Page 85 of Unforgettable

My scream reverberated off the walls, and my hands flew in front of me, catching the edge of the island to keep myself from slipping on a lid on the floor. The force of it caused the tower of Tupperware to go crashing to the floor.

But it was the least of my worries as my eyes flew back to the intruder, who ended up not being an intruder at all. At least not exactly.

“CJ, you scared the shit out of me!” I yelled, reaching for my phone and turning the volume down several notches.

That’s what I got for trying to organize—random people walking into my apartment and a near-death experience from the heart attack I almost suffered.

“I was knocking for nearly five minutes, but you also put ‘enter at any time’ on the service request,” he said calmly with an amused smirk.

I clutched my chest and attempted to settle my racing heart. My breaths were coming in short gasps, and it took several seconds for my fight-or-flight response to dissipate.

“I didn’t submit a service request,” I said flatly.

From his back pocket, CJ pulled out a sheet of paper, reviewed it, and then pushed it to me over the island. “See, it says here there’s an issue with a bedroom window and to enter at any time.”

I scanned the printed version of the service request and shrugged. “It must have been Adam who requested it, which means it’s probably his bedroom window.”

Clarity washed over his face. “Shit, I’m sorry. I forgot you have a roommate now. After years of you livin’ alone, it must have slipped my mind.”

I waved him off, my heart rate finally back to normal, and took a long sip of my margarita. “Not a problem. It’s still kind of weird for me, too.”

With a polite nod, CJ hiked his thumb over his shoulder and headed down the hallway and into Adam’s room. I didn’t realize my baby brother knew how to submit a service request, let alone knew our apartment complex had a website at all.

In the few weeks we’d lived together, we’d done fairly well. Our schedules meant that we didn’t see each other but for an hour or two in the evening before he had to leave for his shift at Murphy’s. And like the twenty-one-year-old he was, he was rarely in the apartment any other time.

Like me, though, he was a little messy, which wouldn’t have been an issue until you put the two of us together. Two messy people doubled the disaster.

I’d mentioned that he needed to pick up his half of the mess before he left for California the next weekend. He’d agreed, but there was a twinge of sadness in my chest at the topic—that my parents couldn’t bother to invite me.

The day before, when I was discussing the entire situation with Hazel, the sadness became so much more than a twinge that I broke down and texted my mom.

It had been eighteen hours and thirty-two minutes, and she hadn’t responded. But I wasn’t counting.

“Okay, all fixed,” CJ announced. “It was jammed a little bit, so it wasn’t opening all the way. Easy fix.”

In the midst of my thanking him, the front door swung open.

“Whoa,” Adam said and pulled up short, nearly running into CJ. His eyes darted back and forth between me and the big guy. “What the hell are you—who is this?”

I balked at his rudeness and stuttered a response.

“Adam, seriously? This is CJ,” I said as I motioned to him. “He’s the maintenance guyandthe guy who’s saved my ass on more than one occasion.”

The glare CJ threw at Adam was completely called for, and if CJ had something to say about Adam’s attitude, I wasn’t going to get in the middle of it. Adam likely deserved it for more than one reason.

Adam returned CJ’s glare, his jaw ticcing as CJ crossed his arms over his chest. The tension in the air was palpable and quickly rose to a level I was scared would erupt until someone else pushed open the door behind Adam.

“Babe, you really shouldn’t—” Josh’s booming voice called out the moment he burst through the door, but his statement died on his tongue when he noticed CJ and Adam. “Leave your door unlocked,” he quietly finished.

And, like usual, Reed was right behind him.

They both immediately noticed the agitation in the air and found me across the kitchen. Their eyes were filled with questions I didn’t have answers to, so I pursed my lips and shrugged.

“What’s going on, guys? Everything good here?” Reed stepped forward, and Josh flanked him.

It was CJ that looked away first, although it appeared to be a struggle for him. “Yeah, we’re good. Right?” He held out his large palm to Adam, who glanced at it like he’d never witnessed the gesture before, but he didn’t hesitate too long before taking it and pumping once. That was all CJ was getting, though, because Adam turned down the hallway.

“Well, I’m glad to see everyone’s done swinging their dicks around—someone was bound to lose an eye,” I quipped.

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