Girl and Boys (#Wattys2015 Winner - New Adult Romance)

Chapter 7

'Gay?' asked Scott excitedly, rubbing his hands together.

'No, straight.'

'Oh, well that doesn't do me much good then, does it?' He grinned and leaned over to tap me on the arm. 'You're not shagging them, are you?'

'God, no! They're my flatmates. Emphasis on the word mate.'

'Technically, the word 'mate' means having sex,' piped up Dee.

'Smart arse,' I said with a giggle. Half a glass of champagne down and my arms already felt heavy, my head light.

'Moral of the story, though, is that Dee is the only one sitting here who has a chance of shagging one of them, am I correct?' asked Scott.

'In theory,' sniffed Dee. 'But I haven't decided if either of them have a chance with me yet.'

'Go girl.' Izzy raised her glass at Dee, suddenly coming back to life after sitting with a furrowed brow for about a minute, wallowing in what looked like a particularly complicated daydream. She softly elbowed Scott in the ribs. 'And I don't see why you're getting all woe is me about the fact that you won't get any action from Beth's flatmates. Haven't you got someone in the crosshairs at work?'

'Shhhhhh!' Scott looked horrified and we all looked up to glance around at the table. Luckily, the three people from Verve FM that Scott had invited along were engrossed in their own conversation. Carlo the sound technician was gesturing frantically with his hands to emphasise his hatred for men on online dating sites who couldn't spell.

'It's called punctuation, people!' he shouted in an exasperated tone to fervent nods of agreement from his audience of two. 'I mean, I'm Italian and I can still manage to write in proper English!''

We returned to our huddle, this time with our voices lowered.

'What, is he here?' I hissed.

'No,' he scoffed. 'It's nothing, really. A crush. He's new, he's gorgeous, we flirt.'

New? Gorgeous? I figured it could only be one person.

'It's not Leon James, is it?'

'God, who else?' Scott shot a splayed hand up to his chest. 'Isn't he amazing?'

'Yeah, if arrogant smart arses are your type,' I smirked.

'Almost exclusively,' Scott replied with a wink.

'You're not talking about Leon James, are you?' said a voice from the other end of the table. We looked up sharply and in unison, like four meerkats, to find Carlo staring at us.

'Yes, as a matter of fact, we are,' said Dee.

'Oh my god, he's divine, even if he is a tad too cocky,' Carlo concurred. 'Did I overhear you say there was something going on there, Scott?'

Scott didn't seem all that embarrassed to tell Carlo that yes, he was hoping there was something going on.

'That's funny,' mused Carlo. 'When I met him, I was sure he was straight.'

'Why do you say that?' I asked.

'My gaydar's pretty spot on most of the time,' explained Carlo. 'As delectable as he is, I just didn't get that vibe from him. Plus, I haven't seen him on the scene.'

'Well, your gaydar's seriously malfunctioning,' said Scott. 'I know for a fact that Benny regularly sees him out at Roar with a bunch of guys who are obviously gay. And well -'

'Yes?' I prompted him.

'We've been flirting a hell of a lot.'

'Be more specific,' ordered Carlo.

'The cheeky winks whenever he sees me, for starters. Then he made a comment about how buff I'm looking and he asked me which gym I go to.'

Carlo put his hand over his mouth to hold in his beer as he stifled a laugh.

'You're such a bitch!' said Aaron from accounts. Carlo gulped down his beer and banged his palms against the table.

'Sorry, you are very buff, Scott,' said Carlo. 'Please continue.'

'Thank you,' said Scott, his eyebrows raised. 'You won't be laughing Mister when I tell you how I really know he's not straight.'

'Did he give you a blowjob?' asked Aaron.

'No!' exclaimed Scott as we all erupted with laughter. He paused, partly for dramatic effect, but mostly to wait until our shrieks subsided. 'It all seems a bit anticlimactic after that comment, but he's asked me if I'd like to go for dinner with him sometime, so there.'

'Oh,' said Carlo. 'Good for you. I stand corrected. Wow, I need to put my gaydar in for a tune up!'

Oddly, my first thought at hearing Scott had a date with Leon was to smugly remind myself that I'd had the opportunity to see Scott in his underwear and kiss him first, before Leon got his grubby, gorgeous hands on him. What was wrong with me? That was such a selfish and insecure thing to cross my mind. I quickly replaced it with thoughts about where I could meet actual straight men.

'Do you girls want to kick on somewhere else once we've finished this bottle?' I asked Dee and Izzy. It was only 7.30 on a school night and there was just one more work day left this week to get through.

'Can you invite your flatmates?' asked Dee. 'And Matt?'

'Dee,' I drawled in a suspicious tone as I fished my phone from my bag to message Rick. 'Alright.'

'Marvellous,' she smiled, tapping her fingernail on the tabletop. She raised one eyebrow and looked at Izzy. 'This will be fun.'

'What will be fun?' Scott interrupted again, resting his head on Izzy's shoulder.

'I'm hoping to go for a bit of tree climbing,' purred Dee with a wink as she took a shiny black compact out of her purse.

'Is this a bit of a man hunt?' asked Scott.

'Yeah, wanna come?' Dee wasn't looking at Scott; she was looking at her reflection in the compact, her lips arranged in a burgundy pout.

'Thanks, but I'll leave the lovely straight boys to you girls.' He emptied the last of his champagne glass down his throat and returned his attention to Carlo to discuss the finer points of the amazing Mr. Leon James. Make me want to gag. My phone lit up and Dee looked at me expectantly as I read the text.

'You're in luck, Deanna McNamara. They're at that pub in Covent Garden. You know? The one with all the metal stairs?'

'Let's finish these and roll,' said Dee, grabbing the champagne bottle and dribbling the last of its contents into our flutes. She was a woman on a mission.

****

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