sister.”
He said the second thing pointedly and squeezed Macy’s shoulders. Avery had never seen her like that. Usually if a guy paid attention to someone else, she’d just, well, do the same. Donovan seemed to have some kind of pull for her that Avery hadn’t seen before.
Avery took a sip of the drink that had been placed in front of him. It was one of the strangest but most intoxicatingly delicious flavors he’d ever had. He couldn’t put a finger on what it reminded him of, but he instinctively wanted more. The drink was nearly black, with just the faintest purple sheen, and it was fruity and tingly at the same time. He took another sip and immediately wanted another as soon as he swallowed.
“What is this thing?” he asked.
Donovan shrugged. “It’s one of Dan’s specialties. He made it up years ago. It’s a bar favorite. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Donovan asked.
“Yeah.” There wasn’t much more Avery could say.
He sipped his drink and blatantly stared at the crowd, since he’d gone far past the politely pretending not to look stage. He watched the crowd hanging out near the bar— retro clothes and beautiful faces and....
Holy shit. Avery felt like the goddamn breath was knocked out of his chest. Everyone else just turned into an unimportant blur when he saw him.
He was leaning over the bar, talking to a bartender, and he tipped back his head and laughed. In that moment he was caught in one of the warm pink lights, and he looked like... like an angel. Avery was completely aware of how stupid that sounded, even in his head, but he couldn’t help thinking it.
The guy was tall and lean, ethereal, and so pale he looked like he should be translucent. His hair, flaxen and beautiful, was styled into a bit of a side swipe and glowed just like his skin. Avery couldn’t stop staring. He didn’t even know if he breathed.
“Who’s that?” Vaughn whispered.
Vaughn, who as much as Avery knew was completely straight. Apparently it didn’t matter. That kind of beautiful was impossible not to notice.
“I have no idea. Fuck.”
Avery must’ve been breathing because he could still talk. He didn’t remember inhaling though. A tingle raged down his spine, and his entire body broke out in shivers. He thought about his dreams, about that thing just beyond his reach, and wondered if maybe this was it and he’d finally found it. But Vaughn’s voice broke his increasingly impossible chain of thought and made him turn.
“He looks like a kid, man. He’s gorgeous, but he has to be barely old enough to be in here.”
He looks like everything I’ve ever wanted....
Which was just about the stupidest drunk thought Avery had ever had, including the time he got the outline of Mickey Mouse tattooed on his ass. He’d thought that was a good idea too. But picturing forever with a total stranger at the oddest bar he’d ever been in had to be a hell of a lot stupider than some drunken ink.
“Avery, you’re still staring. Snap out of it.”
“Right. Wow.” He ripped his gaze off the guy, who seemed to just radiate like the moon, and back to his friend, who was staring at him like he thought there might be something wrong.
“You okay, man?”
“Yeah. I just... I don’t know. I feel like I’ve seen him before.” And he didn’t realize until he said it that he did feel like he’d seen him before, in little flashes and moments when he was asleep, and somewhere else. He was familiar somehow. Avery was too fascinated to be creeped out.
“You have?” Vaughn shook his head. “I’ve never seen anyone in this place before. Do they even come from around here?”
Sure, there were a lot of people in the city, but you tended to see faces around—especially since they were faces Avery should have seen, only blocks from his cottage.
“I have no idea. But yeah... he’s familiar.”
Change the subject.
Avery decided it was better, he was better, if he stopped scaring one of his friends and started talking about something else.
“Tell me about your experiment with Karen.”
“Wait... what?” Vaughn barked out a laugh.
Macy and Donovan had practically melted into the seat across from them, and Avery’s choices were to stare at the blond guy he felt like he’d dreamed of, stare at his best friend sucking some guy’s face down her throat, or yeah. Bread mold.
“Sure. Tell me about the experiment.”
“It’s not that exciting. We’ve gotten our mold colonies to multiply at twice