Page 112 of Enchanting the CEO

Maddox turned around. "Show some compassion, will you? His woman's just announced she doesn't want to live with him anymore."

That's right. My woman. Why the fuck would she want to move?

"I want to see the apartment," Leo declared, and I gave him the phone.

"What the fuck? This is a shithole," he said. "I can find her something much better. Wait... is that her maximum budget?"

"Probably," I said.

"Then I take it back. I can't do wonders."

"That’s beside the point," Maddox said, finally getting it. He turned to me. "Why does she even want to move out?"

"That's the question, isn't it?" I was still speaking through gritted teeth. There was a knot in my throat, strangling my every breath and word. It was a completely unfamiliar sensation to me. I felt like a rug had been pulled from under me and I'd fallen into a dark hole. Why did she want to do this? It wasn’t even close to downtown where she did her tours.

"You've never discussed living arrangements?" Maddox asked.

"What do you mean?" I replied. “She’s living with me now.”

"Right, that’s now. Once you went from being roommates to—"

"Be careful," I warned.

"To being more. Damn, you’re testy today. What I’m asking is, you didn’t talk about what would happen further down the road?"

I shrugged. "No. Why should I? She knows we’re together."

"Because that's what couples do, I'm told." That came from Nick. "Not that I'm an expert."

"Yeah, none of us are," Leo added helpfully.

"But why wouldn't you come to an agreement about how things would go? Your house is going to be ready in a few months anyway, right?" Maddox asked.

"Yeah. Two months tops," I confirmed.

"See? So it's not unreasonable for her to be looking for other spaces, knowing you'll move out. She probably doesn't want to share a space with someone else."

"That never occurred to me. We never talked about that, but I thought we had an understanding, I guess." Fuck, I was so messed-up right now.

"Should we head to the distillery?" Maddox suggested. "We can do shots."

I shook my head. "No, it's insanely busy at happy hour. We’d barely have enough space to grab a drink.”

"That's a good problem to have," Nick replied.

"Then let’s all gather someplace else," Maddox suggested. "You clearly need family counsel."

I pressed my head into the backrest. "No, I just need to clear my head and understand what's going on."

"Women are good at giving hints," Leo said. "I mean, I'm always oblivious, but then, when an arrangement goes to dust, one of the things I often hear is 'Oh, I gave you hints about that.' And I'm like 'What? When?' So my question is, did she give you any hints?"

I thought back to our past conversations. Had she given me hints? "Whenever we went by the house, she'd always tell me how much she liked it. She even mentioned how she'd decorate some of the spaces."

"See?" Maddox said. "That's a hint right there."

"Why won't she just come out and say it? I'm not good at playing games."

"Dude, what you had was casual, right?" Nick asked.

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