Comfort Zone (Awkward Love Book 4)

by Missy Johnson

  “Jesus, whatever happened to Fluffy and Boris,” I mutter, shaking my head.

  “Well, Fluffy ended up under the wheel of Aunt—”

  “It was a rhetorical question,” I huff, still pissed that he blindsided me. “I’m sorry, I have to go over there for a moment.”

  Before they can stop me, I stalk over to the bar, the sudden need for a stiff drink overwhelming me. Or maybe I just needed to get away from Liam for five minutes.

  “A tequila, thanks,” I mutter to the barmaid, barely even noticing that she’s topless.

  I turn back to where Liam and Jake are still deep in conversation, probably about me. Liam lifts his gaze to meet mine and he smirks, confirming my suspicions. I let out a growl and jerk my head back around, pissed off. Every time he looks at me, I just know he’s thinking about those stupid messages. God knows I’ve given him enough material to last a lifetime.

  I sneak another glance at him again, my heart racing. Why does he have to be so fucking hot? Those tight, faded jeans and the way that leather jacket hugs his muscles…I groan and gulp down my drink, then push my empty glass back over to the waitress. She chuckles but fills it up again.

  “Hard day?” she asks.

  “Yep and it’s only going to get harder.”

  Chapter Three

  Liam

  What can I say about Becca Chambers?

  When that message about Jake’s bachelor party popped up on my screen today, I couldn’t believe my luck. There couldn’t be two Jake’s getting married and hosting their bachelor parties at the same club, so I was pretty confident I’d be seeing her here tonight.

  She’s is the type of girl who is impossible to ignore—especially when your name starts popping up in messages she’s sending her friend while she’s supposed to be listening to your lecture. Or that one time, while sitting for an exam. I should’ve called her out on it then, but I was too busy chuckling over her questioning whether the size of my hands correlated with the size of my cock.

  The longer it went on, the harder it was to bring it to her attention. If I did, I’d also need to explain why it had taken me six months to say something. But not only that, I found myself looking forward to seeing what she was going say next—that makes me sound way creepier than I really am. The bottom line is, if she’d just been listening to me in that first class, then she would have known the messages are monitored.

  I smile as I think back on that first day. Becca walking into my classroom had really topped off a shit of a week. I’d offered to look after my grandmother’s cat while she settled into her new nursing home, unaware that Andrew was getting over surgery and needed medication every two hours. That was fine, I could take him to work with me. I am a trained veterinary surgeon, after all. Things went smoothly, until Andrew got into my lunch. Grammy had neglected to tell me Andrew had a severe allergy to seafood. All it took was a sniff of that tuna fish sandwich to send him into analeptic shock.

  The next thing I knew, his heart gave out, and I was frantically trying to save him. Thankfully, he survived, and I kept the incident to myself. Not even Grammy knew that the thing she loved more than life itself nearly died that day.

  “What’s going on?” I look up and smile at Jake as he throws his arm around my shoulder. “You know the party is over that way,” he adds.

  “I’m well aware of that, thanks.” I raise my eyebrows and point at the sign hanging on the wall in front of us. “I was trying to buy you a lap dance, but then I saw this. No defecating on the dancers, no watersports and strictly no pegging.” I give him a sympathetic smile. “Sorry, man. I guess that rules you out.”

  “Hey, you know I have a phobia when it comes to bodily fluids.” Jake grins wickedly at me. “And I don’t even want to know what pegging is.” He glances over at Becca, who is sitting alone at the bar. “I thought you might be over here because you’re avoiding someone.”

  “Yeah, Garry can get quite clingy, can’t he?” I quip.

  We walk back in the direction of our group. Jake raises his eyebrows at me as we pass Becca. I study her as she downs another shot. She puts the empty glass down on the bar and then she stands up, dancing her way back over to the group. Jake’s laughter snaps me out of my daydream and I turn and glower at him, ready to dismiss whatever it is he’s thinking.

  “Oh, come on. I saw the way you were just looking at her,” he teases. “You’re into her, aren’t you?”

  “You know what? You’re like the little brother I never had. Nosy and annoying,” I grumble, while my face heats up like I’m a thirteen year old girl. “If I was staring at her, then it’s because I’m in a strip club with one of my students. Of course that’s going to throw me off.”

  “You and your student.” Jake strokes his imaginary beard, deep in thought. “Together in a strip club. Isn’t that pretty much how every fantasy—”

  “Ends. That’s how it all ends,” I cut in with a smirk. “Trust me, even if I wanted to, it would be a bad idea. Almost as much as that shirt was a bad idea.”

  He glances down, then looks back up in shock.

  “Hey. This cost me nearly a week’s wage.”

  “Yep, they definitely saw you coming,” I tease.

  “Asshole.” Jake laughs and punches me in the arm. “Really, though. It’s great having you back, Liam. I missed you.”

  “Yeah, me too.” I ignore the churning in my stomach, and smile at Jake. “So, are you having fun?”

  “I’m not sure,” he admits. He looks around and laughs. “This is not really my kind of scene, which I guess is why Becca arranged it. She has this knack of bringing out the awkward in every situation.”

  Don’t I know it.

  “True, but your idea of a wild night is a complicated chess move,” I tease him. “This is good for you. You need to relax and let loose. What better way to do that than to enjoy your last few days of freedom?”

  “Yeah, tell my fiancée that,” he mutters. He sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Brooke is convinced that Becca set all this up just to annoy her. I’ve tried explaining to her that this is just the way Becca is, but she wasn’t buying it.” He pauses. “Of course, there’s a good chance she is doing all of this to annoy Brooke.”

  “So, those two aren’t friends?”

  Jake laughs and shakes his head.

  “God no. If Brooke had her way, Becs wouldn’t even be coming to the wedding. Hell, she wouldn’t be in my life at all.”

  “Harsh,” I murmur.

  I’d met Brooke a few times, and neither gave me the impression she was that insecure. I wonder if there was more to that story than Jake knows?

  “I still can’t believe you’re getting married.” I grin.

  “Yeah, well, I can’t believe you’re not married yet,” he retorts. “You are kind of…old, Liam.”

  “Real funny,” I grumble, throwing my arm around his neck.

  He laughs, trying to struggle free as I mess up his short, blond hair. I used to do that to him all the time as kids, so it was good to know I was still stronger than him.

  We only lived a few streets away from each other as kids, so he was always following me and my friends around. I took him under my wing and looked out for him a lot, especially after his father died. Over the next few years, we were like brothers. He leaned on me and I guess I did the same, using him as a distraction from my own problems at home.

  Things changed when I went away for college. We lost contact. It was only a couple of months ago at our cousin’s wedding that we ran into each other again. Seeing him all grown up made me realize how much I’d missed. In a weird way, I felt like I had let him down by not trying harder to keep in touch.

  “Jakey!”

  I chuckle as two of Jake’s friends push between us and steer us over to the lounges. They push Jake down in an armchair and cheer as a stripper climbs into his lap. She dances against him, rubbing her body against his. I let out a laugh, because Jake looks so damn uncomfortable that it’s just too
painful to watch.

  Looking around the club, I spot Becca back over by the bar, so I get to my feet and head over there to join her. She drinks down a shot, before nodding at the barmaid to fill her up again. Something stirs inside me as my eyes roam over her petite frame. She looks so sexy in that short, black dress, and the way it keeps riding up her thighs?

  Fuck…

  I take in her long dark hair and the way it hangs in loose waves around her shoulders. Even in a room full of half-naked women, it’s Becca who I can’t take my eyes off. I curse myself for thinking about things I know shouldn’t be entering my head.

  She looks up and catches me watching her. Her green eyes meet mine and narrow slightly. I shrug and point to the seat next to her. She studies me for a moment, before relenting.

  “Fine. Sit down, then,” she says. “Shouldn’t you be grading exams, or something?”

  “Shouldn’t you be studying for the test on Monday?” I chuckle in response. “Wait—you probably didn’t hear me announce that test since you were too busy discussing with Amy whether you could make out the outline of my coc—”

  “Last time I checked I had the second highest average in the entire year,” she cuts in. She gives me a cool stare, but I can see the amusement hiding in there too. “I guess some of us just don’t need to study.”

  “Which is something you’d only know if you abused your position in the administration to look that up,” I say. She flushes as I wink at her. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

  “Good,” she mutters, staring down at her glass. “I’m in enough trouble with that stupid job as it is.”

  “Yeah, I was surprised emailing out the university president’s personal email to the whole alumni didn’t get you fired.” I chuckle. “Because that was some pretty entertaining reading. Or are you referring to wiping the entire mid-year results from the system and deleting the backup? Wait a minute, that’s how it happened, isn’t it? You were seeing where you stood academically, weren’t you?” I tease her.

  “Neither of those were intentional,” she replies in a frosty voice. “I told them when they insisted on placing me in there that it was at their own risk. I’m the first to admit I suck at technology.”

  “Which makes me wonder what else you suck at?”

  Did I just say that out loud?

  “Thanks for abandoning me back there.”

  I jerk my head around as Jake clasps me on the back.

  “Though I think I’m beginning to understand why…Better offer, maybe?” He raises his eyebrows at me and then sits down next to Becca, who whacks him across the stomach. “What was that for?” Jake gasps.

  “For being a dick.”

  He shakes his head. “And to think I came over here to buy you both a drink.”

  “It’s an open bar,” Becca reminds him.

  “Even better,” Jake grins.

  “Not for me. I drove here.” I glance down at my still full beer that sits on the bar, then back at him. “This has to last me all night.”

  “You drove? Why the hell would you do that to yourself?” he asks, a confused look on his face.

  “To stop myself from drinking too much when I know that I need to spend all day tomorrow marking exams?”

  He takes the bottle off me and shakes his head.

  “No. You’re catching a cab home. I insist. Tonight calls for a celebration.” He turns to the barmaid, managing to keep his eyes on her face. “Two scotches. Straight up.” He winks at me. “For pops.”

  I sigh, because I can’t say no to that.

  “Where’s my drink?” Becca scowls at Jake.

  “I changed my mind about yours. Look at you. You’re a mess.”

  “Fine,” Becca mutters. “Scotch tastes like smelly assholes, anyway.” I open my mouth to comment, but she whips her head around and glares at me before I get a word out. “Don’t even say it, Sullivan. So, did your grandfather like scotch?”

  “Something like that,” I chuckle, rubbing my jaw in amusement.

  “Tell her the whole story,” Jake orders. He turns back to Becca, before I get the chance. “Pops used to mix some scotch into Grammy’s tea every afternoon, all six or seven of them. We only found out when she came to stay with us after he died, and Mom made her a tea. She spat it back out in the cup and kept ranting on about the tea being off. We eventually worked out that Pops used to add a little something extra to hers.”

  “We figured it was probably because it gave him some peace and quiet,” I add with a chuckle.

  “Oh my God, that’s great.” Becca giggles. “Hey, maybe I should try that on my mother.”

  “Becca’s parents are…interesting,” Jake explains to me when I raise my eyebrows.

  “Interesting is a nice way of phrasing it,” Becca scoffs. “Mom was almost going to be here tonight, but luckily, Dad broke his foot at the last minute.”

  I chuckle. “Yeah. Lucky.”

  “So…” Jake glances sideways at Becca, and then back at me. I know from the look in his eyes, this isn’t going to be good. “These messages Becca sends you in class, do you remember any more of them?”

  I laugh. “Remember them? I’m pretty sure I took screenshots of most of them.”

  “What? You better be joking. Isn’t that a privacy violation?” she retorts, crossing her arms over her chest. She shoots Jake look. “And I didn’t send them to him, thank you very much.”

  “Which is exactly why it wouldn’t be a violation of your privacy if he shared them with me,” Jake explains. “I mean, they weren’t exactly private messages if they showed up on his computer. And even if they were, I imagine you’d have signed a disclaimer.”

  “You did,” I confirm. “But you were probably too busy messaging Amy to realize what you were signing,” I tease, smirking at her. “And the screenshots are just in case I need to take out a sexual harassment claim against you.” I pause for effect. “Because one might consider you telling Amy that you want me to ‘jerk it where you twerk it’ harassment.”

  “Only I didn’t send that to you,” she retorts, her face going red. “I sent it to my friend in a private conversation.”

  “Technically you did send it to me, because all messages sent in that room go to me. It’s kind of silly on your part to assume that nobody else was going to see them, don’t you think?” I raise my eyebrows at her. “Or maybe that was your intention all along? For all I know, that could’ve been your very roundabout way of hitting on me.”

  Her eyes flash. “Are you kidding me? You think I’m that juvenile? Why don’t I just write you a poem and slip it under your office door too, while I’m at it?”

  “That was you?” I gasp, staring at her in horror. “Let me guess. The rose petals in my bed: You as well?”

  “No, if that were me it would’ve been a dead rat,” she growls. “Don’t flatter yourself, Professor. Not everyone thinks your God’s gift to women.”

  “Maybe not, but we’ve already established you do.”

  She mutters something under her breath and gets to her feet. I know I’m pushing her buttons, but I’m having so much fun doing it.

  “You’re leaving already?” I tease. “Though I guess being around all these half-naked women must be making you uncomfortable.”

  “Not really. You’re being enough of a dick to balance everything out,” she retorts. “And don’t worry, I’m not leaving. I just don’t want to miss the show.”

  She winks at me and then walks over to where the guys are watching two strippers dry hump each other on stage. I laugh and watch her flop down into a chair, an angry expression on her face. She fishes through her bag for her phone and furiously taps out a message. No doubt to Amy, telling her what an ass I’m being.

  “So, tell me again how you’re not into my friend?”

  I smirk at Jake and reach over to ruffle his hair. I’d forgotten he was there.

  “Don’t be an ass, Jake. Respect your elder’s and don’t ask questions,” I tell him.

&n
bsp; “Fine. Just try not to wind her up too much, okay? Because it’s going to be me who never hears the end of it.” He shakes his head and laughs.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” I chuckle.

  Chapter Four

  Becca

  “He’s fucking infuriating.”

  I shake my head and stare at my reflection in the mirror of the bathroom—the only place where I can get five minutes of peace to make a private phone call.

  “He’s infuriating, or the fact that you’ve been called out is infuriating?” Amy asks.

  “If I’ve been caught out, I blame you. You’re the one always messaging me in class. I simply just respond.”

  “Fine, but it’s your responses that are getting you into trouble, not the fact that you are responding,” she insists. “Want me to come down there? We could team up. I’ve always wanted to try the Double Dip.”

  “Thanks,” I snort. “But no thanks.”

  “Fine, then maybe you need to see this as an opportunity?” she suggests. “You’re single, I’m guessing he is too. Sure, he’s your professor, but so what? If you were ever really going to go for it, there’s no better time than this.”

  “I’d need at least another ten drinks in me to do that,” I mutter.

  Wait, how many am I up to?

  “Then do it. You’re at your friend’s bachelor party, Becca. You’ll never have a better excuse than this to let your hair down.”

  What is it with everyone telling me to let loose? Have I really changed that much over the last few months? I nod as I pace the small bathroom, my heart racing as I think about what Amy’s saying.

  “Okay. I’m going for it. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Good luck,” Amy giggles.

  I shove my phone back in my pocket and stare at myself for a moment. The signs are there, aren’t they? I’m not imagining it. He is definitely interested. Otherwise he would’ve told me about the messages earlier. I should be angrier about that, but I kind of like that he was watching. It’s like he was in my head, listening to my dirty thoughts.