Page 25 of Love JD

so I told your brother to

cover for me and say he hired her.

But I’m not as nice as your brother.

So now I’m telling you. Stay with her.

Isla:

That’s creepy. I don’t want your bodyguards.

Zev:

Reporters scaring the shit out

of you is creepy. Stick with Tabitha.

Isla took her time answering again. The dots that appeared, disappeared, and then reappeared told me she was struggling to find a good answer to that.

Isla:

I politely decline.

Zev:

I’m going to politely

shove my foot up your ass.

Isla:

I’m so scared. Omg I’m going to faint.

A reluctant smile tugged my mouth up, and I let out a sighing groan. A thought occurred to me, and rather than examining it logically from any angles whatsoever, I sent it off.

Zev:

Stick with her or I’m kidnapping you.

Chapter eight

Isla

Coffee dripped in a steady, thin stream into my travel mug, filling the kitchen with its rich aroma. I inhaled deeply, willing the caffeine to enter my system early. With my body slumped over the laminate countertop and my chin on my fist, I felt more liquid than solid. Most juniors during finals week likely felt the same, but my frayed sanity had less to do with tests and more to do with reporters. Apparently.

Robert shuffled into the kitchen, and the bags under his eyes matched mine. He’d been engrossed in an MMORPG raid that kept him up until the early morning hours, and on top of that, he’d been studying for his finals as well. His curly blond hair stood out at all angles, and he rubbed a fine layer of thin hair growth on his jaw as he gave me a sleepy smile. “Morning.”

I averted my gaze quickly. Getting fluttery and nervous about my roommate had been a shocking development a few months ago, and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to get past it. Oddly, it didn’t feel as fluttery anymore. It felt slithery. Uncomfortable. “Morning.”

The grown up thing to do with my roommate would be to talk about the weirdness between us. Robert had made the first move a while ago, but it had gone so spectacularly badly, I didn’t have the heart to bring it up. I added ungodly amounts of creamer and sugar to my coffee, stirred it, and twisted the cap on top the travel mug. “Any tests today?” I asked.

Robert shook his head. “Nah, just class. You?” He paused in the middle of switching out our coffee pods. “Isla, you okay? Are you doing too much again? I don’t want to end up with you passing out or something. Like, no offense, but you know how you get.”

My spine fused into stiff discomfort. First, he hadn’t seemed to care at all about what had happened with Zev, and now he was going out of his way to remind me what a pain my existence was. “Yeah, I’m just going through some stuff,” I replied with stilted words. I’d thought that his indifference after getting back from his conference had to do with the new group of gamer friends he’d been online with, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe I’d become too much of a burden even for my roommate to take.

“What stuff?” he asked, his blue-gray eyes sweeping over me.

I took a sip of my sweet coffee and leaned my hip against the counter, watching him make his own cup. “It’s kind of a long story,” I hedged.

---