Freaks

30 • afterthoughts

"What doesn't make sense though... is this whole floor situation."

"That... can be blamed on my failed attempt at chivalry. You were originally on the bed, while I took the floor. Then some time during the night, you decided you didn't want me to feel alone—whatever that meant—and so you came down too." Cole lifts his arm off his face for a second to gage my reaction. "By the way, you're a blanket hog."

At Cole's prompt, vague memories from last night start to come back to me. They cause me to cringe. I groan, using my hands to shield the embarrassed blush that paints my cheeks. "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

Cole's lips twitch. "Don't worry, Emma, your secret is in safe hands," he replies. "Now if you're done with your little interrogation, it's 7am and I'd like to get some sleep while I ca—"

"It's 7am?!" I repeat, alarmed. "Oh God, that means Cass is awake already."

I pace the room anxiously, stopping to look at Cole, only to find that he doesn't share my panic. The blanket has now been fully discarded, and realising he wouldn't be getting any peace as long as I am in the room, he proceeds to sit up straighter, languidly stretching his arm muscles in the process, rolling his shoulders, making each curve and crevice in his smooth, sculpted chest become more defined as he does. Unwittingly, my gaze begins to travel down his body before I can stop myself.

Forcing my eyes to meet his again, I ask accusingly, "And what's the excuse for being shirtless? Last I remember, you had one on."

Cole rolls his eyes at me, getting up to reveal a pair of low-hanging sweatpants.

"It got hot in here, so I took it off," he explains, shrugging, "and besides, I usually don't sleep with one anyway. I didn't think there'd be a problem."

I huff, turning away from him. By chance, a shirt on his bed falls in my line of sight.

"Well there is." I throw the shirt at him. "Put this on."

Cole doesn't even make an attempt to catch it. He lets it hit the centre of his chest and fall down his toned abs onto the floor.

He takes a step over the t-shirt, reducing the gap between us. "What, Emma? Does my shirtless-ness bother you?"

I take another step back. "Okay, now you're doing this on purpose," I say, refusing to answer his question.

Cole cocks his head sideways. "Doing what on purpose?"

"Making this weird," I reply, dipping down to pick up my shoes.

His eyebrows furrow. "I'm making this weird?"

"Yes, you are," I answer back firmly. "Me? I'm leaving. Right now. Bye."

Cole crosses his arms over his stubbornly naked chest, raising an eyebrow as if he finally just understood why I've been acting so flustered. As a result, he breaks out into a full fledged grin, watching in amusement as I trip over my feet trying to back out of the room as quickly as possible.

I am beginning to prefer the broody 'oh so tortured soul' Cole to the cocky 'let's see how many times we can make Emma die internally of embarrassment' Cole.

❧

Cass opens the door within seconds of me knocking.