Somewhere To Be Read Free

snuggling in to Naveen’s side.
    He kissed her head absentmindedly and ground out his cigarette.
    “It’s effing freezing,” she huffed, shoving her hands deep into her pockets.
    Naveen pulled her even closer. “I’ll text you, mate,” he said to Jamie. They both waved and headed off toward the closest taxi rank.
    “Football. It’s like the go-to topic for blokes, you notice that?” Nick said, stuffing his hands in his pockets, much like Han had.
    “Heh. Yeah, it is. Common ground, I suppose,” Jamie replied, wishing he had some common ground with Nick.
    “Want to walk?” Nick asked. “If you aren’t too cold?”
    Jamie considered running off to get the night bus but figured he’d just be heading back to an empty flat anyway. “Sure.” He shrugged.
    They set off down the little lanes that led toward the sea, both moving instinctively toward the seafront, even though there would be no buildings to buffer the wind. It wasn’t too bad this evening, not gales yet.
    They mostly kept to companionable silence, punctuated only by short snippets of conversation, but Jamie was hyperaware of Nick the whole time, of the confidence in his movements and the easy smiles he threw Jamie’s way every now and again. Each one was beautiful, and each one made Jamie more and more nervous. They’d made it most of the way down the promenade, inadvertently heading in the direction of Jamie’s flat, when Nick stopped and leaned on the railing that separated the pavement from the drop to the beach below.
    Jamie stood beside him, looking out over the dark water and the silhouetted pier glinting in the moonlight. It was beautiful, even with the cold.
    “You don’t do this much, huh?” Nick asked, tapping the railing with his fingertips in a staccato beat.
    Jamie paused. Where Nick fidgeted and seemed to need motion, Jamie would freeze and need stillness. “No. I don’t. Not in a while.”
    Nick nodded and turned, leaning back and propping his elbows on the metal. “How come?”
    “I don’t know. Bad breakup a while back, and I haven’t really gotten back out there. I’m not sure I want to.”
    “So how about you don’t get back out there with me for a little while?” Nick offered, smiling slightly and cocking his head a little. “You can be not out there but not alone, you know? For a little while?”
    “What, like a nonexclusive kind of friends-with-benefits scenario? Because I doubt I could—”
    Nick pushed himself to standing and stepped closer to Jamie, close enough that Jamie felt prickly goose bumps of awareness but not so close as to actually touch. His hand was a hairsbreadth away from Jamie’s own, but he didn’t force the contact. He left just enough for Jamie to make the decision. And he was seriously considering leaning in and pressing against all that warmth when his phone trilled and nearly had him jumping out of his skin.
    “Shit,” he cursed. “Wéi,” he answered the call from his dad, and stepped back from Nick as if his dad could see. He made a few noises of assent, nodding even though nonverbal communication was rendered entirely moot by the phone, but habit dictated his movements. “Uh-huh, of course I remember. Yes. Two thirty, yep. Okay. Bye, Ba.” He hung up and shrugged at Nick. “My dad. I need to pick up my grandma from the airport tomorrow.” Jamie shrugged again and slipped his phone into his pocket.
    “What does ‘why’ mean?” Nick asked, imitating the inflection Jamie had used.
    “ Wéi ? It’s like hi. For talking on the phone.”
    “So you’re on airport taxi duty tomorrow?”
    “Yeah. With Christmas so soon, relatives are coming to visit. Grandma and Auntie Mimi tomorrow and a bunch of the Goh family will be around, and Mum’s lot too. We have a family gathering every Christmas. It’s going to be so busy.”
    “Sounds nice,” Nick said with a wistful little smile.
    “Not from a big family?”
    “No. Not from any kind of family, really.” He shrugged. “I