Page 18 of A Minute More
He sighs and reaches out, his fingers skimming my arm, and fuck, a zing of something shoots up my arm. I tingle from shoulder to wrist.
“Let me take you home. Please, Wesley.”
The way he says it, the urgency in his stare has me setting my beer down on a table and following him out of the pub. It’s a cool late-spring night, and I shiver slightly from the breeze.
“Where are you parked?” he asks, and I cock my head. Fuck, why doesn’t he just make sense? He needs to make sense.
“Why?”
“I’m going to drive you home.”
I bob my head, not quite sure what’s going on, but I give him my keys nonetheless, and we walk in silence over to my Bronco. He has some trouble opening the driver’s side door so I reach around his body and help him pull it open. My hand grazes his, my face almost tucked into his neck, and I feel him shudder against me.
“Thanks,” he says, and I step away, moving to the passenger side and sliding inside. It’s now just the two of us, only the stick shift in the way.
“Fuck. A stick?” he asks, and I arch an eyebrow at him.
“Don’t know how to drive one?” I ask, and he shakes his head, pushing his hair back and sighing.
“I’ll get us a car.”
“Nah, Simon, you don’t have to. I’ll be fine…”
He cuts me off with a quick snap of his tongue. “You will not drive home like this!”
His words are sharp and biting, cutting through the air like knives, and I sit back a little, not sure why he’s so upset.
“Wasn’t gonna. I’m not an asshole. Jude’s the DD.”
Simon presses his forehead against the steering wheel and lets out a sigh, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
“God,” he finally mutters and then sits up, shaking his head. “Okay, shit. I’m going to leave.”
He pushes the driver’s door open and nearly falls out—me moving on wobbly legs to get to him before he disappears. Damn, but he just got here. I don’t want him to leave yet.
“Wait, man!” I say, stumbling over to him and reaching out, my hand landing on his shoulder. “Hold on. You came all the way here just to get me? Were you worried about me?”
He wrenches his shoulder from my grip and shakes his head before striding down the street.
I watch him go for a second before jogging up to him. It’s amazing that I can even move in a straight line. The buildings are tilting a little on each side of me, and I swear the shape of Simon swims before me.
“Hold on, wait a second. Don’t leave. You just got here.”
He shakes his head and walks faster, trying like hell to move away from me. So I keep following him, like the creep I’ve become, all the way to the street corner where he stops. He glances over at me, and I smile and wave like the biggest dope, but what else am I supposed to do? He’s running, and fuck, I want him to stop andstay.
I don’t know if I’ll have this opportunity again.
“Just go back to your friends, Wesley.”
“You know,” I say, moving up closer to him and bumping him in the arm. “You’re the only one who calls me Wesley.”
He looks up at me and then turns his gaze to his phone. “My Uber will be here in a minute.”
“Okay, well, then I’ll go with you.”
He stares at me in disbelief. I mean, does this dude not have friends? I’m not sure, to be honest. I know nothing about him. He could be the loneliest dude on the planet.
“You don’t…” he begins to protest, but the car pulls up as he’s saying it, and I open the back door and slide inside, beaming at him as he watches me in confusion.