This, Victoire thought, was not a particularly auspicious start.
It wasn't that she hadn't enjoyed the ride to the cabin. She had, even though they'd hit traffic.
But that was kind of the problem.
Gallagher had been one of her closest friends since he'd bumped into her in the library a week and a half into freshmen year, complimented her combat boots, and then invited himself back to the table she was sharing with her cousin Fred to do work.
There'd always been something about him that just felt like she clicked with, even at the start - she wasn't sure if it was how quick on the uptake he was or his particular flavor of ridiculous over the top flirting with everyone or just the fact that the first words he'd ever said to her were to compliment her favorite pair of boots.
Whatever it was, though, after a semester of escalating mentionitis and a couple pointed questions from her boyfriend at the time, Fred had pressed her on the subject when they'd gotten very drunk over Christmas break, and she'd eventually realized that she probably had a lowkey crush on their friend.
Then she'd put real effort into represseing it, because she'd liked her boyfriend at the time quite a lot and didn't want to risk fucking that up.
But she and Teddy had broken up months ago; she had no idea why her attraction to Gallagher was starting to hit her so strongly now. It had gotten quite ridiculous in a hurry, though - spending a few hours in a car with one of her closest friends should not have left her heart racing the way it had been today.
On the other hand, how was she supposed to feel when he smiled constantly and teased her about the two months of procrastination that left her with way too much work to catch up on over break? Or when she had asked about stopping by a Starbucks for coffee and he'd surprised her with a bottle of her favorite cold brew? Or -
"Hey." She jumped and looked up; he was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking a little awkward. "I - are you sure you don't mind sharing with me? I don't mind sleeping on the couch or something."
The truth was that based on the past few weeks, Victoire wasn't entirely sure that she would be able to spend a week sharing a bed with him without losing her mind, but she didn't know how to say that. More importantly, she wasn't entirely sure that the prospect of losing her mind bothered her all that much if it meant sleeping next to him.
Even if nothing happened. Which she was sure it wouldn't.
"No," she said rather than say any of that. "No, of course not." She put her half-empty bottle of hard cider down on the counter, crossed the kitchen, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thanks," she said into his shoulder as he returned the hug. His hold on her waist felt comforting and natural in a way that was making her heart race. "I'm really glad you invited us."
"Yeah." His voice was muffled by her hair. "I mean - no problem." She pulled back, and he cleared his throat. "I mean, thanks for coming - I know it was kind of last minute."
Before she could reply, the porch door blew open, and Lexy and Micah staggered in with an enormous cooler. "Where should we put this?" Micah gasped.
Gallagher rushed over to help them before the contents spilled all over the kitchen floor.
When they'd finally finished putting things away in the kitchen, Victoire grabbed her backpack and headed upstairs to drop it off in the attic room before trying to maneuver her much bigger suitcase up two sets of stairs. To her surprise, though, she found it already sitting next to the desk.
The door slammed open, and she jumped. "Sorry," Gallagher panted. "Didn't mean to startle you." He deposited his suitcase and her extra bag of books on the floor by the door.
Her heart was hammering again. "Oh, fuck, G, I'm sorry - I didn't mean for you to feel like you had to bring those up, it's not your fault I overpack -"
"Sorry, I should have asked." Now he was stumbling over his words, too. "I didn't mean to be -"
"No!" she exclaimed. "No - I'm not complaining - thank you! It's just that I feel bad."
He grinned, and she felt a small pang of envy for how much more relaxed than her he seemed to be feeling right now "Well, no gym this week, I've got to get my workout in somehow."
Images of other ways he might get his workout in flitted across her brain. She hoped he couldn't see them on her face. "Thanks," she said again. "You - that was really sweet."
Now his cheeks were flushed, and she felt a rush of embarrassment for how ridiculous he probably thought she was being just then. "Sure. Anytime. Uh - Fred and Juliet just got here."
She could hear Fred's voice drifting out of the big bedroom as she followed Gallagher down the stairs, but before she could say anything, Lexy's voice rang out across the living room. "Gallagher, tell your brother I love him."
"Tell him yourself next time you're over. I'm getting another drink - Vic, do you want one?"
"Sure." She settled into the loveseat she always gravitated toward when they were there.
When he'd handed her the bottle and collapsed next to her, Liz asked, "Gallagher, I'm really curious - when you said your brother couldn't do this week because Finnigan called him into the office, was that, like, Seamus Finnigan?"
"Yeah."
"Like, he called everyone in, or your brother specifically?"
"My brother specifically." Gallagher took a long swig from his bottle. "Van's the oldest - he's been working there for almost ten years. Seamus is his boss."
Liz looked more than a little impressed - she'd been more focused on genetics than infectious disease, but she knew enough about epidemiology to know exactly who Seamus Finnigan was and what his lab did. Before she could say anything else, though, Fred and Juliet wandered out into the living area. When he collapsed into a chair and pulled her into his lap, she giggled and whispered something into his ear; his smile immediately broadened.
"Well, now that both the picky eaters are here, what do we think about dinner?" Micah asked.
Victoire stuck her tongue out at him as Fred shot back, "I'm not picky, I'm smart." Juliet whispered something else in his ear, and he let out a laugh.
"Oh, come on," Micah said. "No fair not sharing with the class."
Fred opened his mouth, and Lexy cut in, "No, please don't share it with the class - Micah, please just trust me on that. And Fred, yes, we all know about Messi and Kaepernick being vegan - we still need to figure out what we want to eat, and you and Vic have the most restrictive diets."
Fred glanced over at Victoire. She shrugged her assent, and he said, "Why don't you guys just order a few pizzas or something? Vic and I can just toss something together for ourselves." Their friends all hesitated, and he blew out his breath.
"It's fine," Victoire said before he started to get annoyed - long car rides always left her cousin's patience wearing a little thin. "It's only not fine if you guys make it weird."
"Thanks," he said after they'd gotten to the kitchen. "I'm just really not in the mood today. Uh - that shrug meant that you didn't mind, right?"
She tossed an oven mitt at him rather than dignify the question with a response, and he grinned. "What'd Juliet say to you, anyway?"
On the downside, making their own food was far more effort than just dialing a phone and waiting for pizza to arrive. However, the way their friends were eyeing their collard rolls and roasted sweeet potato salad when they were finally done made Victoire feel more than a little smug. When Juliet's sidelong glances resulted in her being given some of both, Lexy made a face; she'd once complained to Victoire that her biggest regret about her breakup with Fred was significantly less access to his cooking.
Victoire didn't manage to force herself to head upstairs to do some of her reading until well after 8. She'd just started work on one of the problem sets she had when she heard footsteps on the stairs; when she glanced at the time, she realized that it was nearing midnight.
She twisted around just in time to see Gallagher slip inside. He'd clearly just gotten out of the shower; he was still toweling off his hair. "I didn't realize what time it was - G, if you want to go to sleep, I can be done for the night."
He waved a hand at her, tossed his towel over one of the empty chairs, and flopped down onto the bed. "I'm not that tired - I can read for a bit, no rush."
When she closed her laptop and shoved her chair back twenty minutes later, he glanced up from his book. "Done for the night?"
"Yeah." She sat down on the bed next to him and stretched her arms over her head. "I hate leaning over the desk, my neck is killing me."
He dogearred the page and tossed the book aside. He watched her rub her shoulder for a moment and then said, a little awkwardly, "Uh - do you want - I mean - I could - if you wanted?"
She stared at him for a few seconds - it sounded like he was offering to massage her neck, but she didn't want to jump to that and risk looking like an idiot.
He took a deep breath. She wasn't sure that he would have elaborated without some undetermined number of drinks loosening his tongue, but he managed to get out, "If you wanted me to, like - I dunno, massage your neck - I could. Like, I wouldn't mind."
Her heart skipped a beat. "I - no, it's fine - I just -"
"Sorry," he said quickly. "I - I just - I mean, I had that, like, last week because of midterms, so I just thought - I didn't mean to be -"
"No!" she exclaimed. "No, I just - you did all the driving today, I should really be offering to massage your neck."
The light was fairly dim, but she could see his cheeks starting to flush. "Don't worry about it, seriously - it's not a big deal. I'm just glad you could come."
Victoire had stopped drinking after she'd come upstairs; she suddenly really wished she hadn't, because now there wasn't really anything she could blame if something about the way she was reacting made what she was realizing was actually quite a big crush on him too obvious.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she threw her arms around his neck again. She heard him grunt softly at the impact, and then the arm he wasn't leaning on snaked around her.
As soon as it did, she realized how much of a mistake hugging him just now had been. She could smell his aftershave and feel the muscles in his chest and the arm around her, and now all she think about was how much she wanted him to slide that arm down to pull her against him or use those muscles to pin her down as he kissed her.
She was very, very glad Gallagher couldn't read her mind.
"Vic, not that I'm complaining, but what'd I do to deserve a hug?" His voice was low, and she immediately wondered how it would sound if he used the same tone to whisper how much he wanted her in her ear.
She pulled back and shrugged. "I just - I thought my break was going to suck a lot more than this." Looking at his face definitely wasn't helping her to get her feelings under control. "Um - I mean, if you really wouldn't mind -"
He shook his head quickly. "Not at all! Turn around."
She swept her hair over her shoulder as he sat up. It was a relief to know that he at least wouldn't be able to read all the things going through her mind on her face, but the minute she felt his hands running over her shoulders, she knew that she was a goner, and that spending an entire week sleeping next to him was probably going to kill her.
"How's that?" he asked softly, and her heart turned over in her chest.
"That's perfect," she whispered.
a/n: thanks for your patience in my updates! i work in + go to school for public health, and i had some pandemic-related burnout last month. i should be back on a regular update schedule now. :) i hope you're all keeping safe; reviews are very much appreciated. - branwen