Sidequest for Love by L.H. Cosway

“Oh, so now you’re gonna play the sexual harassment card?” I teased. “Fine, I shan’t cast my covetous gaze upon your fine derriere ever again. Happy?”

He glowered at me. “Yes, now, please, could you be quiet so I could actually get some work done?”

I made a show of zipping my lips before scribbling down a very normal message for his sister, followed by my signature. I folded it in half and got up from the bed. Neil’s fingers were typing, his eyes on the screen as I slid the piece of paper into the little pocket on the breast of his shirt. I heard him inhale a sharp breath at the contact.

“There you go. Oh, crap, was that more sexual harassment? I just can’t seem to keep my crazy libido in check around your potent masculinity.”

“Funny,” Neil deadpanned, not bothering to look at me.

Well, it seemed his humour had died a gruesome death. I returned to my bed and answered a few more emails, all the while sneaking peeks at him here and there. Over an hour went by, and his cool façade never broke. Maybe I’d gone too far with my teasing. I was so bad at knowing whether or not I’d stepped over the line from entertaining to offensive.

Finally, Neil blew out a breath and sat back, powering his laptop down.

“All done for tonight?” I asked.

He nodded, finally deigning to look at me. “I’ll have to do the rest remotely if that’s okay? The new season of Running on Air starts filming in a few days, so I’ll be in New York for the next six weeks.”

Six weeks? That was … Well, it was a long time. Kind of. I guess I just felt sad that I wasn’t going to see him for so long. I’d strangely gotten used to his prickly self.

“I don’t mind you finishing the accounts up remotely, but what about our plan to make Annabelle fall in love with you?”

Neil raked a hand over his cleanly shaven jaw, a hint of self-deprecation in his voice when he replied, “Right, that. We can message back and forth, I guess, and you can give me pointers, but any in-person meeting will have to wait until I get back.”

“Okay, that’s doable,” I agreed, again feeling that weird pang that I wasn’t going to see him again for ages. It was probably why I asked impulsively, “Are you busy tomorrow?”

Neil’s eyebrows rose. “Tomorrow?”

“I’m going to watch a tournament over at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere. You should come. It’ll be a good opportunity for you to practice flirting for when you finally meet Annabelle in person.”

“Are there typically many women at gaming tournaments?”

“Okay, so there might be a slight gender imbalance,” I allowed, “but there’ll definitely be women there. I promise. And if not, you can just practice on me.”

Neil chewed his lip, his eyes running over me. “I’ll think about it.”

I bobbed my head. “Cool.” Why did I suddenly feel so awkward? Maybe it was a bit weird to suggest he use me to practice flirting. He hadn’t commented on it, though. “Are you excited about the trip to New York?” I asked, changing the subject.

He shook his head. “Not really. Travelling all the time gets old very quickly. I like my routine, and it’s constantly being broken when I have to jet off to South Africa for eight weeks of filming.”

“Oh, yeah, it sounds terrible,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm.

He eyed me now, the tips of his ears turning pink. “I didn’t mean to sound so ungrateful. I do love my job. I’m just a creature of habit. I’m pretty much a granddad in a thirty-year-old’s body, set in my ways. Plus, being around the cast, they’re all so adventurous and wild. It makes me feel, well, the opposite, mainly because I am the opposite.”

“It’s not a bad thing to be how you are,” I countered. “Not everyone wants to be around someone who’s constantly jumping off buildings and putting themselves in danger. That would get old very fast. Sometimes we underestimate the appeal of a nice, even keel.”

“Annabelle obviously likes someone who embraces danger. She thinks she’s messaging with Callum Davidson,” Neil said.

Well, then, maybe Annabelle isn’t the right one for you, my mind argued, but I was impressed when I didn’t voice the sentiment. I scratched the back of my head. “Yeah, about that. Haven’t you ever found it a little weird that she’s messaging with ‘Callum’ when Callum has a girlfriend?” I asked, unable to resist. It was something that had been bothering me for the last few days.

Neil’s expression turned perturbed. “I don’t think she knows he’s with Leanne. They try to keep their relationship out of the public eye as much as they can these days.”

At that, I laughed. “Right. If she’s a fan of the show, then she knows Leanne and Callum are together. And I’m saying that as a fan of the show myself. We’ve all watched their tumultuous relationship play out on screen.”

Neil frowned. “Okay, true, but I think because they were so at odds with one another for the first few seasons, Annabelle believes they aren’t right for each other. Seeing Callum and Leanne on TV only gives you half the picture. I know that because I see them every day, and they’re one hundred percent in love. But if all I saw was what happened in the show, I’d probably have my doubts about them being right for each other, too. Nowadays, they try to keep most of their relationship off air. They learned that lesson the hard way in the early seasons.”