Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 57216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
It was all so… domestic.
And not at all awkward.
I didn’t really know what to make of that.
But I also didn’t actually spend any time thinking about it either.
I’d barely managed to get into my game when Barry was asking to join.
Junior and I spent the next few hours in “parallel play.”
Him at his desk.
Me at the game, trying like hell to best Barry as I wondered if he was streaming while we played, if other people would be watching me play as well.
I made a mental note as we went through the game to look up Barry on his socials, to see if he was as popular as Junior seemed to think he was.
It wasn’t until my stomach was grumbling that I snapped out of my focus, finding the loft had gone mostly dark, save for the Christmas lights around the windows that cast the space in a festive glow.
I’m starving, I messaged Barry. Maybe we can play again some other time.
With that, I signed off.
Junior seemed fixated on his screen and I didn’t want to break his concentration, so I flicked on some lights, then made my way to the kitchen to look for something to eat.
I was just looking through the leftover breakfast stuff that Barry had picked up when there was a chime that had Junior jerking away from his desk in surprise.
“Expecting someone?” I asked, watching as his head whipped over like, for a moment, he’d forgotten I was there.
“No,” he said, walking over toward the intercom. “Who is it?” he barked.
Even if I was there for some legitimate reason, the menacing tone of his voice would have sent me running with my tail tucked between my legs.
Alas, it wasn’t just anybody.
“Shale said she was hungry,” Barry’s voice filled the loft. “I figured I’d come by for dinner too.”
“Christ,” Junior said, shaking his head.
“Sorry. I was just telling him I was hungry, so he knew why I was signing off,” I told him.
“Not your fault he can’t function on his own,” he grumbled, but I noticed he didn’t even pause to let Barry up.
He might have been a big, moody guy. But he was a big ol’ softy on the inside.
Two minutes later, Barry was bursting into the loft in a white hoodie that had to be a 10X, it swallowed him up so much.
“I need one of those hoodies,” I declared, making Junior look back over at Barry, then at me.
“No,” he said, and my lips twitched at that, knowing what he was thinking. That he’d rather see me in little to no clothes, not completely disappeared under yards and yards of material.
“So, what are we ordering for dinner?” Barry asked, taking a backpack off of his shoulder, and placing it down on the coffee table.
A backpack that was identical to the one Junior always carried around. If Junior noticed that as well, he said nothing as he went back to his desk.
“Boss man seems busy,” he said. “So it’s up to us to choose.”
“What are you in the mood for?” I asked. “We did pizza and Junior and I did Mexican earlier.”
I swear Barry looked hurt that he hadn’t been included in that. As if Junior’s life simply didn’t keep going on when Barry wasn’t around to be a part of it.
“Chinese?” he asked.
“Always a good choice,” I agreed. “We should ask Junior what he—“ I started after we wrote down our respective orders.
“He gets sautéed broccoli combination platters,” Barry said.
“Oh, he does, does he?” I asked, smirking at him.
“He’s my best friend,” Barry said, shrugging. “I know these kinds of things.”
With that, Barry placed the order.
Then asked me to make him a gin and ginger.
I said nothing, but I knew what he was doing.
Getting “drunk,” so he could stay over again.
A part of me was just charmed by him.
The other part was more than a little disappointed because I’d figured that once things calmed down, Junior and I would fall into that bed, and get lost in each other for a few hours. Or all night long.
The buzzer was what finally made Junior power down his equipment and make his way downstairs. He came back with a bag, and his gaze slid to the fizzy drink in Barry’s hand.
I didn’t imagine the sigh that escaped him as he came to the same conclusion as I had.
“So, what’s going on tomorrow?” Barry asked. “I was thinking we could hit the store and pick out some ornaments.”
We.
This guy.
“Shale has work,” Junior said.
“Oh. But what about you?” he asked as he twirled lo mein noodles onto his fork.
“I’m going with her.”
“Why?”
“Because she… needs some protection for a while,” Junior told him, surprising me for giving Barry any information about what was going on.
“Oh,” Barry said, eyes going wide. “I will come too,” he offered. “Anything to protect a damsel in distress.”