Love Is Always Write Volume 4

seats. He turned back towards them and saw that they not only witnessed his bumbling, but now looked like they were just waiting for him to land back on earth to start their ribbing.
    "Damn, man!" Derek snickered, when Chad rejoined the group. "Could you be any more obvious?"
    Chad's attention snapped to his best friend. "What? What's your problem?"
    "Holy shit!" Greg laughed through his hand. "I think hell just froze over. Either that or someone put a magic spell on Chad. Yeah! Yeah, that's it. Instead of turning a prince to a frog… or whatever," he waved one hand in the air dismissively, "they turned Chad into a shy peasant girl!" Greg let out a loud guffaw at his own joke but Chad didn't find it very funny, damn it.
    "Shut the hell up. It wasn't like that." He glared, and shuffled from one foot to another.
    "Oh really? That's why you were blushing and batting your eyelashes at him?" This from Mikey, looking a little shocked. "And became practically mute?"
    "I… I…" Chad really wasn't sure how to answer and his face heated again. His eyes darted towards the hallway where the sexy stranger had vanished, almost as if he expected help in some way. Like the brunet was the only other one who could possibly understand and explain what had just passed between them. 'Cause Chad sure as hell needed an explanation on that one as much as his friends seemed to.
    They looked at him expectantly. "I was not. I just wasn't sure if I was interested. Decided to try to play it cool and quiet. You know, less is more." He played it off, lying through his teeth.
    "Uh huh." Derek nodded. "Dude, you may not have said much with your mouth, but your body said loads. You looked like you were just waiting for the right second to pounce. No, actually more like you were waiting for his permission to pounce. I'm surprised you two didn't start going at each other right here!"
    "Oh, screw you!" He gave them each another glare but had to turn back to their tall table for his drink so they wouldn't see his self-conscious smile that popped up from Derek's description.
    "Seriously man, I think you were vibrating. Must have been that magic spell!" Greg never had learned to let a joke go. Jay was the only one that didn't give any comments, but probably only because it looked like he was biting the inside of his lips to keep from cracking up.
    Chad let out a frustrated breath as his embarrassment turned to annoyance. This was exactly why he didn't pick up or flirt with guys in front of them. Well, one of the reasons. "Can we just drop it? He's gone now anyway. Show's over, end of story. Glad I could provide you all with some entertainment for the evening." He said it calmly enough but knew his irritation showed through. Maybe he would have even felt bad about that if he didn't see they were all still grinning.
    Apparently they all knew him well enough to see when enough was enough because the topic quickly changed lanes. Unfortunately his brain didn't. For the next ten minutes or so he cautiously checked each bar, hoping his friends wouldn't notice, but Zeb didn't show up behind either one. If Zeb wasn't starting a shift behind the bar, what could he have meant by having to work, but still seeing Chad? He'd said five minutes – surely it had to have been at least fifteen by now, right?
    Chad checked his watch but that didn't help since he didn't know what time it had been when Zeb walked away. But maybe that was his answer. All Zeb had done was introduce himself and walk away again. Could he just have used work as an excuse to get away? He might have thought Chad was cute from afar, but once he got up close decided he wasn't interested. Or more realistically, when Chad had acted like a simpering, drooling idiot the guy ran like hell.
    "Fuck," he muttered under his breath.
    What did it matter anyway? Better to stay away from a guy like that; a guy who turned his knees to jelly and his heart into a techno drumbeat. No one else had ever affected him that way and he was starting to think he was glad for that. Who would want to turn into a tongue-tied fool? Nope, not him.
    Of course, that was before the band was introduced and he saw those beautiful soft grey eyes smiling down at him from behind a microphone.
    The band played and Chad was entranced. Once or twice, when Zeb's voice hit this perfect note or went extra raspy, a shiver skated over his skin causing goose bumps, and all he could do was smile. Quite a few times, Zeb smiled back down at