Chapter Seventeen Dane
DANE
you still good for tonight?
ELIOTT
Seven, right?
DANE
yeah, i’ll pick you up
ELIOTT
Cool. See you then.
A shadow looms over my shoulder and I whirl around to find Cash peering at me suspiciously.
‘Are you even listening?’
‘Of course I am,’ I lie.
Cash, understandably, looks unconvinced. ‘What did I just ask you?’
I give him a once-over, taking in the too-tight blazer he’s currently got one arm stuck in and the frilly white shirt he’s half-heartedly tucked into the waistband of his trousers, and make an educated guess. ‘You asked… What I thought about the shirt, and if you should size up with the blazer.’
Cash’s eyes narrow. ‘Lucky guess.’
He turns to disappear back behind the curtain and I huff out a quiet sigh of relief. We’ve been in here for close to two hours now and it’s not like I don’t want to spend time with my best friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law, it’s just—
My phone vibrates again.
ELIOTT
Looking forward to it :)
It’s just that I’ve already got plans for tonight, and this wedding tux fitting session with Cash is starting to encroach on my time with Eliott.
It’s been two months since the flooded kitchen and our kiss, and I can’t quite decide if I’m happy or disappointed with the way things have developed between us.
Happy, because Eliott is still very much a part of my life.
In the days that followed the kiss, I worried that she’d pull away again and I’d lose an unexpected bright spark in my life almost as soon as I’d got it.
But that didn’t happen, and as strange as it is to admit it, that’s where the disappointment has come in.
Because we are one hundred per cent, resolutely, just friends .
There hasn’t been another charged moment like that.
No almost kisses.
No lingering glances.
No fleeting touches.
It’s like she’s placed me firmly in a box labelled ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ and there’s nothing more I want right now than to break free from it.
I want Eliott in a way I’ve never wanted someone before, and I don’t quite understand it.
I know that I’m attracted to her, that I’d love to hear her soft moans and sink myself into the warmth between her thighs again, but it feels like this goes beyond just basic attraction.
There’s another layer to it that I haven’t quite managed to figure out just yet.
‘You got any plans for tonight?’ Cash calls from behind the curtain. The too-small blazer comes flying over the railing and narrowly misses slapping me square in the face. ‘Bailey’s been invited to a restaurant launch. Pretty sure she could get you on the list with us if you want to come?’
Dining out at some of the most ridiculously expensive restaurants and bars in the city for free is one of my favourite perks of Bailey’s job and, on any other day, I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes. But not tonight.
Tonight, Eliott is coming over. As a friend . I have to keep reminding myself that before I do something stupid and ruin everything.
Friends.
Just friends.
As incongruous as it sounds, I can be the type of guy who spends a chill Friday night watching terrible movies on the couch with a friend. Can’t I?
‘Gonna have to pass on that one,’ I say as Cash emerges from behind the curtain in a sleek, black tux that I know Bailey is going to absolutely lose her mind over when she sees him wearing it.
Cash gives me a sideways glance before he turns to face the mirror. ‘I feel like you’ve been really hard to pin down lately.’
That’s a fair assessment.
At some point over the last few months, there’s been a switch. My free evenings are no longer spent with Cash and Bailey or trawling through various dating apps on my phone. Any nugget of spare time I have has gone straight to Eliott without me even having to think about it.
Sometimes we’ll grab dinner, and we’ll spend hours squashed into a booth stealing from each other’s plates and talking about anything and everything.
That’s how I discover that Eliott’s taste in music stems from spending summers in Grenada with her grandparents growing up, and she gets a special light in her eyes when she talks about the island and her memories there.
Or how, when she tries to explain something about photography and all the intricacies that come with it – things like shutter speeds and aperture and something called chromatic aberration – she starts to talk really fast and can’t stop grinning.
I like that.
Learning which topics will make her whole face light up.
I wonder if I’ll ever be one of them. If, when she talks about me, her eyes brighten and her mouth splits into the same megawatt grin the way it does when she’s talking about her grandmother’s cooking or telling me wild stories about her time at university with Sasha.
‘Just been busy,’ I say with a noncommittal shrug.
Cash glances over his shoulder and I see a flicker of understanding spark behind his eyes. ‘You’re seeing someone.’
It’s not a question.
I force out a laugh. ‘Nah. I’m not.’
Cash hums in disbelief and, once again, I can’t decide if it’s annoying or admirable just how well he knows me.
‘Are you going to use your plus one for her?’ he asks, completely ignoring my pathetic attempt at denial.
‘What’s her name? Our deadline for invitation responses is next week, and we need to add her to the name plates for dinner. ’
‘I’m not seeing anyone.’ I pause and then decide to add firmly, ‘And I’m not using my plus one.’
Cash’s brows shoot upwards. ‘At all?’
I shrug again. ‘Probably not.’
Truth be told, I didn’t even need a plus one in the first place.
The wedding is for my sister and my best friend, so I can’t imagine there’ll be many people on the guest list I don’t already know in some capacity.
But I’d asked for one anyway as a way to curb the sympathetic stares from my mother and various aunts, or to stop people from trying to set me up with their daughter once they realise I’m currently unaccounted for.
The plus one had been a tactical request more than anything else, but I don’t even want it anymore.
It doesn’t feel right.
And besides, I’m pretty sure I can handle the endless stream of ‘ Dane, when are you going to settle down? ’ from relatives I haven’t seen in years for one evening.
‘The dating scene hasn’t really been all that appealing lately,’ I explain, answering Cash’s silent stare of disbelief. ‘I’m taking a break.’
Cash’s expression morphs from suspicion into something that’s a little too close to pity for my liking. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Everything is fine ,’ I say with a roll of the eyes. What does it say about me that the fact that I’m not actively dating right now can make my best friend worry about me?
There’s something on the tip of Cash’s tongue, but he swallows it down and shakes his head. ‘So, what are you doing tonight?’
‘Nothing.’ And it’s the truth too. When we last saw each other, I offhandedly mentioned needing to get my locs retwisted soon, and Eliott offered to give it a go.
So that’s the plan for tonight. And maybe it’s not technically nothing , but I know it’s not what Cash is expecting to hear. ‘But I do need to head out soon.’
I’m sure Cash is going to continue to press me on it. There’s a stubborn look in his eyes that tells me he doesn’t believe me in the slightest. That he knows there’s more going on than I’m currently willing to admit. If the roles were reversed, I know I’d push it.
Hell, I did .
When I first cottoned onto the fact that his feelings for Bailey were genuine and that there could actually be something there between them, I didn’t let it go. I was the one who orchestrated the whole ‘ spend a week together in Jamaica ’ thing in the first place.
So I can’t exactly begrudge him for refusing to drop it now. Call it karma, I guess.
But Cash doesn’t push. He just shrugs and then sticks out his arms and spins around on the spot. ‘What about this one? Think the fit is fine?’
The change in topic throws me for a half second, but I manage to kick myself back into gear quick enough to respond. ‘It looks great. Bailey’s gonna love it.’
‘Thanks, man.’ Cash grins that goofy grin at the mention of my sister’s name.
I wonder if that will ever stop, or if in twenty years he’ll still be smiling and looking at Bailey as if she hung the moon and the stars. I feel a flicker of envy and wonder, for a brief weak moment, if I’ll ever feel like that towards someone.
Doubtful.
‘How’s planning for my stag do going?’ Cash asks suddenly, a wary look on his face.
I grin right back at him. ‘That’s for me to know and for you to find out.’
‘It’s nothing too wild, right?’
‘It’s a perfectly acceptable level of wild,’ I laugh. ‘Don’t worry. It’ll be Bailey-approved. And Eliott’s been throwing some ideas my way, since she’s around that kind of stuff all the time.’
I don’t catch the slip of the tongue until it’s too late.
Cash’s mouth splits open into a wide, knowing grin. ‘Eliott? As in, my wedding photographer? That Eliott?’
I could lie. Pretend that there’s another Eliott who has just happened to wander into my life during the last few months.
But there’s no point.
‘Yeah,’ I grit out.
‘Is that who you’re seeing tonight?’ Cash looks ridiculously pleased for some reason. ‘And who you’ve been hanging out with recently?’
‘It’s not like that,’ I say quickly, knowing what he’s alluding to. ‘We’re just friends.’
Cash rolls his eyes as he starts untying the bow tie around his neck. ‘Sure.’
‘We are,’ I insist, much as I hate to admit it.
My mind jumps back to that evening. To our kiss.
To the way Eliott felt in my arms. To how my heart sank to the pit of my chest when she pulled away.
I shake my head. ‘Trust me. There’s nothing going on there.
And don’t worry, I’m not jeopardising your wedding or anything. ’
Cash laughs at that, but it’s not his normal laugh. It’s kind of like the laugh you do when someone tells you something ridiculous, but they haven’t realised it themselves just yet. ‘I’m not worried about the wedding.’
‘You’re not?’
‘Nope.’ Cash’s grin widens. I don’t think I’ve seen him look this happy since the day Bailey accepted his proposal. And then he gives me a look. It’s the kind of look you give someone when you know something that they don’t.
‘What?’ I ask.
‘Nothing,’ Cash says, still grinning like a madman. ‘Nothing at all.’