Chapter 16
LUCAS
YES!!! I still had what it took!
The song had barely come to an end, and "Let's go!" said my dream guy.
"Okay!" I replied with enthusiasm, but he'd already turned and was headed for a half-hidden door in the back corner of the hall.
Apparently Damien - I now knew his name as his friend had called him that - was so keen to get me alone that he couldn't wait for my reply.
Though to be fair, he wouldn't be expecting anything but agreement, given the eyes I'd been making while we danced.
I should have been ecstatic, and... I was excited as I followed him, I really was.
My project was a success; I'd learnt to dance, and do it well enough to win over this guy who'd been on my radar since day one, and now we were heading out to...
mmm, now that we were at this point, what did I actually want from this?
It should have been a simple question, but somehow the answer was elusive.
As I hurried after him, thoughts whirled in my head.
He'd initially turned me down tonight, his initial "Fuck, not you again!
" reminding me we'd already danced once before and it had been downright shitty.
Which, admittedly, it had been, but wow!
way to destroy someone! After I'd promised I'd improved, he'd reluctantly agreed but I'd seen him roll his eyes at his friend as I'd led him away, which had only made me more determined to show him how much he'd miss out on if he turned me down.
And I had shown him, enough that he'd asked if I wanted to leave with him and here we were heading off together.
Actually, no. Rewind. He hadn't actually asked me anything - he'd told me to do it.
I frowned, stumbling over my feet as I hurried down the deserted corridor.
We hadn't changed into our street shoes either, which meant...
oh right, he only wants a quickie doesn't he?
Once upon a time I might have been down for it - super hot guy wanting to have his way with me, hell yeah, even in a restroom stall - I hadn't always been picky - except right now I was having second thoughts. Something didn't sit right.
This was what I wanted, right?
Right?
Whoa! I dug my heels in, coming to an abrupt halt, as realization hit me.
My heart started pounding at a fearsome rate, as if it were going to burst right out of my chest, and I had the terrible sinking feeling of having screwed up. Bigtime. This was, in fact, not where I wanted to be at all.
"What're you doing?" Damien asked, striding back and reaching for my hand to pull me along.
"I... I've changed my mind," I gasped, out of breath, and shrugging off his hand. "I don't think this is a good idea after all."
"What the fuck?" he glared at me, like it was inconceivable that someone would turn him down. Yeah, I got it. I had pretty much come on to him, but... now I was thinking more clearly, he was also kind of a prick.
Why had I chosen him when I could have had Emilio?
Not for forever obviously, but the way he'd been looking at me tonight, I was sure I could have had at least one more night with him.
And the way we'd lit the night on fire the one time we had been together....
Jeez, Lucas, you're a dumb ass. What the fuck was I doing here?
I needed to get myself out of this situation and go find Emi.
"Look, I'm sorry," I said, struggling to come up with an acceptable excuse but not wanting to tell him I wanted another guy - that would have been extra shitty. "I don't know what I was thinking. I don't even know you. I shouldn't ..."
"We don't have to go far. The restrooms are just down here. There won't be anyone there. Not that anyone cares what we do back here anyway."
Ugh, that sounded like this wasn't the first time he'd snuck out the back with someone. More like it was a regular occurrence. He was objectively handsome with confidence in spades, so it might well have been. But I wasn't interested in being one in a line of many.
"No," I repeated, backing away until the hard concrete of the wall slammed into my back.
The corridor was deserted, as it was only used by the event organisers, all of whom were currently out in the main hall.
I felt a slither of unease, muscles tensing, and my heart rate picked up.
My hands balled into loose fists, just in case.
"You're a jerk," he sneered, obviously annoyed but thank god he wasn't going to make something of it.
"Don't come near me again." Then he turned and stalked down the hallway.
The door closed behind him with a sullen thud and I sagged against the wall, eyes closing in relief as the silence of the corridor surrounded me, the muffled strains of the music faintly audible through the door.
My ragged breathing sounded loud even with the music in the background. A couple deep breaths, and the slow expansion and contraction of my chest steadied me. My heart rate began to slow. After one more fortifying breath, I pushed away from the concrete and headed back into the hall to find Emi.
Carefully ignoring Damien who was now dancing with a girl near the DJ's table, I made my way around the dance floor, eyes scanning quickly over the mass of moving bodies.
By the time I'd circled the entire room twice, I'd come to a disappointing conclusion: Emilio had left the dance, and if he'd noticed me leaving the hall earlier, then he left it thinking I had gone off with someone else. Could I possibly screw the night up any more than I had?
◆◆◆
Ding-dong.
The old-fashioned electronic bell croaked out its warning somewhere deep inside the house.
I shifted nervously from foot to foot, my shoes making an obnoxiously loud scratching sound on the verandah boards.
Minutes seemed to tick by. There was a rustling in the garden, something moving around in the dark.
The sudden rattling of the door knob made my heart stutter, and light flooded the spot where I was standing.
"Oh hey," Emilio sounded the flattest I'd ever heard him, so unlike the guy I knew who was always so full of energy and life.
"Hey. Can we talk?" I asked, nervously chewing my lower lip.
He hesitated. Then pulled the door open wider.
"Sure. Come in."
I waited, stomach in knots, while he quietly closed the door behind me and then led us down the hallway.
It was significant that he hesitated as we reached the door to his room but then continued walking, leading me instead to another door further along.
Standing in the doorway, he gestured to me to enter, then followed me in.
The room was a shared living area, with a large sofa and a couple of single chairs arranged around an unlit gas fireplace, and a desk and chair over by the window.
A small bookcase along one wall contained a few books that appeared to be reference or study books.
A stack of vinyls occupied the floor next to a record player.
"Sit down. My housemates are home tonight," said Emi as he closed the door, "but they won't disturb us unless I scream.
" His lips twisted into something that was supposed to be a smile at his joke, but didn't reach his eyes.
He gestured to the furniture and then sat on the big sofa.
I didn't know whether to sit with him or take one of the one-seaters.
Instead, I stood there like a dork. To still my hands I shoved them roughly in my pockets.
Silence dominated the room.
"Well?" Emi asked eventually.
"Um." This was awkward. It was hard to look at him, watching me with those dark brown eyes that I'd seen go almost black with passion. What if it turned out he didn't feel the same as I did?
Then everything just spilled out in a rush.
"This is kinda awkward and I know you said you only ever did one-offs, you know, with a guy.
But I... I was thinking tonight... that dance, our night together...
our chemistry was off the charts. I was wondering if you wanted to do it again.
" I finished babbling, slamming my mouth shut as heat poured into my cheeks and I waited for the rejection.
Emi's eyebrows rose. "You left the dance with Damien," he said, simply.
"You know him? Yeah, sort of. I mean, yes, I did at first, but then I realized that wasn't who I wanted to be with."
Emi cleared this throat and looked away, focusing on his knees. He ran his hand over the back of his neck.
"Lucas, I need to tell you something. Maybe I should have said something before."
That sounded ominous. My heart sank. "What?"
"You went to that dance with the sole purpose of picking that guy up," he said. "I know that."
"Well, you're not wrong," I admitted, "but then I realized I'd made a mistake, and I'd rather be with you.
" If I'd thought that would move him, I was totally wrong.
Emi looked up again, face twisted in a grimace, as if he were tasting something bitter, and he shook his head, his unruly curls scattering, silver earhoops glinting in the light.
"You spent the last six weeks - and however long before that - learning a dance specifically so you could pick up this guy -"
I frowned. "How do you know about that? I-"
I didn't get to finish my protest.
"Because I was the guy who told you to do it."
Silence.
I frowned, thinking about the path I'd taken to get to this point. "What do you mean? I only met you when I came for the lessons, which was a gift from... wait! Did Aunt Macie tell you?"
"Not exactly. Kind of. It was my idea. I was Aunt Macie."
He went on. "I should have told you before, but I didn't expect to get involved with you, other than giving you the lessons. Aunt Macie isn't an actual person, or rather, not a specific person. When your email came in, the regular Aunt Macie guy was on holidays and I was doing the job for him."
"Wow. That's... a lot to process," I threw myself down on the other end of the sofa. "So you knew all along?" I wasn't sure whether to be angry or relieved. "Isn't that kind of wrong? Telling me to get lessons and then giving them to me yourself?"
"It wasn't quite like that. Yes, as Aunt Macie I did gift you the lessons, but I expected you to get them through some other dance studio and use the Aunt Macie budget for it like would normally happen.
Only I'd apparently overspent on the budget.
Jase got mad at me when he came back from holiday because Aunt Macie had promised you the lessons but there was no budget left. So I volunteered to do it."
"So you saw all my emails with Aunt Macie?" God, I was gonna die here. That was all supposed to be confidential.
"Except for the last one where Aunt Macie sent you my details. That was Jase."
"But if you already knew why I was doing all this, why did you hookup with me?"
"I honestly wasn't expecting to fall for you," he said, ducking his head and looking away. A flush of color stained his cheeks. "It just happened."
"Wait! Does that mean... can I ask you something?"
He nodded.
"You fell for me? Does that mean you might be interested in a repeat? With me?"
"Would you be interested? What about Damien?"
"A repeat with you? Fuck, yeah. And I already told you I decided I didn't want to be with Damien. I just got caught up in the idea of that and didn't know when to let it go." I shrugged. "I'm a bit of a dumbass sometimes."
We both looked at each other, Emi looking considerably happier than he had when I'd arrived. We both grinned.
"I have a better idea," he said. "How about we start again? Right from the beginning? I want to take you on a date."
"A date? Does that mean you might be interested in more than a hookup then?"
Emi's expression was soft. "Eh, guapo, that's exactly what I mean. If I'm going to break my rule for you, I'm going to smash it to pieces."
"Ooh! Does that mean we can kiss now?"