Adam found himself helplessly watching Luke all but run to the bathroom. “You scared him off,” he said, turning to Enid accusingly.

“I didn’t do anything,” Enid replied. “And even if I did, can you blame me? I’m feeling kind of like a third wheel here.”

“It’s not like that,” Adam protested. It couldn’t be like that. “He doesn’t—and I can’t, even if he did.”

“You say that, but I felt like I was intruding on something just by being in the same booth with you two,” Enid replied. “You’ve got more chemistry with him than with any of your previous boyfriends. Combined.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Adam hissed, trying to keep his voice low so that nobody would overhear them. He prayed that Luke was going to stay in that bathroom for a long, long time. Maybe even get himself locked in there. Just in case. “And I never had any previous boyfriends, either.”

“What do you call all those guys you dated for, like, two weeks then?”

“Those didn’t last long enough for it to be serious. A two-week-long relationship isn’t an official relationship unless you’re in middle school.”

“Okay, fair,” Enid conceded. But Enid conceding on one point only meant she was about to attack you even harder with her other point. “But whether they were your boyfriends or not, whatever label you want to put on it, I’ve never seen you be so relaxed and flirty with someone. I think he’s good for you.”

“You can’t possibly know that he’s good for me, you just met him.” Adam was mostly deflecting because—because he could see what she meant.

His previous not-boyfriends, the guys he’d gone out on dates with—whether it was just one date or ten—they’d all been the opposite of Luke. He’d met them at mixers, or through work, or by way of a friend. That meant they had all been upper class. Most of them had been born into it, but even the ones who hadn’t been had been snobby. All they could talk about was work, and they all seemed to thrive on gossiping about how tacky this person was or who was cheating on so-and-so. They’d thought that impressing Adam with their wealth and status would make him swoon, but they’d actually all been pretty boring. None of them had any real spark to them. They were lifeless. Dull.

Also snobby as all get out, as previously mentioned, which had always made Adam want to yell, “You know I came from a single mom in Queens, right?”

Luke was warm and flirtatious and friendly. He argued playfully over country music, ran a bar, and was—or at least used to be—that bad boy that his mom had always been warning him against.

And hadn’t that been mortifying, when he’d come out when he was fourteen, to have his mom then give him a ‘talk’ about how he had to watch out for boys who would break his heart and always use a condom and so on. It had been the most embarrassing moment of his life, up until he’d been out in the world on his own and realized that being humiliated for coming from poor people was going to be the norm for the next six years at least.

Truth was, Adam was probably still that lower-class kid at heart, and that had been what he’d wanted this entire time. Not that there weren’t rich people who could be warm and friendly. Lyla must have been, the way that Luke talked about her, and the fact that she’d picked living in a small Midwestern town with the man she loved. Adam wanted that warmth and relaxed attitude though. He wanted what Luke was.

He just couldn’t have him.

Enid could see the protests and lies in his eyes, and she sighed. “Adam. Babe. You know that I love you very much when I tell you that I want to strangle you, right?”

“Yes, yes, I’m being an idiot for some reason again, aren’t I?”

“You’ve seen the way he looks at you, yeah? Or are you completely blind? He wants to devour you. When Jillian looks at me like that, she pounces.”

Adam made a face. “I don’t want to know about your sex life.”

Enid waggled her eyebrows. “And when I mean ‘pounce’, I mean—”

“I get it!” Adam said loudly, then winced as some other patrons turned to look at him. He lowered his voice again. “Look, even if Luke was interested in me, it would only be as a one-time thing, and you know I’m not good at those. I want a relationship. Second, even if he also wanted a relationship, he’s in the Midwest. He’s an hour out of Chicago. I’m in New York City.”

“You told me you might get transferred.”

“Third of all,” Adam added, overriding whatever else Enid was going to say, “We can’t do anything. It’s collusion... or it will be in the eyes of the law. I’m getting myself in so much trouble just by helping him out like this right now. What do you think Nash’ll say if he finds out I fucked the guy?”

“Well, if Nash finds out, I think he’ll high-five you for finally getting some,” Enid replied dryly. “But c’mon, don’t you think you’re being a little paranoid? How is Nash, or anyone else, going to find out if you sleep with him?”

Adam thought about that. Normally he’d worry about the opposing lawyer finding out, but… Enid was the opposing lawyer. Luke couldn’t tell anyone, or he’d end up in just as much hot water as Adam would. And Adam certainly didn’t have anyone to tell, even if he was the type to talk about his sex life, which he wasn’t. Who could he really tell anyway? He had no real friends besides Enid. Oh, sure, he went out for drinks and such with his coworkers but it was just friendly, not actual ride-or-die friendship.

Enid grinned, reading his thoughts. After tag-teaming dozens of debates together in mock trials at law school, they could all but read each other’s minds. “See? Nobody’s going to find out. You can totally get away with it!”

“But the trial,” Adam protested. “You know what I have to do to help you guys win it.”

“So? You’re just doing your job, he’ll understand.”

“But it’s awkward. You can’t think he won’t be angry at some level.”

“You aren’t as awkward as you think you are. In my opinion, having him get to watch you in action in court will be hot.” Enid waggled her eyebrows. “You know, Jillian always—”

“What did I say about my wanting to hear about your sex life? I don’t.”

He knew the story already, anyway. Jillian had been the reporter in charge of covering a case that Enid was a part of, and after seeing Enid in court and how well she’d done, Jillian had been head over heels and asked her out.

The rest, as they said, was history.

Enid finally sobered up a little. “Just think about it, okay?” She asked him. “He seems like a great guy and you both seem really into each other. I wouldn’t let an opportunity like that slide.”

Before Adam could say anything to that, he heard Luke say, “So what did I miss?”

Adam jumped a little as Luke slid into the booth next to him again. He put his arm around Adam’s shoulders—and his actual shoulders this time, not just along the back of the booth where it was almost sort-of but could be explained away around his shoulders.

Luke grinned at him when Adam continued to stare.

“We were just discussing how you two met,” Enid said, although Adam hadn’t even begun to tell her any of that. “I have to say, you two seem pretty comfortable around each other for only having met yesterday.”

“What can I say, sometimes you just click with someone,” Luke replied, his tone over-the-top so that he sounded like he was parodying romantic couples.

All the while, his arm was still around Adam’s shoulders.

“So, brass tacks,” Enid said, getting down to business. “We’ll need to meet a few times, and I can waive the fee until you take care of the investors and you’re pulling in a profit with your bar. If we can exchange emails and phone numbers, we can coordinate some times to meet and discuss how we’re going to present ourselves. I’ll need to talk to Seth, too. I think it’s important that we present his side of things. He does get a say in where he lives, or at least, I’d like to think he does.”

“That all sounds great,” Luke said, pulling out his phone and exchanging information with Enid.

“Word of warning, though,” Enid said, glancing over at Adam. “After Adam goes back to the city, you two are going to need to stay out of contact. Nobody’s got any way to get the information that you two stayed together this day and that Adam helped you out, but that’s because Adam’s the prosecuting lawyer so he’d be the one doing the investigating for something like that. There can’t be any kind of data or paper trail for some enthusiastic intern at Adam’s law firm to pick up. Just to be on the safe side.”

Luke looked a little upset at that, his eyes darkening, but Adam figured it was probably just his imagination. “Okay. I appreciate all of this, Enid, really.”

“This’ll be an easy case,” she assured him. “Especially since Adam has, in working for the Harpers, ended up compiling a lot of the information I’d need to compile to represent you.”

“I’ll send you those,” Adam promised. It was a struggle not to settle into Luke’s shoulder, to let Luke pull him into his side. Adam was certain that he’d fit snugly against Luke’s body, given the difference in their frames.

What was Luke up to, putting his arm around Adam like that?

“Then I think we’re finished here,” Enid said, grinning almost conspiratorially. “Don’t worry, Luke, we’ll knock ‘em dead for you.”

“Thanks.” Luke sounded relieved. “You guys have no idea how good it feels to know that there’s a plan in place, that someone’s on my side.”

“And that’s my job,” Enid assured him. “To be on your side, and for you to know that there’s somebody in your corner working for you.”

Luke nodded. He still looked relieved, but also a little scared, and Adam wanted to wrap him up in his arms so badly that it was like a physical ache.

“So what are you two up to for the rest of the day?” Enid asked. She made it sound like they had sightseeing plans or something, like Luke was going to take Adam to see the Bean or a musical.

“We have to meet some investors,” Adam said. “I pulled a few strings, we’re meeting three of them in about…” He checked his watch. “Half an hour.”

“You pulled some strings?” Enid said, echoing his words. She made it sound like he’d said ‘I bought Luke a dozen roses’, for crying out loud.

“It was the least I could do,” Adam huffed out. His face was heating up again, fuck, how many times a day was he going to blush? He probably looked permanently like a fire hydrant by now.

“Well, I wish you both luck,” she said, and again—she sounded like she was talking about much more than just the meeting.

As she stood up—stealthily grabbing the check as she did so, as if Adam wasn’t going to notice shit like that—she winked at him and mouthed date him at Adam.

He shifted and lifted his arm so that he could flip her off behind Luke’s head, where he couldn’t see.

How was he—he couldn’t. He didn’t want that. Couldn’t have that.

But like Enid said… who would know?

Adam looked over at Luke, only to see that Luke was already looking at him, a wry smile twisting his mouth. “She made off with the check, didn’t she?” He asked.

His arm was around Adam’s shoulders, one thumb rubbing absently at the skin there, warming it up, until it felt like that one point of contact was all that kept Adam anchored to the earth. And Luke was looking at him, pinning him down with this stare, this look that was exactly the same as the one he’d given him the night before: pure heat.

Maybe… maybe he could have this, after all.