Page 18 of Choose the Bears

“I’m not sure.” He saw my look of confusion and then charged on. “I mean, I’m in IT, so they don’t let me near clients often. Probably for this very reason.” That last part was muttered to himself. “So, coffee?”

Figuring he was on safer ground, he met my gaze again, right up until I emerged from under the covers.

I couldn’t sleep in my uniform, so I’d dug through my duffle bag and found a thin pair of shorts and a t-shirt to put on. They were well worn and comfortable as fuck, but just how see-through they were wasn’t evident at night. His eyes dropped down and mine followed them, my hands moving, ready to slap down over my tits. I didn’t think you could see the colour of my nipples through the fabric, but I wasn’t sure. Trouble is, doing that was acknowledging something that was going unsaid, that Lucas was taking a very long, wide eyed, inspection of my body.

And part of me gloried in that attention.

It was something I’d gone without for so damn long, and with Lucas, I felt safe enough to enjoy it. Didn’t stop me from dropping to the floor and ruffling through my bag before pulling on a sweater, though.

“Coffee sounds amazing,” I said. “But I’m pretty sure I said I’d bring you one.”

“Tonight.”

“Tonight?”

I looked over my shoulder to see he was following me out into the living area, and the aged kitchen looked even worse in this light. He settled against the counter as I drank my coffee.

“The security in your apartment needs beefing up,” he told me, all confidence now. “That front door replaced, at least, and a dead bolt installed.”

“I’m not sure I’m allowed?—”

“It’s an internal door, Imogen,” he told me. “You could put a fist through it without too much effort.”

And I was sold. Imagining me doing that made it easy for me to see someone else doing the same. Some crackhead, Mike… Phil. I swallowed a mouthful of coffee, then nodded.

“And lemme guess, this is all part of your service?”

“For you, yeah.”

God, those blushes were too damn cute. Half the time Lucas was staring at me like I was the last piece of pizza, and the other he was too embarrassed to glance my way. When his cheeks flushed, it felt like I could count every freckle that dusted his nose.

“Well, OK, I guess I could…” I tried to think of something to do to return the favour before my eyes landed on the fridge. “Make you dinner to say thanks. Might be just lamb chop stew, but?—”

“That sounds amazing. So, do you have work today?”

“Shit, yeah.” I put the coffee down and dove back into the bedroom, looking for a towel, toiletries, and a clean uniform. “And I need to get going. I haven’t trekked out to work from this place before, so I don’t know what the drive will be like on a weekend.”

“You need to get ready,” he agreed. “Let me give you my number. Call me if anything happens…” He looked up from his phone, somehow able to detect the shift in my bodily tension. “I mean nothing… Nothing will happen, Imogen.”

He wasn’t putting fear in my heart. It was there all along. I’d bought myself a couple of days grace with Mike going fishing for the weekend, but right now, I couldn’t help but see my ex lurching towards the car. He was like a single-celled amoeba seeking something, but why? I’m pretty sure he couldn’t answer that, but he did it anyway. My presence didn’t mean anything, but my leaving did.

“But you’ll be ready to help if it does.” I held up my phone in recognition. “Thanks…” I thought of last night, almost able to feel the warmth of his body against mine. “For everything. You were right. Now’s not the time, but most blokes I know wouldn’t knock a girl back, no matter what she was thinking.”

“I’m… not most blokes.”

His wry smile had me echoing his expression.

“So you’re saying I should’ve been dating IT guys? Got it.”

I didn’t know if that was true or not, but he went to the door, instructing me to lock it behind him before I raced through a shower and got ready for work. The bathroom was old, the silicone mouldy, but the tiles were clean and the water pressure good, so I was out the door not long afterwards. As I sat in my car, hand on the ignition, I knew. I just needed to get used to my new normal, and if that included cute boys sleeping next to me in a non-sexual capacity, then that was an improvement. Feeling newly optimistic, I drove off to work, making it there well before my shift started.

“Oh my god!”Jade said when I walked in the door. “How did it go? I’ve been waiting on tenterhooks all night to find out how the move went.”

“Harder than it should’ve been, and easier.”

“OK, stop with the mysterious bullshit and spill,” Daniel said, appearing from thin air, because that’s what he did. Onesniff of drama and he was there. “Did you find some really hot removalists? Are they gay or like a bit of downlow action?” He grabbed my shoulders and pretended to shake me. “I need deets, girl, deets!”

“Mike was at my old place when I got home…”

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