“Huh. Interesting.” Craig sounded like he meant it, like it was interesting, but that was all. Skyler didn’t get an impression of judgment from him. He just sounded thoughtful, and Skyler found that he didn’t quite know what to do with that.
There was a silence, and Skyler contented himself with looking at Derrick and Logan, who didn’t seem to realize that there was anyone else there at all.
“I think they’ll make it,” he said. It could go either way. They could spectacularly burn out, probably hurting them both in the process, that was a very real option. But Skyler’s intuition said that they would work out. Although probably not without a lot of pain and heartbreak in the process.
“Hey, Skyler,” Craig said, not even responding to Skyler’s comment. He didn’t even seem to hear it.
“Yes?” Skyler responded, gaze still fixed on Derrick and Logan. He was fascinated, utterly and completely. He so seldom got to see love forming right in front of him. And there was something else, too, like Derrick and Logan had an older energy than he would expect. Did they have a history together? They very well could. Logan had been around for years and years, as far as Skyler had been able to pick up. He couldn’t help but be curious.
“Look at me.”
Skyler’s eyes widened, and something about those words broke through. Maybe it was just that, in all of his time spent watching, he had never, to his knowledge, had anyone watch him back. Slowly, as though a string attached to his face was pulling his head, he turned to look at Craig, into those brilliant gem-like eyes, which seemed almost to glow with determination.
“It’s rude not to even look at the person you’re dancing with,” Craig informed him, and that was a completely new idea to Skyler. But then, the last time he had danced with anyone, it had probably been in high school before he came out. A girl in his class had dragged him out onto the floor. He hadn’t been paying much attention to her, either, even though she had been giggling and pressing close and his friends had all congratulated him on getting her attention.
His lack of interest had made it pretty clear to him that he just didn’t swing that way. But, looking up into those sapphire eyes, he had to admit that it wasn’t the same situation.
“I’m sorry,” Skyler said soberly. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
But he was looking now. For the first time in his life, maybe, even though he had been fascinated by watching people since he’d been a little kid, he was really, truly looking at another human being. And his heart was doing funny little skips in his chest, a strange flush coming over him.
Looking at Craig was terrifying, but he was frozen in place. He couldn’t make himself pull away, or look away, and wasn’t even sure if he wanted to or not.
“You could make up for it by going out with me some time,” Craig murmured, leaning in just slightly so that only Skyler could hear his words. And at first, he was positive that he hadn’t heard him right.
There was just no way, was there?
Two
Craig
The truth was, Craig had noticed Skyler from the very first moment he’d seen him. He knew that Skyler hadn’t noticed him, of course. Skyler seemed to notice everyone and everything other than Craig, staring around himself with the most incredible focused seafoam-green eyes that Craig had ever seen.
It was the same at the wedding. No matter how long Craig watched Skyler, Skyler didn’t turn to look back at him. So what? It wasn’t a big deal. He tried to comfort himself. It wasn’t the first time that Craig had found someone gorgeous and they hadn’t been interested. It wasn’t the end of the world, and the best thing to do was to move on.
So he’d decided, and the decision made a lot of sense. But as he watched Skyler watching everyone else at the wedding, he had to admit that he hadn’t done the thing that made sense in this case. He had tried, but his fascination with Skyler was something that he just couldn’t seem to shake.
There was just something about the way that Skyler’s brow furrowed when he was really thinking about something, which he seemed to do all the time. It captivated Craig so that when he wasn’t around Skyler, he found himself thinking of him more often than he was used to, and when he was with him, he couldn’t think of anything else.
He would get over it, or so he assured himself until he found himself listening to the DJ announce that the next dance was only for same-sex couples.
It was his chance. He knew it in a way that was deeper than his mind that plumbed down into the deepest levels of his intuition. And it was that force that had him acting, although he knew that he was being desperate and pathetic. He was just glad his old army buddies couldn’t see him now.
“Do you wanna?”
He blurted out the three words, and Skyler looked at him. Not just glancing his way, but really looked at him, those eyes seeming to see right into Craig’s soul. He was finally, for the first time, getting what he wanted. Skyler was looking at him, really, truly looking at him, just like he looked at other people.
And just like people looked at Skyler.
It was deeply gratifying. More than that, it hit his bloodstream as surely and hotly as a good shot of whiskey, burning through his veins. Had he really thought that the best thing for him to do would be to simply forget this man? If so, he should have done that before he caught Skyler’s eye, because now, he didn’t see how he was ever going to be able to.
“Okay,” Skyler agreed, though at first, Craig had a hard time remembering just what Skyler could be agreeing to. His heart was beating so fast that he wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to pass out, and his knees felt as limp as wet spaghetti noodles as he brought Skyler out onto the dance floor.
What was wrong with him? He’d never been affected like this by anyone before. His head could be turned by a pretty face, just like anyone, but this was something else entirely. It was like all he could see was Skyler.
But, as the dance continued, it became far too obvious that Skyler wasn’t paying attention to him. The comment that burst out of him in response to that was not something that he had reasoned out.
He sounded insane, demanding that Skyler look at him. But at the same time, when those enormous, round, beautiful eyes turned his way once more, he felt breathless and hot and cold at the same time. Like he would do absolutely anything to keep those eyes on him.
