Mischief Maker

by Andi Lee

  When they pulled apart, Paul and Tommy joined them, more’s the pity.

  “Just like old times, right?” Paul said, his mouth moving into some attempt at a smile. Tommy stood next to him, nursing his beer. Liam felt a little sorry for him, but not too sorry. Paul hadn’t cheated alone.

  “Not quite like old times,” Jamie replied as he took the Diet Coke out of Liam’s hand, so reminiscent of their first night together in the Duck. He moved the glass until his mouth pressed exactly where Liam’s had been, and it was enough to make Liam’s cock stir in his jeans.

  It hadn’t escaped Liam’s notice that Dane and Markus barely spoke to Paul and Tommy. Maybe they’d had enough of their shit as well. He didn’t know why they didn’t tell them to take a running jump. And although Paul seemed to thrive on the tension, Tommy shrunk further and further in on himself.

  Liam’s vision tilted as two huge arms snagged him around the waist, lifted him, and spun him around. Liam let out a cry, thankful he hadn’t been drinking as his stomach was left behind.

  He didn’t need to look and see who it was. Those arms could only belong to one person. Jamie stepped back and saved the Coke.

  “Frank, you bastard, do you want me to vomit on you?” He shoved him away with a laugh and slapped him on the back so hard his wrist ached.

  “I thought that was you over here. Where you been? I haven’t seen you in ages.” His cheeks were flushed, and eyes were slightly glazed. He’d obviously already had a skinful.

  Liam hadn’t spoken to Frank in months, not since he’d been given that ultimatum. He glanced at Jamie, who was watching them with interest, and shifted on his feet.

  “Alice let you out, I see?” Liam teased, and with a forced smile, he carried on. “Jamie, this is my cousin, Frank. Frank, this is Jamie… my boyfriend.”

  Frank’s eyes widened in acknowledgement, and he stared at Jamie from head to toe. “Oh. The Boyfriend?” He gave Liam a wink, but he was so drunk he blinked both eyes. Then he shook Jamie’s hand enthusiastically.

  “How much have you had to drink, Frank? I should call Alice to pick you up.” He wanted to get him away from Jamie before he said something stupid.

  Frank scoffed and pointed out his mates at the other end of the bar. “We’re not even started yet. Is he the guy you decided on for our wedding? Is he good enough to get you a plus-one? We’ll have to see.”

  Liam winced. Too late. “Stop being a knob. You’re drunk. I already told you I’d met someone. I just didn’t want to subject him to you quite yet.” He let out a forced laugh and desperately wished Frank would just disappear… at least until the wedding.

  Jamie’s smile was pasted in place as though he weren’t quite sure what was going on, but he knew there was something brewing beneath the surface. “Who’s getting married?” he asked.

  Liam tried to remember exactly what he’d said about his family, but it was as little as possible. Selena and Dawn were the only people in his life that Jamie had met. He figured he had ages left until he had to mention the wedding to Jamie.

  Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he wiped it with the hem of his T-shirt and hoped everyone would think it was because he was too warm. “Frank and Alice. I just thought it was a bit too soon to be talking weddings.” It was almost true.

  “I bet you’ve vlogged about him, am I right? How many thumbs up has he had?” Frank nudged him in the side. Liam shoved his hand away and sidestepped closer to Jamie.

  Jamie’s smile slipped, and he furrowed his brow in confusion. Liam didn’t know what to say. Shit, he was bad at this stuff. He wasn’t boyfriend material. He was great for a night, but anything more, and he’d screw it up. His life was in slow motion, and he knew it was going to end badly, so his mind raced to find something that would make it sound better, but the words had left him, and he careened face first into Shit Creek.

  Dane and Markus were busy talking with Ben, who had just shown up. Only Paul kept glancing over at them. Anger started to simmer, and Liam wanted to go over there and thump him and then ask what he was staring at. But he knew it wasn’t Paul’s fault. He was just directing the anger he felt at himself at the one person he hated the most.

  “Vlog?” Jamie asked. “I’m lost here.”

  Frank was oblivious to the tension, so drunk he was swaying. He laughed for no reason. Everything was a game to him as he rode high on booze. His filter was well and truly gone.

  “He’s like the Casanova of YouTube. It’s hilarious. He goes on random dates with all these men.” Frank knocked back the rest of his beer, and amber liquid trailed down his chin. Fuck, he was a mess. Alice was going to be so pissed off at him—but not as pissed off as Liam was.

  “Really?” Jamie didn’t sound angry. He wasn’t upset or hurt. There seemed to be no emotion at all. Jamie didn’t move, but Liam felt the distance stretch between them. Panic tightened his throat.

  “It’s not what you’re thinking,” he said desperately, reaching for something, anything.

  “And just what am I thinking?”

  Liam grimaced and swallowed. “I don’t even know right now.”

  Frank finally stayed quiet and watched them both as the realisation of what he had said evidently dawned on him. “You should see the one where he lost his date at Zombie Brum City.” Liam hadn’t realised Frank had seen that one.

  “Stop talking, Frankie. Just piss off.” It was so busy the chatter of people made it difficult to concentrate.

  “The escape room in Digbeth?” It looked like Jamie was putting two and two together. Shit. He was going to get the wrong idea.

  Liam hesitated before touching Jamie’s arm and frowned when he flinched. “Can we go somewhere quieter?”

  Jamie allowed Liam to steer him to a quiet corner of the pub. Then he waited.

  The tension between them was thick, the simmering anger palpable. “What can I say that won’t make you mad?” he finally decided to say.

  “What’s your username?”

  “L of a Ride,” he admitted with a sigh. Liam bit at the skin on his bottom lip until he tasted blood.

  Jamie laughed then and shook his head, eyes everywhere but on Liam. “And I’m in it?”

  “Not technically, but I do talk about you. Not your name, but… yeah.” He was making a real pig’s ear of this. “I told you, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve only ever had one boyfriend before, and that didn’t last long. Even rebound boyfriends fuck up.” He felt sick bringing that up, but he’d do anything to explain.

  “Tell me.” He said it so softly that Liam didn’t hear him, but he hadn’t lied when he told Jamie he could lip-read, so there was no getting out of it.

  He told Jamie everything—Frank’s negative plus-one, his idea to find someone to date long enough to change that, and how he’d used Jamie’s pain to get his own way, becoming the perfect rebound.

  An invisible wall stood between them. Jamie didn’t cry, but his eyes were hard, his mouth pinched. He wasn’t the laid-back musician, and he wasn’t Mr Grumpy. He wasn’t anything right then.

  “The stupid thing is, Liam.” Liam, not Bowie. “If you’d been honest with me from the start, I probably still would have taken you up on your offer. I was desperate enough to take what you had to offer so I didn’t have to feel the pain again. Why didn’t you just tell me everything?” He laughed, and the sound grated on Liam’s ears. “I’m going home. Don’t follow me.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  WHEN PAUL left him, Jamie cried. With Liam’s revelation, he felt nothing. His eyes were dry. They felt like sandpaper when he blinked, and his chest felt hollow.

  There was no point in being mad or hurt. So Liam hadn’t given him the details, but he had let him know that he wasn’t up for anything serious. Rebounds weren’t meant to turn into anything more than what they were.

  Jamie had forgotten. Liam was so easy to be around, and Jamie had needed someone after Paul and Tommy. The deceit shouldn’t hurt, and it didn’t, not really, not while he was
still numb. Perhaps he’d stay that way.

  He didn’t want to look at Liam’s videos, but he couldn’t stop thinking about them either, twisting them in his mind until they were this huge monstrosity and Liam was a pantomime villain.

  He opened the YouTube app on his phone. Liam was too easy to find. Jamie shook his head as he scrolled through, finger hesitating on one said Rat Show—Find a Date. He ran his tongue over his teeth, let out a breath, and steeled himself for it.

  He pressed play and forced himself to watch. Jamie recognised that smile, the charming tone of voice and the cocky way he ran his hand through his hair. It was how he’d acted when they first met. Gradually that had disappeared, and he’d seen the real Liam. He wasn’t too sure of that now. There were many faces of Liam, and he was brilliant at every single one.

  Another video followed—a clip of him sitting in a toilet cubicle that was very familiar. The one Frank mentioned from the night they met. Was that what he was doing when he ran out of the double doors and crashed into him?

  No wonder his date was chasing him. He cringed. Stark padded into the living room, meowed as she jumped onto him, and kneaded his lap with her paws until she settled down. He absently stroked her head with one hand, eyes not moving from his phone.

  He remembered seeing Liam at the rat show and believing he was one of those popular types who only loved themselves. The videos described that version of him to a T.

  The front door opened, and he wasn’t surprised when Dane slipped onto the sofa next to him, still wearing his jacket. His hug was cold but more than welcome. Jamie’s throat ached as he swallowed, and he just shook his head and leaned it against Dane’s shoulder.

  Dane pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Tell me all about it.”

  Jamie admitted that he was using Liam as a rebound to help him get over Paul, and Dane didn’t seem too surprised. They talked and watched until Jamie couldn’t take it anymore and switched his phone off.

  “Well, in those last few videos,” Dane started, “he seems to like you, darling.”

  Jamie shrugged, so tired that his eyelids kept drooping. He didn’t know what to believe anymore. He just wanted to sleep for eternity.

  “It shouldn’t matter, should it? If he was just a guy I’m sleeping with to get over Paul?”

  “If he was just a guy, no.”

  “Fucking Paul. If he hadn’t run off with Tommy, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  Dane stroked his hand through Jamie’s hair, and he leaned into it like a cat. “True, but you’d be stuck with Paul.” Dane gave a fake shudder, and Jamie laughed against his shoulder.

  “Why didn’t he just tell me?”

  “I don’t know, darling. We’re men. Why do we do anything? I will say one thing—despite apparently dating you to get one over on his cousin, he talks about you an awful lot in those last few vlogs.”

  “What does that even mean?” It was slightly terrifying that the whole world knew about him and their relationship. He could walk by people in the street who had watched Liam talk about him. Could that be classed as stalking? He flashed back to Nightingale’s and realised that had indeed happened, and he hadn’t had a clue.

  The doorbell rang, and he flinched. It could only be one person.

  “Do you want to speak to him?” Dane asked.

  The question was too difficult. Jamie didn’t know what he wanted. No, that wasn’t true. He just wanted life to be easy again. “I told him not to follow me.” He glared toward the door but then sighed. “I suppose I’d better.”

  Dane pushed himself off the sofa. “I’ll let him in and head home. Call if you need anything.”

  A few seconds later Liam filled the doorway to the living room. Blond hair messy as though he’d run his hands through it one too many times, his mouth strained, and his odd eyes tense. He licked his lips a few times. “I don’t want to be your rebound.”

  Pain took Jamie’s breath, and he found it hard to breathe. He preferred the numbness.

  Liam stepped into the room. “I want us to be real. God… I don’t even know how you feel.” He shuffled, hands loose in his pockets. “Do you love Paul?”

  Jamie jumped, confused at how the conversation was going. Where had that come from? “Paul? This isn’t even about him. It’s about you lying to me.”

  “I didn’t expect to feel like this, all right? I spent years trying not to. It’s easier not to feel anything.”

  Jamie could understand that.

  “I had this boyfriend at university, took him home to meet the folks, then overheard him saying shit about Mom and Beth. I was so fucking… hurt.” Liam gave a bitter laugh. “Then you came along, and I kept bumping into you, literally. I thought you’d be the perfect person to take to Frank’s wedding, and you are. Only I don’t want it to be fake.”

  What was he saying? Jamie’s heart pounded. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “Do you still love Paul?”

  Jamie thought about it, poked at the cracks in his heart, and realised it didn’t hurt quite so badly. It was tender, fragile, but Liam had put it back together, piece by piece, without either of them realising.

  “I did once. Not anymore.”

  Liam let out a relieved breath. “I’m emotionally delayed. The most serious relationship I’ve ever had is this one. But Jamie, I don’t want to be your rebound boyfriend. I want to be your boyfriend.”

  Liam stepped toward the sofa and looked down at him. Jamie couldn’t seem to make his limbs work. His heart hammered in his chest and his mouth became dry.

  “I’m sorry I never told you about the vlog or the wedding.”

  “I think I’d like that.” Jamie licked his lips. Liam dropped to his knees in front of him and clutched Jamie’s knees.

  “Like what?”

  “To be your boyfriend.” He was feeling shock, but underneath it, a kernel of joy grew until his chest swelled.

  Jamie’s lips trembled as he leaned forward and captured Liam’s lips in a tender kiss. At first it was a gentle brush of the lips, but it gradually got deeper until Jamie caved and pushed his tongue into Liam’s mouth, reacquainting himself with the taste and feel that was so uniquely Liam.

  Chapter Nineteen

  SINCE THEY officially became boyfriends, sans rebound, they took the time to learn more about each other, learning quirks, likes, and dislikes. Liam was petrified of spiders, but Jamie loved them.

  Jamie collected Marvel figures, and Liam liked to put them in obscene positions and wait to see if Jamie would notice. He always did.

  Agatha had a litter of beautiful Russian Blue rats Liam had fallen in love with. He’d be heartbroken when they went to their new homes, but he would soon get distracted by the next litter.

  Jamie’s favourite activity was going for walks over the heathland he maintained, to see the plant life and animals he’d helped to thrive. He couldn’t stop smiling as he showed Liam around and pointed out various things to him. Liam seemed genuinely interested and he let Jamie babble on without getting irritated or looking bored.

  “Where is it we’re going?” Liam asked as they walked hand in hand over Chasewater Dam.

  “I’m taking you on a date I can guarantee you’ve not been on before.” Jamie looked sideways at him and raised an eyebrow. “It’ll be vlog-worthy,” he teased. Liam groaned and swung their hands faster.

  They’d taken an afternoon stroll around the reservoir, walking up over the dam so they could watch birds fly over the dappled expanse and waterskiers make fools of themselves in the distance.

  Jamie pointed out three black-and-white Oystercatchers all standing on one leg in a line along the pier. They stopped so Liam could look properly, guarding his eyes against the sun and following Jamie’s finger.

  Liam might not be a nature expert, but there was no denying his enthusiasm. The pier was closed off to the public and had been for as long as Jamie could remember, although that hadn’t stopped him or his friends sneaking over the barriers when they
were teenagers to drink White Lightning. It was a wonder none of them had fallen in and drowned.

  The dam curved down toward the South Shore Café, and they stopped to buy a bottle of water and share it as they carried on.

  Jamie knew most of the staff who worked there, from those who worked in the café and Innovation Centre to those who manned the boating pond. It took them longer as they stopped to talk to people, but Liam went with the flow, not frustrated or angry.

  They wound their way around the ruins of the small stone castle on the edge of the water and down through the shrubs. Jamie knew this land better than anyone and he took them off the main pathways and away from the tourists and walkers.

  “Heathland is rarer than the rainforest. See that plant over there? It’s carnivorous and eats insects.” Jamie was babbling, but he loved talking about this, and Liam was an avid student.

  “What’s it called?” Liam pulled him over to peer closely at it and watch it trap flies in its dewy leaves.

  “It’s a sundew. See how it wraps its leaves around the flies?” They watched it for a few moments more before carrying on. They stepped carefully through the heathers and gorse, a blanket of purple flowers and lush green grasses underfoot.

  “I had no idea there were so many cool plants over here. I just thought it was wasteland. I had no clue you have to do so much work to make sure everything thrives.”

  “There are so many rare species of animals, plants, and birds here. We have to maintain the heath so the habitat is correct for them. It’s pretty interesting. If you’re into this type of thing.” Jamie felt his cheeks start to burn. He’d bored Paul to death. Even his family zoned out when he talked too much about the local wildlife. He hoped he wasn’t boring the hell out of Liam. He chanced a look in his direction, but Liam was looking around with genuine interest, so he relaxed and made an effort to just enjoy the day.

  Jamie wasn’t the avid bird spotter—that was Tommy—but he enjoyed a walk in the countryside and hearing the birds sing. He knew many different varieties from sight or song, but his true passion was the heathland and the wildlife that lived there.