The Wingman by A. Poland

Chapter Eighteen

Lorcan was here.

What was Nathan supposed to do? No, what could he do? The answer was glaringly obvious—very little. He was in a loft. It wasn’t as though he could slip out through the hallway. The only way out was down the ladder and to the front door, which meant there was no way in hell he’d be able escape unnoticed.

Nathan was trapped, just overhead, in Miles’s bed wearing Miles’s clothes.

Nathan wasn’t dense—most of the time, he allowed—he knew how bad this looked. He knew how damning it was. So Nathan didn’t move an inch and even debated holding his breath. Quickly deeming that a bad idea (because the gasp when his lungs couldn’t take it anymore would sell him out), he pressed the blanket to his mouth to muffle any potential noise.

Why was Lorcan even here?

The moment Nathan asked himself that question, the answer rang through clear as day. The conversation Nathan had had with Lorcan, hyping him up about trying a more direct approach with Miles. And in Lorcan’s books, apparently that translated to show up at the guy’s home.

Oh god, Nathan inwardly begged to whatever entity might be out there, listening in, if there’s any hope left in the world, don’t let Lorcan compliment Miles’s ass.

“I…just got up,” Miles replied, sounding as taken off guard as Nathan felt.

“I wish I looked that good in the morning,” Lorcan threw back in a way Nathan was sure he desperately hoped would come off as charming. And it would have if Lorcan had been staying over the night before and not showing up unannounced. “Can I come in?” Lorcan asked after a few beats of unfilled silence.

“I… Sure.”

Nathan cursed Miles’s politeness; he should have slammed the door in Lorcan’s pretty face. Bracing himself, Nathan prepared for the inevitable moment when Miles would mention he was here, and he’d have to do the climb of not-shame down the ladder to face Lorcan. Then he’d have to watch Lorcan put the incorrect pieces together and see that familiar heartbreaking expression on his best friend’s face.

Nathan really wanted to avoid the whole misunderstanding, so he endeavored to disguise himself as a lump of fabric.

But Miles didn’t utter a word about Nathan. Even though Nathan hadn’t exactly told Miles their little hangouts weren’t common knowledge to Lorcan, Miles was clearly tuned in enough to realize that if Nathan wasn’t coming down to eagerly greet his best friend—something was up.

“Can I get you a coffee or something?” Miles asked, voice ever so slightly muffled, considering Nathan’s self-induced blanket prison. “We could have it out on the roof? I didn’t get a chance to show you that before…”

“You didn’t have the chance to show me your room last time either,” Lorcan replied, voice a bit louder. A click: the door closed behind him. Lorcan was officially inside the loft for the first time.

And he wanted to see Miles’s bedroom. Nathan might throw up.

“Nothing exciting up there,” Miles brushed off as smoothly as he could manage. Which wasn’t very fluid at all, more like the consistency of a lumpy smoothie made with a blender that wasn’t up to the task. Miles couldn’t lie for shit apparently.

Except when tricking Nathan into thinking he could read the stars. Nathan was still bitter about that.

“There could be,” Lorcan murmured, and then there was a shuffling noise.

What was happening? Nathan couldn’t see a thing, and it was beyond frustrating. But despite that frustration, he was not about to risk giving away his location.

“Lorcan, I’m sorry. But I just—”

“C’mon. I know you’re into me.”

Nathan blinked.

Did Lorcan just try to kiss Miles? It had been silent for a moment, definitely enough time for Lorcan to land one. And for Miles to…what? Push him away? Nathan’s gut sank as he mentally tried to will Lorcan to move on with dignity. Thank Miles for his hospitality and leave.

“I… No, I’m sorry, but I think there’s been a misunderstanding somewhere.” Miles sounded flustered, like he was as bad at doling out a rejection as Lorcan was at taking it.

“But you have a nice ass.”

Oh god.

Nathan muffled his groan in the blankets, just barely. So much for leaving with dignity; Lorcan was completely hopeless.

“…Thank you?” Miles’s response sounded more like a question than anything, and if Nathan weren’t so concerned about getting caught, he definitely would have been down there in a shot, trying to relieve the painful awkwardness now created in the tiny loft.

“Are you sure you’re not into me?” Lorcan asked, sounding more than a little befuddled. Nathan now knew for certain he didn’t possess any telepathic abilities because none of his frantic thoughts broke through the barrier of Lorcan’s brain. Thoughts like: Be respectful, dude. No, not his ass. Oh my god, please just leave; I won’t be able to look you in the eye again.

“Pretty sure. I’m sorry. I think you’re a great guy, but…”

No. Why did Miles have to say “but”? Now Lorcan would obsess over that “but” for the next twenty years.

“I’m into someone else.”

“Oh,” Lorcan murmured, deflated. “Right. Okay. Do I know him?”

“I… Maybe. Lorcan, I’m really sorry, but I’ve gotta go. I’m meeting Simone later, and she hates when I’m late.” Miles’s tone was on the verge of pleading, but Lorcan didn’t pick up on that.

“Is it Andy?”

“I’ll catch you later, yeah?” Miles responded pleasantly, seeming eager to end Lorcan’s guessing game before it truly began.

“Chuck?” Lorcan’s voice had gotten a little quieter, and Nathan thought he was finally edging out the door.

“Bye, Lorcan!”

Click. The door closed. Silence ensued.

Nathan didn’t move from his close-to-suffocating position, too paranoid to take a peek. Not that Lorcan would have locked Miles out of his own apartment in a fit of petty anger, but they could easily be down there having a heavy make-out session for all Nathan knew. Then again, wouldn’t that be a bit…wetter sounding?

“Nathan?” Something light touched Nathan’s back from on top of the blankets.

“Uh-huh?” he mumbled as Miles peeled back the layers, and then he propped himself up on his elbows. His cheeks were hot on account of the limited oxygen and sheer panic running through his veins. But Miles knelt there beside him, eyes wide with concern, and Nathan felt a rush of relief that they were alone again. “Holy shit.” He slumped back down on the bed.

“You okay?” Miles’s brows were furrowed as he looked to Nathan.

“What? Yeah. I should be asking you that. Are you okay? Did Lorcan try to…” Nathan made a vague hand motion that resembled nothing close to kissing and more like his hands were trying to eat each other.

“Kiss me? He did,” Miles confirmed with a nod, now sitting cross-legged on the bed. “Is that sign for kissing?”

“What?” Nathan shook his head with a snort. He made the correct sign with his hand by touching his lips with his fingers, then to his other hand in a similar motion. “That’s what kiss is in this context.”

“Oh.” Miles nodded and tried out the motion himself. Nathan grinned in approval, and the smile that spread over Miles’s face made his chest seize in a weird way. Not uncomfortable, just weird.

And Nathan did not have the mental capacity right now to unpack what that meant.

“I feel like I should apologize,” Nathan said after a few quiet moments, looking down to his hands. “For a couple of reasons. First, for Lorcan assaulting you with his mouth.” Nathan paused, looking up to Miles’s sharply. “Unless you were into it and you were being considerate and didn’t want Lorcan to catch me anyway.”

“No.” Miles shook his head, shutting that theory down quickly. “I wasn’t into it.”

“Because you’re into someone else,” Nathan ventured, if only to get the story straight in his head.

Miles nodded slowly, a ghost of a frown dancing over his lips.

“I’m sorry he did that, dude. It was way out of line,” Nathan continued. Maybe he hadn’t unlocked the level of friendship with Miles that entitled him to hear the name of the guy he liked. Which was fine. Maybe Nathan would get there someday. But he still wanted to apologize for Lorcan’s forceful actions, even though he’d done something similar with Lorcan just the day before. But at least Lorcan had actually been invited to Nathan’s house when he’d laid a smooch on him, and Nathan had (somewhat) gracefully backtracked when it was made abundantly clear he’d read the room wrong.

There had been no room-reading with Lorcan. Zero. Lorcan had been illiterate to the room.

“It’s fine.” Miles shrugged, even though Nathan knew it wasn’t. “He’s probably used to getting his way. I just suck at saying no to people. Always have been.”

“Hey, no, you did a good job with Lorcan. And, trust me, that is a difficult feat. He pulls these puppy dog eyes, and it’s really fucking hard to say no then.”

“Is that what happened with camping?” Miles asked, completely out of left field, his elbows resting on his knees as he played with the corner of one of the blankets between long fingers.

“Yeah.” Nathan chuckled humorlessly. “Exactly what happened.”

Should Nathan tell him? Spill the beans on the whole matchmaking attempt? Miles didn’t like Lorcan, not like that. At least that had been established. It wasn’t as if Nathan telling Miles would hurt Lorcan’s chances further.

“I was actually there to try to help him get with you,” Nathan admitted, looking down to his hands. “It’s kind of my thing. I’m good at getting people to hook up with Lorcan. I kinda…warm them up, send them over.”

“I know.” Miles tilted his head to the side as he looked at Nathan—who immediately lifted his gaze, bug-eyed. “Jordie told me after.”

Of course she had. Nathan didn’t know why he was surprised. What reason would Jordie have not to tell Miles?

“Did she tell you anything else…” Nathan trailed off, half terrified Jordie had also divulged Nathan’s big, pulsating crush on Lorcan. A crush Nathan now knew definitely had no potential of becoming reality.

Miles furrowed his brows and shook his head. “No, only that that’s why Lorcan brought you along.”

Nathan could breathe a sigh of relief. Okay. At least Jordie seemed to operate by some sort of honor code.

“I’m glad he brought you—for the record,” Miles went on to say somewhat hurriedly.

“Oh yeah? For your constant supply of clumsy entertainment?” Nathan teased right back with a roll of his eyes.

“Something along those lines, yeah,” Miles murmured, a small smile on his face before his expression settled into something more neutral. “So, am I safe to assume you haven’t told Lorcan we’ve been hanging out?”

“Nope,” Nathan replied. There was no point in denying it. He’d been lying to his best friend over the last few weeks, and he kind of wanted to avoid telling any more. Lies were exhausting. “He’d just freak out, considering that he has the hots for you.”

Miles briefly looked uncomfortable, and Nathan hummed. Miles really didn’t know how to handle someone being interested in him, huh?

“Hey, I’m starved.” Nathan changed the subject before it could get any more tense after the rude awakening they’d both been subjected to. “Got anything other than oats here we can whip up?”

“I think I can manage that.”

Miles didn’t manage that. He did, however, manage to coax Nathan into trying oat pancakes. A dish Nathan knew of because of the thirty-second recipe videos that popped up on his Instagram feed every so often. He’d never had a desire to try them, and yet he easily gave in to Miles.

Turned out Lorcan wasn’t the only one with compelling puppy dog eyes.

Nathan also didn’t not like the pancakes but refused to tell Miles how much he supposedly hated oats—considering his contradictory actions of polishing off his plate without a word of complaint. After breakfast, he sent a text off to Ben to let him know he was alive and well, and he should be back sometime that afternoon. A sequel to his rushed crashing at Miles’s, love you! from the night before.

After, Miles offered Nathan a tour around the neighborhood, where they petted an excited Labrador, Miles bought Nathan an ice cream as big as his face, and Nathan proceeded to drop said ice cream on the ground.

All in all, an okay way to round off a day with such a rocky start to it.

Especially when Miles refused the prospect of Nathan bus-hopping to get home and gave him a ride the entire way.

“You want to come in?” Nathan asked then, some part of him not wanting the day with Miles to finish quite so soon. Miles took a breath, and Nathan already knew the answer would be no.

“I’m babysitting for Jess this evening,” he replied apologetically. Nathan tried to remember which sister Jess was and determined she was the lawyer with two adopted kids who Miles loved to pieces. “Any other time, I’d take you up on that offer.”

“No, no, I understand,” Nathan assured with a dramatic sigh. “You’d rather hang out with toddlers. I’m sure their conversational skills are beyond stimulating.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Miles nodded sagely. “Shen once asked me if I could fit an entire crayon in my nose, and I thought about it for days afterward.”

Nathan blinked, leaning forward a little and asking quietly, “Can you?”

Miles just grinned and tapped the side of his nose.

“Will you at least tell me what color crayon it was? I bet it was the purple one,” Nathan pleaded because he had to know if Miles at least had tried this science out.

“Are you free Tuesday?” Miles asked then, completely sidestepping the matter at hand—which Nathan was willing to let slide. For now.

“Sure am.”

They briefly made plans, promising to sort the details out by text later. Nathan waved Miles off as he drove away and, with a warm smile on his face, made his way inside. Considering it was only coming up to four o’clock, he assumed Ben would be in his office upstairs. He worked from home most days and tried to stick to a schedule of ten to five—“tried to” being the very important part because sometimes Nathan caught him napping in the living room or baking.

But when Nathan passed the living room, movement caught his attention. Okay, so maybe Ben wasn’t napping there. Nathan slowly made his way into the room, so far undetected.

Ben was in his designated chair, laptop on his lap with a wide grin on his face as he enthusiastically signed to the screen.

Oh, Nathan realized very quickly, he’s on a video call. Once that registered, he backtracked to leave the room and give Ben privacy.

But then Ben noticed Nathan was there and quickly slammed the screen of the laptop closed, his eyes wide and suspicious as he gaped at his son.

What was that? Nathan asked, his own eyes narrowed. He hadn’t been suspicious before, but he sure as hell was now.

Nothing. I was watching YouTube, Ben deflected, playing it off calmly. And if Nathan hadn’t just seen him talking to someone on-screen, he would have definitely believed him.

Yeah, I don’t believe that, Nathan signed back. He pulled up a chair and sat on it, legs straddling the back, like he was about to begin an interrogation. Talk. Now.

Ben raised a brow at Nathan, clearly questioning since when Nathan asked the questions around here. The roles had officially been reversed. Guilty father and all-knowing—not knowing-at-all—son.

Seriously, I’m not going to be annoyed. Brave words for someone who had no idea what this could be about.

What if Ben had a second family Nathan was oblivious to, and he was catching up on his other kids’ lives? Okay, now Nathan was panicking and thinking about the worst possible result. The time it took for Ben to respond definitely fed into Nathan’s anxiety about that second family theory. Was he even the favorite kid in that scenario? Nathan wasn’t sure if he was strong enough to take the news.

I was on a date.

Nathan blinked, opened his mouth, and closed it again. The cogs of his mind were turning at supersonic speed, but there was only one thing he could think of to say.

You just hung up on your date?

Then Nathan remembered the other night, not so long ago, when Ben had closed his laptop quickly as well.

Oh my god, you’ve done that before. You wore a robe and jeans on a date. Dad!

Nathan was distraught, and not for the reason Ben might have been worried about.

You don’t mind? he asked, apprehension clear as day in his expression.

Of course I don’t mind, Nathan replied. If anything, he was glad Ben was trying something new. Nathan was going into his last year of university, and if everything went well afterward, he had plans to move into a place of his own. Or maybe he’d travel; he hadn’t decided yet.

There was time.

Point being, his dad getting lonely was something Nathan had always been concerned about. It had been just the two of them for so long, and Ben having company was definitely not something Nathan would get pissy over.

Ben had good taste in most things. Nathan was confident that also extended to dates.

Have you met them in person? Nathan asked encouragingly, trying to get across the point that he really wasn’t upset about this.

No, not yet. Ben shook his head. I didn’t want to rush things.

How many cyber dates have you been on? Nathan asked, but he had a sinking feeling he already knew the answer.

Around seven.

Dad—Nathan fixed him with a look that showed he meant business—you call them back right now and ask them out on a date. In person.

But—

No buts! Nathan was quick to cut him off before he could make any excuses. Ask about Friday, and we’ll google fancy restaurants. Okay? Good talk.

Nathan stood up, pushed the chair back to its correct place, and patted his dad on the shoulder before vacating the living room to give him some space. He lingered by the doorway to make sure Ben actually called his date back, but squashed down the urge to eavesdrop on the conversation and made his way up to his room instead.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time and noticed three missed calls from Lorcan. The first call had come through at around ten that morning, not long after the encounter at Miles’s apartment. Guilt swirled in Nathan’s gut as he quickly redialed Lorcan’s number.

“Hey, buddy. Where’s the fire?” he greeted the moment Lorcan picked up, careful to keep his voice light and breezy. It was something they often said to each other. Their form of “what’s wrong?”

“No fire here,” Lorcan replied in a tone Nathan knew all too well. It was his shut-up-and-put-up routine, which meant something had definitely happened, but he didn’t want to talk about it. “Can we hang out?”

“Sure, of course.” Nathan didn’t hesitate for a second. Lorcan needed a friend, and that was always going to be Nathan.

No matter what.