pushing away from Cliff but keeping her hand on his chest. She flicked a quick glance at her date, then looked back to James. “What’s that you said about a great little club up the street? I think we should stop wasting so much time gabbing here and go there. Right now.”

“Thought so,” James said with a dirty chuckle. He paid the bill and led the way to the club up the street, where they did, in fact, laugh over the whole situation.

They abandoned the cozy booth in favor of the dance floor. During a slow song, Trish and James took a break. While he went to the bar to get them more drinks, she watched Cliff and Abby. His hands moved in very heterosexual ways across the small of her back and down the smooth curves of her thighs. Corporate dating policy aside, Trish let herself wonder for a moment what it would be like to be touched so sensuously by her good friend Cliffy.

Chapter 7

C
LIFF’S
D
OOR
S
WUNG
O
PEN
, and he swept his arms wide to show off his trendy black shirt under a silver-gray jacket paired with charcoal jeans. “Can the Second City handle all of this?”

Trish smiled. “I’m sure it could, but, uhm…”

“What’s with the kink in those glossy, pink lips?”

“Change in plans. We’re going to a party, instead.”

“It better be somewhere fabulous if it’s cheating me out of my first time at Second City.”

“You’ve never been?”

“Nope. I thought this was my sorry-I-thought-you-were-gay treat. Can’t we skip the party? I can’t be that important if you’re just telling me about it now.”

Trish rubbed her slippery lips together and decided to go with honesty. “I was afraid if I told you earlier you’d blow me off and say we could do the show another weekend. I desperately need to arrive at this party with an upstanding gentleman on my arm.”

One black eyebrow shot up while his voice dropped low. “This is a date, then?”

“Not a date date—but you don’t have to tell that to anyone at the party.”

“This is getting more interesting by the second. What’s up, buttercup?”

Trish let out a sigh and leaned against the inside of his doorjamb. “It’s a birthday party for Geri, a mutual friend of mine and Kurt’s.”

“So he’ll be there.”

“Yeah.” Her throat went dry as she said it.

“Why the grimace? You said you two were on good terms.”

“We are, but this is the first time I’ll see him in a social setting. With other people around.”

“Ah, I get it. The new bitch will be there.”

“Yes. I mean, no, she’s not a bitch. Well, according to him she isn’t. But yes, word on the street is that she’ll be there.”

“Once again, I say—why can’t we blow this thing off?”

“Because everyone knows I know she’ll be there. If I don’t go, they’ll think that’s why.”

“So what?”

“I know I’m being petty, but it’s bad enough I’m the one who got dumped. I can’t look even more pathetic by not being able to face them together.” The moment she noticed her gaze was fixed on the floor, she shot it right back up. “It truly isn’t a problem. I’m great with how things turned out, and Kurt clearly made the right choice. But it’s going to be…”

“Weird.”

“Yeah, weird.” She found her eyes again tracing the dark lines that wove through the planks of Cliff’s wood floor. A gentle finger under her chin surprised her, and she lifted her eyes to her friend’s compassionate face.