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Because he rarely said otherwise, I needed to ht

He looked thinner, but fitter, too Ibeat down by the taxing drag of the proceedings, it seeht had been removed from his shoulders His face was less shadowed, s, Niall and I were the most similar physically but dissimilar mentally We were both tall, had tended toward athletic builds, and had our father’s lighter brown hair But whereas it had taken ht about school and birds and the bleeding enormous what-to-do-with-ineer: logical, calh irl he kissed I had barely found a single job I loved until I ether; Niall had excelled in civil engineering so early he’d been the second in coht before being wooed away to a private firm I spoke freely, shared too readily, loved perhaps too openly Niall considered every word before he let it out, held his private truths close to his chest, and had never been with a woman who let him love openly at all

"How’s the ex- whatever it is she does," he told et the occasional note about needing to fix this or that at the flat"

I felt the familiar protective heat rise in h of her own reed with the genuine smile of a man finally liberated

I hated what Portia had done to hie Niall and left us with a deeply emotionally reserved version of the same man I didn’t mind his reserve; I didn’t even mind his new emotional discipline I missed the lad with the easy dimpled smile and enormous, curious eyes

But fuck it He was here inback to life

"You should have fucked Teena Smith at Robbie’s party when I told you to," I said to hiain I was already with--"

"Oh, fuck Portia Teena would have bounced on your knob for days"

He laughed, scratching his jaw "A bit too eager, though, yeah?"

"Eager with a cocksucking reed ruefully "Bloody great tits"

"Who had great tits?" Sara asked, walking into the kitchen to grab her coffee

"Teena," Niall and I answered in unison

"The one I should have shagged," Niall explained further

"And it’s unfortunate he didn’t," I explained "Portia would have married that insufferable arse Richard, and Niall would have been a sex god in uni instead of saddled with a wife and e"