“A bridge too far, Adam.”
Hooking me around the neck, he pulled me in, giving me a hard and fast hug. Then he took my shoulders and set me a foot away from him.
“Let’s order dinner. Thai?”
I nodded, giving him an out. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to hear about what he’d be doing for the rest of his evening anyway. “Sure. Thai’s fine.”
While he ordered, I tucked myself in the corner of his couch and flipped through Netflix. Adam took his time joining me. By then, I’d turned onTrain to Busan. He’d gotten me hooked the first month we were friends. He’d told me Iris had lived with him briefly in the fall and she had watched the Korean zombie flick so often, she’d started learning the language.
Adam lowered himself one and a half cushions away from me, as if two would be too conspicuous, and groaned when he saw what was on the screen.
“You snooze, you lose,” I singsonged.
“I can’t escape this damn movie.” He turned to me, giving me a crooked smile. I returned it, tipping my head to the side. Then he scooted his ass over so there was only half a cushion between us. “This is stupid.”
“Yeah. I don’t like fighting with you.”
He tugged on one of my curls. “I don’t even know if that was a fight. It’s just—” His eyes moved back and forth between mine. “We never really talk about that topic.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sex? You can’t say sex to me?”
“I can say it. What I mean is, you and I don’t talk about sex. That’s why I was being cagey. I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable, and yeah, maybe I don’t feel up for revealing those parts of myself to someone who isn’t going to be a partner.” He shrugged. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m lying to you. I don’twantto lie to you. That’s not what we’re about.”
“You don’t have to lie to me, Adam. There’s no reason for you to lie.”
He twirled my curl around his index finger, contemplating me. I contemplated him right back. I had no idea how he’d become such an integral part of my life, but it had been three months since my birthday, and I saw Adam almost every day.
“Simon probably wouldn’t like knowing I’m talking about sex with his girlfriend.” The corner of his mouth hitched.
“Simon has a girlfriend?” I gasped. “That scoundrel. He’s been casually dating me while he’s already taken? I am so scandalized.”
Chuckling, he tugged on my curl again.
“You think you’re not his girlfriend?”
I blinked at him. “I know I’m not. I’m not even sure if I’m going to keep seeing him.”
“Why not? He’s such a winner.”
I slugged his bicep. “He’s a good guy. But I don’t know. If I’m feeling this ambivalent toward him already, how is it going to be a month from now? Six months?”
Adam raised a brow. “Which of his quirks is annoying you?”
I clamped my lips together and shook my head. I wasn’t answering that. Not for a million shekels. I’d revealed far too much of myself early on, and Adam was constantly using my past to make digs. Not mean ones, but they cut to the quick anyway because of how true they were.
Fortunately, our dinner order arrived. We stopped talking to eat mounds of Thai food and watch mayhem break out in Korea. We probably sounded like two pigs, but my dinner was too delicious to be concerned with silly things like manners.
When our food was done, containers strewn all over his coffee table, he grabbed my feet from the cushion between us and pulled them into his lap. Absently rubbing them with one hand, he used the other to flip through the movies available.
“What do you want to watch? What about—?”
I tried to take my feet back, but he held them firm in his hand. “We shouldn’t start another movie. I should go home.”
He scowled at me like I’d offended him. “You’re not going home, Baddie.”
“But you have plans.” Why did my stomach do that stupid swooping thing when I thought about it?
“Those plans will wait. I got a better offer.” He pressed his thumb into the arch of my foot, and all my muscles turned to liquid. I fell back against the cushions. “Relax. You’re staying, and so am I.”