Chapter 14
Jamie sat on the couch with a glass of red wine, legs tucked under him, half-listening to Ryan talk about something work-related and half-mesmerized by the smell of Shona’s homemade basil pesto drifting in from the kitchen.
Shona was a wizard in the kitchen.
Ryan was… enthusiastic.
Which meant dinner was almost always edible and occasionally spectacular.
“I only grated the cheese,” Ryan had announced earlier. “But I did it aggressively well.”
Now, dinner was in the oven, wine was in hand, and Jamie was doing what he always did in safe spaces…
relaxing just enough to let the truth slip out.
“So,” he said casually, “I ran into Sebastian at the coffee shop yesterday.”
Ryan paused mid-sip. “Sebastian Sebastian? High-end cologne and emotionally unavailable Sebastian?”
Jamie groaned. “Yes, that one.”
Ryan’s face lit up. “Please tell me you threw a croissant at him.”
Jamie laughed. “No, but Blake might have proposed to me.”
Ryan blinked. “Wait, what?”
So Jamie told him.
Blake showing up.
The arm around his waist.
The fake dating.
The cheek kiss.
The conviction.
By the end of it, Ryan had tears in his eyes from laughing. “He said you were marriage material? And kissed your cheek?”
Jamie nodded, a little pink. “With conviction.”
Ryan let out a low whistle. “Damn. The man’s got moves.”
Jamie took a slow sip of wine. “It wasn’t real, obviously. Just a performance.”
A beat.
“But it was… good. Like, Oscar-worthy.”
Too good.
Ryan tilted his head. “You sure he was acting?”
Before Jamie could answer, Shona’s voice floated in from the kitchen – casual, but perfectly timed.
“Oh, he wasn’t acting.”
Jamie blinked. “Are you listening in?”
Shona walked in with a dish towel over her shoulder and a knowing grin. “Don’t flatter yourself. I was just close enough to overhear the entire conversation.”
She handed Ryan a spoon to stir the sauce and perched on the armrest beside Jamie like she owned the moment.
“Let me tell you something,” she said, eyes sharp in that annoyingly insightful way she had. “No man says he sees forever in you unless he’s either a pathological liar…”
A pause.
“…or already halfway there.”
Jamie stared. “It was just improv.”
Shona smiled, slow and certain. “Sure. But the kind that feels too real to fake.”
That hit.
“Don’t ignore it just because it surprised you.”
Ryan nodded. “She’s usually right. It’s very annoying.”
Jamie leaned back against the couch, exhaling. “What if I’m just reading too much into this?”
Shona raised an eyebrow. “Sweetheart, he buys your coffee the way you like it, he watches you like you invented air, and he fake-proposed to make your ex shrivel like an overcooked mushroom.”
Ryan snorted.
Shona leaned closer. “If you’re reading too much into it, so is he.”
Jamie opened his mouth…
and then closed it again.
That… felt unfairly accurate.
“Dinner’s ready,” Shona said brightly, standing. “Come eat before your existential crisis gets cold.”
Later that night, Jamie lay in bed, curled up under his blanket, the apartment quiet except for the distant hum of traffic.
He stared at the ceiling.
And thought about Blake.
The way he noticed things…
how Jamie took his coffee,
how to pick an avocado,
how to dismantle a man like Sebastian with nothing but charm and timing.
But it wasn’t just that.
It was how Blake listened.
How he looked at Jamie like he was already someone worth knowing.
Worth choosing.
Jamie exhaled slowly.
When was the last time someone looked at me like that?
Maybe Shona was right.
Maybe it wasn’t just improv.
Maybe it wasn’t just flirting.
Maybe it was something real.
And maybe…
Jamie shifted under the covers, a small smile forming…
maybe he wasn’t afraid of what came next.