Boyfriend Material (London Calling, #1)

by Alexis Hall

Oliver put his arm round me, tucking me against his side. And, God knows the hell why, I let myself be tucked. “Will this do?” “D-do for what?” “Touching. In public.” He cleared his throat. “Not all the time, obviously. It would make going through doors difficult.” Right now, I could live without doors. I turned my head, for the smallest of moments, breathing him in. And almost thought, imagined probably, his lips brushed my temple. “I guess it’ll do,” I said. Because what else could I say? That the moments when it nearly worked made all the times it didn’t feel just a little worse. All the same, it took every scrap of pride I possessed not to follow him when he stepped away. “So.” I shoved my hands into my pockets in case they went reaching after him. “What now? Obviously you won’t want to stay in my shitty apartment.” “I will admit, I have some concerns about the state of your bedroom. But if I’m caught leaving, it may look as if we’ve broken up.” “Do you ever half-arse anything?” He thought about it. “I gave up about two-thirds of the way through Wolf Hall.” “Why?” “I don’t know, really. It’s quite long and involved, and I think I got distracted. Isn’t that precisely what half-arsing entails?” Out of nowhere, I was laughing. “I can’t believe I’m pretending to date someone who just used the phrase ‘precisely what half-arsing entails.’” “Would you believe me if I said I did it deliberately for your amusement?” “Nope.” I did not want him to hold me again. I did not want hi...