Chapter Fourteen
A ugust had no idea what was going on. But she liked it.
The lights were low and the music soft, filling the space around them. Dancing with Piper was a million miles away from how the dance class had been—she could barely believe it had only been a couple of hours since then.
She walked Piper through another move she’d learned in the class, one that pulled them apart, arms twisting and bending gracefully in the air, before moving back together again. They didn’t even need words now, moving like they were two halves of the same whole.
August’s heart pounded painfully. She’d been worried and disappointed in her date because of the lack of communication. How was it that the same thing now felt electric and intoxicating?
Because this isn’t a lack of communication. The thought rang out in her skull like a bell. Their communication wasn’t verbal, but they were communicating more than August had ever communicated with anyone. They understood each other. They understood what the other was thinking, what they wanted.
Her breath caught. Did that mean Piper was feeling all of the things it seemed like she was? All of the things August was feeling?
Her hand found Piper’s hip—soft and warm and enveloped in worn-in denim—and every part of her felt like she’d been made to touch that hip. August had never wanted anything as much as she wanted to touch Piper without the layer of denim between them.
They flowed apart and back together again, and August couldn’t pretend she didn’t see the way Piper’s gaze was fixed on her, the way her dark brown eyes swam with so many emotions, especially when they pressed into each other.
Piper’s hand landed higher on August’s shoulder and, rather than adjusting it back to its earlier position, Piper lingered. Her gaze flickered from August’s eyes to her shoulder and back again.
August’s breath came faster—Piper’s did too. Then, it stopped completely because two of Piper’s fingertips grazed, featherlight, against the thin, delicate skin of August’s neck. Trailing, tracing, teasing softly.
August’s body took over functioning without her brain, sucking in a desperate breath, one that caused Piper to look directly at August’s mouth.
She tried, frantically, to think of something to say. Not even something that would break the moment, just something that suggested she was functioning and understood what was happening. But she couldn’t think of a single thing.
A mocking part of her mind pointed out that she was going to have to find some way to talk about tonight with Měilíng and how was she going to explain this part?
Maybe she wouldn’t talk about it at all.
August blinked rapidly, trying to bat the thoughts away before she looked at Piper again. So soft, so beautiful, so fully understanding of August.
And she wasn’t so far gone that she didn’t hear the second Ford’s key slipped into the lock behind them.
“Oh, god,” she muttered, stepping back from Piper.
Ford froze, half into the room, his hand still on the key in the lock. “Hello…?”
“Ford. Nice to see you.” August cleared her throat, unable to look at Piper. “I thought you were staying at your place tonight?”
He pulled his key out of the door and stepped fully inside. He was trying unsuccessfully to stifle his amused expression. “Yeah, sorry. Guess I should have texted. I just didn’t expect—”
“This is my friend Piper,” August said, gesturing between the two of them. “Piper, this is my brother Ford.”
“Piper? Oh.” Ford frowned but stepped forward to shake Piper’s hand when she offered her own.
“Nice to meet you, Ford. Heard a lot about you,” she said with a smile.
“I’ve… heard a lot about you too.” He shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t think August was seeing you tonight.”
“She wasn’t,” Piper said, and August was astounded by how quickly she had recovered, how casual and relaxed she sounded. “Rough date, and, you know, we kind of—”
“Call each other when you have a bad date. Yeah, I heard.”
“Exactly.” Piper beamed at Ford, and August watched her, more than a little confused about how she was the one least at home in her own apartment.
“Sorry about the bad date,” Ford said, a little pointedly. He was clearly looking for an explanation for how August had gotten from a bad date with someone else to dancing in a barely lit living room with Piper.
August breathed in as deeply as she could. If everyone else was being normal, she could be too. “Yeah, you know how it is. You show up and some random woman starts dragging you off somewhere.”
“Shit. August, are you okay?” he asked, stepping closer to her.
She waved him off. “I’m totally fine. Turns out it was all above board. I just… panicked a little and sent Piper my location.”
“Understandable.” His eyes ran over August’s face to check that she was physically intact before he looked back at Piper. “Thank you for being there.”
Piper shrugged. “Of course. That’s what friends are for.”
Ford smirked. “Right. That and living room dance sessions in the dark.”
“It’s not dark in here,” August insisted a little too quickly.
“Absolutely,” Piper laughed. “Well, you know, just because the date was rough, doesn’t mean you have to let the dance lesson go to waste.”
Ford frowned. “You went to a dance class.”
August nodded, feeling a little like the weight of the world was suddenly crashing down on her—tonight had been a roller coaster. “It’s a long story.”
Piper grinned, looking at August with too many emotions still swirling in her expression. “One which I will leave you to explain. I should probably head home now that I know you’re all good.”
August nodded reluctantly, biting her lip. “I can drive you home.”
“No need. I’m all good, I promise.”
“You don’t have to leave on my account,” Ford said, his voice full of far too much mischief for August’s liking.
Piper shot him a look like she knew exactly what he was doing. “How generous. But it’s getting late and I’ve got work tomorrow.” She moved to stand in front of Ford, holding a hand out again. “Nice to finally meet you, Ford. You’d be welcome to join us all on Friday for drinks—meet everyone, hang out. You in?”
“Absolutely. Looking forward to it far more than you know.”
August was going to murder him. And maybe Piper. And maybe herself.
Piper laughed, nodded, and turned to the door, pulling her coat back on. “August, I’m glad you’re okay and that you texted me.”
August hummed, shooting Ford a look as she stepped away from him with Piper, forming their own little bubble by the door. But Ford was annoying. He was probably listening anyway.
“Thank you for coming,” August said sincerely, feeling the way her face was burning.
Piper smiled. “Thank you for the dance.”
“You’re welcome.” She looked away. “You sure you don’t want a ride?”
“I’m sure.” She watched August for a long, loaded moment. “You should consider keeping a Thursday night open. Maybe not this week, but soon.”
“What? Why?”
“Because isn’t that the night you said they invited you to another class?”
“Oh. Um. Yes.”
Piper nodded, smiling an overwhelmingly sweet smile. “Maybe I’ve been won over by the rumba and want to give it another try.”
“Oh. Right.”
“We can talk about it.” She shot August one last look as she stepped out of the door. “Night, August.”
Piper was already four steps down the hallway before August choked out a response.
“So,” Ford said, far too happily, when August closed the door and turned back towards him. “How was your night?”
August groaned. “You’re such a dick.”
He laughed heartily. “You only think so when you’re embarrassed and hiding things.”
“How could I be hiding anything? You’re in my house.”
“Mm. Catching you slow dancing in the dark with a beautiful woman.”
“It’s not dark,” August insisted, waving wildly at the low lamps she had switched on.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“Haven’t a clue.”
“Jesus. You must really like her if you’re being this obtuse.”
“Like who?” August asked, slightly petulantly.
He laughed, heading towards the kitchen. “Oh, I don’t know. Who could I possibly be talking about? I mean, I walk into your apartment to find you staring at some gorgeous woman you haven’t stopped talking about and you’re wondering who I mean? Truly, a real mystery.”
August glowered as he reappeared with two smoothies from her fridge. “Why are you here?”
“Ah.” His smug energy faltered slightly.
August narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Ford, seriously, what happened?”
He waved a hand as he took a large swig of his smoothie. “It’s nothing, don’t worry.”
“Yeah, now I’m more worried.”
He watched her for a moment, something battling on his face that August didn’t fully understand. Maybe it was worth getting caught with Piper just to have given him a momentary respite from whatever had driven him here tonight.
“Holly…” he finally breathed.
“Your roommate?”
He nodded. “We’ve been, well, I thought we were—no, we were, it’s just…”
August’s heart broke for him. She didn’t need him to finish his sentences to understand what he was getting at, but she would give him all the time he needed if he wanted to.
She sat beside him, putting a hand over one of his briefly. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“No, no. I want to. I came over here because I needed space, but also because I really needed to talk about it.” He shot her a look. “I just don’t want to shit all over your romantic night.”
“For God’s sake, Ford. It was not a romantic night. It was one friend teaching another friend what she learned in a dance class.”
“Sure it was.” He laughed and then sighed heavily. “I guess, recently, Holly and I have been… friends kind of like that.”
August cleared her throat, desperately not wanting to validate the idea that she and Piper were friends with romantic tension, but how could she deny it and have it feel like anything but a lie after tonight? Sure, before tonight, she’d had a leg to stand on, but, once you let the curtain drop so very fully, there didn’t seem to be any going back.
Ford glanced at her briefly. “She started being flirty and kind and, you know, especially after you helped with the rent and stuff, she was just…” He let out a frustrated sigh. “I thought she felt something.”
“She didn’t?”
“Nope. Not unless the thing she was feeling was manipulation.”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “I was in the middle of cooking for them all tonight—something she’d requested—and I needed a pan from my room. When I went upstairs, I overheard her and Tom… together. I guess I was just someone to keep sweet so I’d make them food and bail them out.”
“Shit. I’m sorry, Ford.”
“It is what it is. I just hate being used and manipulated.”
“Understandable.” August took a measured sip of her drink. “Did you like her?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I felt like I didn’t really know her, but I’d be lying if I said the attention wasn’t nice.” He groaned, sinking further into the sofa. “Ugh. That sounds so self-centered.”
“No, it doesn’t. People like attention being paid to them. There’s no shame in that. It’s nice feeling like someone likes us.”
“I guess.”
“It doesn’t say anything about you that this happened, or that you enjoyed the attention.”
“Sure. I could just do with a break, you know? Something good happening.”
August winced. “Yeah. I’m sorry things have been rough lately.”
He waved her off. “Totally fine. And I’ll be fine in the morning. Just need some rest and everything will look better tomorrow.”
“It’s okay if it doesn’t.”
He squeezed her hand and looked up at her with an exhausted smile. “Thanks, August.”
“No problem.”
They sat in silence for a moment, just allowing Ford time to process. Finally, he sucked in a breath and looked at her. “Say, August?”
“Yes, Ford?”
“I think I’m ready.”
“Ready?”
“Yeah. To move out. I think I’m ready.”
August blinked, relief flooding through her. “Are you sure? You know I’m not trying to make your decisions for you.”
He smiled warmly. “I know. And I appreciate it more than you realize. But, if I want something good to happen, I need to start making healthy choices.”
August’s heart pounded in relief and pride. She’d known the importance of this whole thing for Ford, the importance of doing it for himself, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t worried. That was just loving someone.
“Do you want me to get a new place?” she asked.
He snorted. “No. This is your apartment and you love it.”
“Yeah, well, I love you more.”
“As much as I appreciate that, I believe there is another offer on the table.” He smirked. “And I wouldn’t want to be around, cramping your style.”
August narrowed her eyes. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“Oh, my god,” he laughed. “You absolutely do. And you’re worse than me if you’re going to try denying it. Holly and I weren’t dancing in the dark together.”
“For the last time, it’s not dark.”
“Yeah, okay. Dancing in the most romantic lighting of all time together. Is that better?”
“Not remotely.”
He laughed. “Look, there was a lot of chemistry in this room when I walked in. Don’t be a fool and ignore it.”
August sighed. “I’m not ignoring it.”
“Just denying it?”
“I don’t… know.” She shook her head. “It’s just… we’re friends. We have a pact for when we go on bad dates, you know? To be there for each other until we find our people.”
“There’s no rule in the pact that it can’t be each other that you find.”
“I guess.”
“But?”
August shook her head. “I don’t know. The whole thing is just weird. She’s the first person I think I’m going on a date with, but she’s not actually who I’m supposed to meet, and then she is the one I want to date? And who’s to say if she feels the same way?”
Ford laughed again. “Even ignoring the way she was looking at you when I walked in, I’m pretty sure she just asked you out.”
“It’s rude to eavesdrop.”
“Fun, though.”
August rolled her eyes. “And that wasn’t a date. It was just two friends, hanging out.”
“At a rumba class?”
“How do you even know what the rumba is?”
“I watch Dancing with the Stars. ”
“Of course you do.”
“It’s a sexy dance. Seems like a date to me.”
August’s stomach lurched. She’d already felt nervous enough about the idea of going to the class with Piper. If other people started calling it a date, she might perish.
Ford laughed. “And, hey, you joined that app because Měilíng had luck on her first date. Maybe you did too. You just didn’t realize it until now.”
“I realized it, I just didn’t think it was like that. ”
He grinned. “So, you admit you like her?”
“Jesus Christ, Ford, can we not?”
“You like her,” he teased, laughing. “You like her so much.”
“I’m starting to not like you.”
“Sure, sure. We’ll pretend I believe that.”
“Pretend what you want. I know the truth.”
“That you like Piper.”
August groaned.
Ford was an annoying little brother sometimes, but, honestly, could she say he was wrong about this?
Not at all.