for you [l.p. one-shot]

// for you //

He'd been a frequent visitor in his uni days, camped out in the corner at his favorite table revising until the early morning hours. Now, he ducks in on evenings when the desperation for caffeine is too great, still unbelievably incompetent at brewing his own coffee at home for a man in his mid-twenties.

He and Fletcher had jingled their way through Caruthers's main entrance and were in the process of shaking off the late evening's snow when Liam's eyes fell upon Sonya, sat alone at a table—his table—with a large mug cradled in her hands. Her eyes seemed to be lost in the swirling abyss of cappuccino he was more than certain filled her cup—her usual was an order he knew now like the back of his hand.

Liam had stopped in his tracks. Warred with himself in his brain. Then, against his better judgment, his feet led the way to where she sat, and he slid into the seat across from her and held her gaze when her eyes looked up to find his.

He looks up now as the door to the loo creaks open, steadying his eyes on Sonya as she slinks into view wearing nothing but her undergarments. She reminds him of a cat, feline in the way she moves, light on her feet with a graceful but powerful nature to the swing of her hips. He sits up straighter as she drifts into the shadows footstep by footstep, flexes his fingers, his hands already aching to clutch at the ample curves of her waist, her bum, her thighs.

He's told himself he wouldn't do this again, but ah, fuck, here he is, about to take her into his bed, his heart, again.

It's been this way for some time now, this...arrangement they have. He's known Sonya for the better part of two years, much of the beginning of which they'd spent as acquaintances. She was part of a greater circle of mates from work. For a while, she was just Sonya, the wallflower of the lot with this quiet intensity he hadn't fully noticed until one night that, somehow, painted her in another light.

He can't even recall what caused the switch. He'd looked at her across the pub where they were gathered with that circle of mates and it was like a light flickered on—a spark, and suddenly, Sonya Williams, this woman he barely knew, was the woman he found himself wanting to spend a little more time with. For the first time in well over a year, he'd found himself fancying someone.

Sonya, however, quiet as she was, had never been close enough to him to even so much as allude to taking an interest in him. So even as Liam inserted himself into her life and conversations a bit more when the gang gathered together for drinks or celebration, he found himself unable to risk their budding friendship and settled for subtle pining instead, watching as she began a tumultuous relationship with a man called Brandon that ended after several months. Sonya's heart was crushed to bits.

Liam spent a lot of evenings with her after that, queuing up Netflix while Sonya curled into his side on his sofa, her head on his shoulder. It was strange, the closeness between them that came on quick—he still didn't know her well, not like some of his other mates, but they'd become more than acquaintances, familiar and kind to one another, and his crush on her dialed down as a friendship began to develop. They'd struck up a conversation about her relationship with Brandon one evening, Sonya desperate for a listening ear as she tried to sort through what went wrong so she could put it behind her, and with the way his last serious relationship had ended on a rather sour note, Liam understood the importance of having a shoulder to lean on and had willingly offered his.

One particular night, while Sonya was on the mend, there'd been quite a bit of wine involved and it led to Sonya sobbing through the ending credits of a romantic comedy while Liam reached over to give her arm a comforting stroke, fingertips ghosting her skin. And then Sonya's gaze washed over him, and his breathing was labored as her hand fell upon his thigh. And then she was straddled across his lap, brown eyes boring into his. And then they were all but fucking with their clothes on, Sonya writhing in his lap as he cupped her face and kissed her full lips while she wound her hips down towards his, a torturous grind that made Liam come in his pants.