Again that appraising look.
Wait a sec. Is he checking me out?
“She said it didn’t go too well, and I thought it was over, but then…” He shakes his head, rolls his eyes. “Then she refused to say another word about it, or you.”
“So?”
“So if you knew Pax well, you’d know the things she doesn’t talk about are the ones foremost on her mind.”
“That’s a stretch.”
“Not at all.”
“You’re not a mind-reader.”
“No, I’m her best friend.”
What are we even talking about? Shit. “So she never talked about me.”
“That’s correct.”
Dammit. “And that means she’s been thinking about me.”
“You’re a little slow on the uptake,” he winks, “but so hot I’ll forgive you.”
Blink, blink. “Are you hitting on me?”
“Nah. I wouldn’t do that to Pax. Can’t compete with her anyway.”
Holy shit. Laughter bubbles up inside me and I force it down. “No, you can’t.”
“I thought so.” He looks pleased about that. “Has she eaten today?”
“No. I was gonna…” I huff. “Prepare something for her.”
“You can cook?”
I shake my head.
“Right. Let me go say hi and you can help me. We’ll make her a feel-better soup.”
“Feel-better soup?”
“Yeah. Stay put. Or even better, go and put a T-shirt on or something, otherwise I’ll never get anything done. Oh boy.”
Fanning his face he pushes off the sofa and walks out of the room, when all I can think of is—Pax’s friend is gay, and I was on her mind.
***
“Say again what soup this is gonna be?”
“Curried carrot and celery soup.” Corey says the words as if that’s what everyone who’s sick should have for dinner and is chopping carrots as if he was born doing it. He’s not even looking at the chopping board, the knife or his fingers, for chrissakes.
“Right. That.” I focus on cutting up the spring onions he has passed me. “You do that often?”
“What, cook for Pax?” He throws the chopped carrots into the pot, and grabs a jar of curry paste from the cupboard. “We sometimes cook together. She’s a good cook. Girl has talents, if only she lets herself go.”
Talents. Oh yeah, when she lets herself go, she’s like a naked flame. My body heats up thinking of how she rocked on top of me, how she—