Page 45 of Unbelievable You

“Yeah.”

Chapter Ten

Stace

Holy shit she agreed to come to my place. It was a spur of the moment decision, but I was happy I’d asked. She’d said yes.

Hunter was also wearing my sweatshirt and I’d definitely caught her giving it a sniff. She didn’t make a face or say that I smelled gross or rip it off, so I took that as a good sign.

We each took our own cars to my place and I got a nice spot close to the entrance of my building.

I got out and saw Hunter up the street parking. I waited for her and watched as she walked toward me, still wearing my sweatshirt.

She reached me and smiled, and my heart did a slow somersault in my chest before settling again.

I held the lobby door open for her and then unlocked the front door.

“This is a nice building,” she said.

The place was over a hundred years old but had been renovated a few years ago and they’d kept a lot of the charm. It wasn’t the fanciest place, but it had felt like home when I’d walked in with Buck.

Hunter and I took the stairs to my apartment on the second floor. Barking greeted us as I put my key in the door and went in first to say hello to Buck.

“Okay, it’s okay,” I told him. It didn’t matter how long I was gone, he always acted like I’d just returned from the war.

Buck settled down and then he realized that there was a new person here and he lost his mind again. It was only my commands and his training that got him to calm the hell down.

“Buck, sit,” I said, and he did, but was vibrating and desperate to lick Hunter all over.

I set the bag of books down and wished that I had thought about inviting her over after I’d made sure my apartment was company clean. I kept the place pretty tidy normally but having Hunter here the first time would have been better if I’d done a deep clean. Having a dog meant that no matter how many times I vacuumed, there were always little tumbleweeds of dog hair everywhere.

After she said hello to Buck, Hunter looked around. The kitchen and living room were connected on the left side with a row of doors to the right with the bathroom, bedroom, and a closet for the washer and dryer. I knew how lucky I was to have that in an older building but there was no way I was hauling my laundry somewhere else to do it.

I tried to be objective about my place. I didn’t know how Hunter lived, but I could imagine that her apartment was sleek and new and expensive.

She hadn’t told me she came from money, but she hadn’t had to. It was easy to tell in the way she moved in the world and some of the things she’d said.

It didn’t matter to me, but I could tell it mattered to her. That she didn’t want me to know. As if I’d judge her for it.

I truly didn’t care. It was such an irrelevant piece of information compared to everything else about her. I cared far more if she was kind. If I liked being around her. If I felt like I could be myself around her.

“I could make some tea,” I said. I only had one or two kinds of herbal tea in my cabinets. If she came over again, I’d get some more so I could have her favorites on hand.

Hunter crossed the living room and looked out the window. My place got great light and had good views of the residential street. It looked absolutely stunning in the winter with the homes all coated with snow and twinkly lights in the windows.

Buck put his paws up on the windowsill and made growling noises at the birds.

“Buuuuuck,” I warned him.

He looked back at me and gave me the dog equivalent of a pout that I was spoiling his fun.

“Tea would be great,” Hunter said, drifting from the window to my bookshelves. I had two of them and they didn’t match. They were also crammed full. I’d been wanting to get something new but hadn’t gotten around to it with everything else I had going on.

I set the kettle on the stove and grabbed two mugs and the two boxes of tea I had.

I wish I had something fancier. Loose-leaf tea and delicate cups and a tray to carry it on. Things I’d never thought about owning for myself which suddenly seemed essential.

“Feel free to judge my book collection,” I called out to her. Buck had gotten bored at the window so he’d gone to lay in his bed and rest his head on his paws until something more interesting happened.

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