Page 67 of Unbelievable You

It’ll be in the local paper. Some genius was storing fireworks in his garage and dropped a lit cigarette. You can probably guess what happened next.

Oh no. That didn’t sound good at all.

Was everyone okay? I asked.

By some miracle, no one was hurt and we managed to save most of the house. But I think his wife is going to make him sleep on the couch for a while if she doesn’t outright divorce him.

Well, he probably deserved that.

Are you done for the night? I asked.

Yeah, that was a pain in the ass so I’m heading home. What are you up to?

I told her that I was spending my night reading.

Oh shit, that sounds really nice. Would you like some company? I always want to spend more time reading and then I get busy doing something else. I promise I won’t distract you. I think reading in a room with someone else will actually help me focus.

That sounded ridiculous and I doubted our ability to ignore each other to read, but of course I told her that she should come over whenever she felt like it and that I’d make her dinner.

You don’t have to cook for me. I can bring pizza. Freddies gives us a discount. What toppings do you want?

I told her that most anything was fine except for anchovy or mushroom. We agreed on pepperoni, olives, and green peppers for toppings. Stace said she’d grab some salads, drinks, and cake as well.

Not having to figure out what to do for dinner was a relief, so I made sure the apartment was spotless and grabbed an extra blanket from the chest in the corner so Stace could use it if she wanted to. I always liked being cozy when I was reading.

I buzzed her up less than an hour later and she burst in with two pizza boxes, several bags, and that smile that buckled my knees. Lucky for me, I could put my hand on the kitchen island to prop me up until Stace put everything down.

“No Buck?” I asked.

“My brothers dognapped him. They’re having a little sleepover.” Strange how I was going to miss his sweet little face begging for scraps and then laying on my knee. Petting his fur was so meditative in a way. No wonder they used dogs for therapy.

“Okay, I have paperbacks and ebooks just in case. I’m a big mood reader and I didn’t know what I was going to want so I brought a bunch of things.” She started unpacking her bag and she had everything from non-fiction books about specific subjects to romances to a few literary titles.

“I went a little overboard at the library last week. Oops?” she said as we both looked at the stack.

I always forgot about the library. I had a card to the city library, but I was always so busy that I forgot to go or check their catalog for ebooks. Usually I’d just buy the ebooks and if I didn’t like them, I’d just delete them from my library. Books were one expense that I never limited myself on. Books and cookies.

“What are you in the mood for?” I asked her, spreading the books out.

“Hmmm,” she said, tilting her head and tapping her chin with her forefinger as she pondered while I tried not to think about how adorable she was. “I think I want some romance. Romcom kind of romance.”

I picked up one of the books that I’d already read myself and pushed it toward her. “This one. But you should show me your ebooks too just in case there’s a better option.”

She turned on her ereader and handed it to me. I paged through her library and I did have to say, she had excellent taste in books.

“Yeah, definitely this.” I tapped the cover of the hardcover I’d picked out first.

“Perfect. What are you gonna read?” she asked, and I got my ereader to show her.

“Interesting. Is it any good?”

“My friend Reid recommended it, and she’s almost never wrong about books, so we’ll see.”

“Cool. Let me know. Should we have pizza first?”

“Yes, please.”

Stace and I ate sitting on the couch and I wasn’t shocked at how much pizza Stace could put away with little effort. Her grocery budget must be astronomical.

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