“Urgh. Don’t remind me. Scanning all of this shit in to send off to the exam board is a ball ache. I can’t wait till it’s all done and the countdown to the summer holiday is on.”
“Not long and Year 12s will be out of here.”
Relief flooded Alec’s features. “I can’t wait. They’re all so bloody stressed, and we’re all under the pump. Poor buggers.”
He wasn’t wrong.
The summer holidays would be with us before we knew it. At least come Christmas, I’d actually get to spend some time with Dan, I thought humourlessly. He’d already agreed, and I couldn’t see him changing his mind. “You made plans for Christmas?”
“Bali for five weeks.”
My brows shot up. “And I’m only hearing about this now?”
Alec chortled. “Literally just sorted it this weekend. Trevor talked me into it.”
Understanding registered. I’d met his younger brother a couple of times when he’d visited town. He was a force of nature and seemed to talk Alec into a lot of things. “Brilliant. Just the two of you?”
“Mainly.” He took a swig of his drink and then exhaled heavily enough it caught my attention. “A couple of his friends are flying out for, I think, one week. And Mum and Dad are going to be over for Christmas, maybe the New Year.”
I squinted a little in his direction, trying to get a better read on his reaction. Coming up short, I said, “You make it sound like that’s an issue.”
The curious flush in his cheeks got my attention.
“Spit it out.”
He fidgeted a little, something I’d never seen him do before. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, he said, “One of his friends has a bit of a thing for me.”
Somehow I held back my snort, immediately making the comparison with me having a thing for one of my friends.
“And you don’t like her?”
“Him.”
My brows lifted. “Huh. And he knows you’re straight?” I tilted my head, curiosity burning through me.
“Yeah, he knows, and he’s a good guy. I just feel awkward.”
I frowned. “Because he’s a man?”
He shook his head, gaze locking on mine. “It’s not even that. It’s that I like him… as a friend,” he clarified. “But hanging out with him makes me feel like shit because I’m worried about leading him on.”
Warmth filled my heart to such an extreme, I was sure it’d burst.
“Fuck, you’re a good guy.”
A sheepish smile lifted his lips, and he shrugged. “I try.” The follow-up wink he sent me eased the seriousness of the moment, and I chuckled.
The story he shared was so similar to my own that it made me pause.
Did Dan know how I felt about him and had tried to let me down gently? “Holy shit,” I said aloud.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just thought of something I forgot to do,” I bullshitted. My brain fired all over the place. When Dan had told me dating friends was a lesson learned, he’d been doing it then—letting me down gently—followed by distancing himself the past few weeks.
“You know, you’re a bloody genius at times,” I said, feeling better that understanding finally was in my grasp. While it did nothing to ease my mortification and the hurt bubbling in my gut, at least now I knew what was likely going through Dan’s mind.
Why he’d distanced himself.
