Page 16 of Catching Feeling

Reese: 444 Boudreaux Ave.

“Who are you texting, grinning like that?” Grant asks, his eyebrow raised in question.

I guess now’s as good a time as any to tell them that I might have actually lost my mind. It’s not like they wouldn’t find out the second it happened anyway. Not with chatty-love-pants over here.

“Welllll, about that…” I say, trailing off. I already know I’m never going to hear the end of it from these two. “I think Viv might be moving in with me and taking my spare room.”

Both Lane and Grant freeze, and dead silence fills the room.

Time ticks by, and I look between the two of them as they look back and forth between each other, and then Grant throws his head back and fucking loses it.

He’s turning red with how hard he’s laughing. No legible sound is coming from his mouth, just wheezes and fragments of words.

“I fucking hate you both,” I mutter and turn my attention back to the massage chair, upping the intensity for my lower back.

“Let me get this straight,” Lane says through his wheezes. “Vivienne, the girl who can’t even stand to be in your presence for five minutes, is moving in with you. Into your actual house. With you still living there? Did you blackmail her? No, wait, she lost a bet, didn’t she? Did she hit her head and forget that she hates you? Got amnesia?”

A long sigh echoes from my lips.

These two. Comedians. Someone give them a fucking Netflix special.

“Where else would I go, Lane? I’m not moving out of my house so Vivienne can move in. Be serious.”

“Dude, I’m being fucking serious,” he says, disbelief still written all over his face. “I’m just not understanding what is happening right now. I thought you were joking.”

“Yeah,” Grant says while still trying to gain his composure.

“Well, I’m not,” I tell them both. “It’s not even for sure yet, so don’t say shit to anyone. I’m talking to you, Lane.”

He flips me the finger and rolls his eyes. “I’m not saying anything because I want nothing to do with that shit.”

“Yeah, okay, you tell your girlfriend every time you take a dump,” I retort.

“Watch it.”

My lips tilt into a smirk as I shrug. “True though. I love Hallie, you know that. She’s my girl. But this is between me and Viv. Who knows, maybe she’ll decide not to. Either way, I don’t want you two saying shit.”

“Hand on the Bible. But you do know I’m never going to stop giving you shit about this,” Grant counters. “You’re down so bad for that girl it’s unreal, and having her living with you? A recipe for fucking disaster if you ask me. Dude, you literally just signed up for five months of blue balls with a girl that gets you hard when she breathes. And let’s be real, you’ve got a better chance of fucking me than her.”

“That’s because you fuck anything that moves,” I tell him.

“Fair.”

I’m not surprised when there’s a knock at my front door later that night. Before I even open it, I know Vivienne is on the other side of it. She wouldn’t have texted me in the first place if she wasn’t planning to take up my offer of becoming my new roomie. Which has put a pep in my step all fucking day.

A shit-eating grin flits to my lips as I grab the door handle and fling the door open.

“Please know if there was any other option, and I truly mean any other option aside from living in a tent under the interstate or becoming a college dropout before even finishing my first year, then I wouldn’t be here,” Viv says the moment I open the door and see her standing on the doorstep, her arms folded over her chest.

My eyes travel down the length of her body, taking in the tight black T-shirt and acid-wash blue jean shorts she’s paired with an old, checkered pair of Vans. She’s got on a black choker that looks like it’s straight from the nineties or something, and her hair is loose, hanging almost to her waist.

She looks good enough to fucking eat.

I lift my arm higher while holding the door open wider, my lips turned up in a smirk. “Hi, Vivienne, it’s so nice to see you too. Please, come in.”

Her eyes roll, and she ducks under my arm, crossing the threshold into my house.

When I sent her my address earlier, I knew there was a small chance she wouldn’t actually show. That she wouldn’t take the bait I threw out. But if there’s anything I’ve learned about this girl in the short time I’ve known her, it’s that she doesn’t back down. There isn’t a chance in hell that Viv’s going to roll over and give up. Nah, that’s not who she is. She’s ballsy as fuck.

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