Chapter 17

Chapter 17 — Official First Date

It has been a suspiciously peaceful, stress-free two days and now the weekend is upon Liam and he is still waiting for something big to drop on his head. Aaron has been surprisingly professional and polite and hasn't pulled any prank on him yet. Maybe he was sincere when he said he wanted to call a truce.

Liam is back to being suspicious of his boss' intentions — he has a very distrustful nature; he is aware.

Aaron won't even reply to his comments and instead gives him a very civilised nod and a gentle smile. It should reassure Liam but it only unsettles him more, thinking that maybe Aaron is something major behind his back and this is all a ploy to just to get him to lower his defences.

But again, why would he do that — he's already had his revenge in the form of Rylee's birthday gathering turned into some kind of sex exhibition and he is the one who proposed that they call a truce. And so far, he hasn't done anything to oppose what he said.

Liam's phone buzzes in his lap. He checks and sees that it's a message from Jason.

And yes, there's Jason. Just seeing his name, Liam starts beaming like a thousand-watts light. Liam doesn't know what but there's something with Jason that makes him feel light.

Distractedly, he notes that he has never felt that way with Benjamin, who he was about to marry. Maybe he has dodged a bullet there — he doesn't know why he spent over a month butthurt over that.

He and Jason are still taking their lunch break together and the awkwardness that was between them at first are very much gone now. It's like Liam has gained a close friend with Jason; a friend who he very much has the hots for nonetheless.

Maybe it's just Liam, but it feels as though Jason has been growing more and more attractive each passing day. It's all Liam can do to not just gape and stare at the man every time he's within his eyesight. And it should be a good thing, but right now it doesn't feel so because Liam cannot do anything about it.

They still haven't had their first date and worst of all they haven't even kissed. Quite frankly, Liam doesn't know what either of them are waiting for. Liam is usually bold in these types of things — he should have grabbed him by his collar and smacked their lips together and if the time and opportunity present itself, smack together than that. But he hasn't done that and he doesn't know why.

Being with Jason, it has transformed himself back into his teenage self when he first came out as gay and was still having a hard time stringing a sentence together in front of his crushes. It was an embarrassing time of his life and he does not wish to relive that. But it seems like that is what is happening with the both of them.

They have only confessed that they 'like' each other so far, and since then they haven't even broached that topic. It took Katie urging Liam to go on a date with him and he finally sent him a text.

They have agreed to go on one. Finally.

And it's supposed to be today. They decided to have one on the weekend so it'll be comfortable for the both of them. Liam is supposed to go over to Jason in a few hours. They decided to just have a simple night in, both of them failing to come up with a plan on what to do.

It's fine, Liam decided, as long as he gets to spend some alone time with the man.

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Liam takes a deep breath before pressing the buzzer. The speaker crackles as he hears Jason's voice from the other side and Liam's voice comes out embarrassingly squeaky. He quickly clears his throat, and starts again.

"Hey, it's Liam,"

"Right, come on up," he says and the mechanical gate clicks open.

Jason's apartment is 307, and located on the fifth floor instead, not the third. Jason has texted him beforehand, so Liam doesn't have a hard time finding his apartment. Liam wipes his hands which are already clammy on his pants and shakes his head at himself — he really is embarrassingly like his teenage self right now. This just proves how long it has been Liam met someone new and went out with them; that's reasonable since he was in a long-term relationship after all.

What he didn't expect however is how nerve-wracking it will be to jump back into the dating world.

He doesn't even have to knock on the door; Jason has opened it before he can do so, smiling widely.

"Hey,"

"Hey," Liam finds himself smiling back and he tells his nerve to shove it because he's here and he's going to enjoy everyone second of this date, "I'm here,"

"You are," Jason nods, chuckling lowly, and sidesteps, gesturing him into his apartment, "Come in,"

Jason takes his coat from him and Liam notices that the former is barefooted and so he removes his shoes, but leaves his socks on before following him inside.

Surprisingly, his apartment is not at all as Liam expected it to be. He doesn't know why but for some reason Liam expected Jason to live in one of those grand lavish apartments with very little items on display. However, Jason's apartment is the exact opposite of that.

It's not too small, or too big; it's the right size enough for a person or maybe even two. Liam spots two closed door and he estimates they must be bedrooms, and he has an open kitchen.

There is almost no free surface in the apartment. If one side of the wall had photos, the other has a painting and Liam thinks he even saw a wall sculpture somewhere. His shelves and cupboards look almost clustered but in an organised way.

Liam smiles to himself as he studies all this information and goes to sit at the dining table so he can a better view of what Jason is up to in the kitchen.

"I didn't know you cooked," Liam comments as he watches Jason stir something in a pot and simultaneously frying something.

"I didn't know either," he shoots him a quick wink over his shoulder.

"What?"

"Believe me or not, this is my first attempt,"

"First attempt?" Liam doesn't know if he should be surprised or shocked — how can this be his first attempt and he is already multitasking? It must be a joke, Liam thinks to himself but with Jason he cannot be sure.

"Yeah. I mean I know the basics like how to boil water, cook egg, bacon, pancakes — basically all kinds of breakfast food, but I've never cooked an actual meal before,"

"Oh," Liam relaxes a little, trusting that Jason will know his way around the kitchen, but still he asks, "Do you need any help? I know how to cook,"

Jason waves him off, "Maybe you can cook for me next time,"

"Hmm," he nods, trying not to appear very pleased with the next time phrase and teasingly adds, "I didn't know I was to be a guinea pig today. If not, I would have totally cancelled,"

"Maybe I set a trap and you fell right into it," he replies without missing a beat.

"I'm the one who asked you out in the first place,"

"Are you though?" for this Jason turns around, an eyebrow quirked with a smug smirk — Liam knows he's referring to the fact that he is the one who invited him for lunch at the office.

He shakes his head, refusing to accept defeat, "They don't consider as dates, just lunch between two colleagues, you know?"

"Oh, really?" he is back to cooking now, and then a moment later, he lets out something between a chuckle and a sigh, "Okay, yeah, fair enough. Those were just work lunches. But I still liked those lunches with you,"

Liam can't keep the smile away from his lips as he admits too, "Me too,"

Shaking his head, Jason turns off the stove and turns to face him. His face looks very much flushed than it was before. Maybe it's the heat from standing close to the stove, Liam thinks to himself.

"So, the food is cooked. But before we eat–" scratching the back of his neck, Jason quickly crosses the distance between him and Liam, and he looks down at him, particularly into his eyes.

Liam looks back at him questioningly, but he has a rough estimation of what he may do next and it has his empty stomach flipping over and his brain chanting yes, yes, yes, finally.

"Can I kiss you?" Jason asks, his eyes flitting to Liam's lips for a split second before returning back to his eyes.

Liam likes how he asked him about it first but he is also getting really impatient and stands on his toes, throwing his arms around the taller man's neck, discarding his nerves to the wind, "Can you just shut up and–"

He doesn't need to complete the sentence. Jason has grabbed him by the waist and pulled him close to him, connecting the lips together in a very much awaited kiss. There is a full-blown circus going on in Liam's stomach but he doesn't pull away and presses their lips even closer together.

And when they were starting to run out of breath, they pull away and let out a small laugh. Jason meekly admits, "I've been wanting to do that for quite some time now,"

"You sure took your own sweet time,"

Jason feigns a scoff, "You could have kissed me too,"

"Please, you turned tomato-red every time my arms even brushed against yours. I didn't want to scare you away or something,"

"Okay, okay. Point noted," he rolls his eyes, "Shall we eat now?"

"Yes, please. I'm starving,"

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