Page 29 of Ghosted By Texas

“Oh, Gavin left these when he moved out.” I shrugged. The plan was to keep things vague, so he thought that I had been living with another man at some point. That should drive home the “I moved on” vibe.

“Gavin, huh?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Would you by chance be talking about Gavin Bryant?”

My jaw dropped. “How in the hell could you possibly know that?”

Austin laughed as he pointed at the sweatshirt. It was from USC, as in University of South Carolina not the one in California. “Gavin worked for me briefly, when he was trying to afford the rent of his place with his boyfriend and the place where he told his family he lived with some chick. Only, his boyfriend got mad and delivered an ultimatum. Gavin raved for a month about you locking him out and keeping his shit.”

“He hadn’t paid his part of the rent in two months. I don’t care if he was living somewhere else, I needed a roommate to help with the bills, not someone taking up space like my apartment was a free storage unit.”

“I guess I can see your point there. Still, that doesn’t explain why you’re wearing his clothes.”

“They’re comfy and as you pointed out, it feels a little chilly in here when I’m not sleeping under the covers.”

“The thermostat works, you know. Just crank the heat up and wear something normal.”

I sighed. Austin always was clueless as to how the other half lived. The other half being the poor people of the world. I worked hard, but barely got paid for all my hard work, or at least that’s how it felt by the time I paid my household bills, student loans, and that one other thing that kept me in debt.

“Did you want to watch something?” I asked and pointed to the television. “I have Netflix.” The clarification was so he wouldn’t be expecting cable channels, but the asshole took it the wrong way.

“Did you just invite me to Netflix and chill? I thought that was outdated these days.”

My eye roll was epic and should have made the record books. “I meant that’s pretty much all I have to watch, since I don’t have time for a lot of television anyway.”

Austin’s brow furrowed and he looked about ready to ask me a question, that I probably didn’t want to answer, when there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it. Why don’t you go grab us some plates and stuff so we can dish things out.”

That, I could do. I had everything ready on the coffee table by the time Austin came back from the door with the food. “It smells wonderful,” I said as my mouth watered in anticipation.

“Becs?”

I glanced up to see Austin was watching me. “What?”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I teach art and history classes at Whitmore Elementary.” I also waitressed three nights a week and usually on the weekends, if I could pick up a shift, to help make up the difference in what was needed. He didn’t need to know that.

“So, why are you concerned about money?”

“I have student loans to pay off and other debts I’m working on.” He also didn’t need to know that I’d been helping my parents out since my dad lost his job. There was no way in hell that I would move back home to save money. My parents hadn’t been the best. They did the minimum required by law to raise me when I came along unexpectedly, and then sent me out on my way as soon as they were legally able. They never looked back either, except to ask for help when my father was laid off.

They helped as much as they could with my college tuition, so it was like I owed them for going above and beyond at least a little bit in my life. At least, that’s the line I got when I tried to explain that I didn’t have a lot left over thanks to my student loans. In truth, my parents barely coughed up $1,500 per year to help with college, which was why I had so many loans to begin with. The money they’d given me barely covered books and fees.

Thankfully, my father recently found a new job, but I still kept the extra money I’d been sending them to the side just in case it didn’t work out and they came at me with another guilt trip to help again.

“Let’s eat before everything gets cold,” I finally said when he wouldn’t stop staring at me.

“You know, if you need help, all you have to do is ask.”

I glanced over at Austin just as I was about to put a fork full of steamed broccoli in my mouth. I set the loaded fork back down on my plate and smiled sweetly. “No offense meant here, but you are the last person on this planet that I would go to for help.”

“Why is that?”

“Beside the fact that we’re strangers?”

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