Page 101 of Hold Him Like Gravity

“I mean, sure, youcan,” Saff agreed. “But why should you if a guy is willing to buy them for you?”

“Saff once got a guy to pay her rent just to get her phone number,” Rico said.

“No way,” I said, brows raising.

“Then changed my number as soon as the payment posted,” Saff said, nodding.

“The kicker is, she probably made ten times what that guy made a year,” Rico said.

“Hey, it’s only fair.”

“How’d you figure?” Rico asked.

“He will never have to buy a box of tampons. That’s several grand you guys get in your pockets over a lifetime that we don’t have. And we’re not even factoring in waxing, makeup, bras. Or the things that are the same but cost more because they’re marketed toward women.”

“Can I buy your books too, Saff?” Rico asked, fingers tickling my hip for a second.

“I don’t know if you can afford my book buying plans,” Saff said as the bells to the front door jingled.

We all turned to look to see Cage starting to make his way in. But as soon as he spotted Saff, he turned and headed back out.

“Hey!” Saff yelled loud enough to make me jolt as she whipped around on the counter, then jumped down. “Get back here, you asshole,” she called, rushing out of the shop to, it seemed, catch up to the retreating Cage.

“What was that about?” I asked when we were alone.

“When it comes to Saff? Who the fuck knows. Could be he screwed her over on a deal. Could be he ate the last donut at brunch. So, you’re having a girls day with Saff?” he asked.

“Yeah. She invited me to be part of her book club,” I said, lips curving up. “I haven’t had girl friends in a really long time,” I added. “It’s nice to be included.”

“So, what kind of books are you getting?” he asked as I went back to wiping down surfaces to have the shop ready for the morning.

“Oh, just some ones that Saff recommended,” I said, not exactly lying, but my ears felt hot at the idea of telling him the whole truth.

“Would it happen to be more books about seven-foot aliens with notched cocks?” he asked, making me spin around, eyes going huge. “Found the book stashed behind a pillow on the couch. Were you hiding it?” he asked.

“I just… it was, you know…”

“Don’t have to hide your alien porn,” he said. “Actually, I think I’d like to reenact that scene on page one-fifty,” he said, ducking down to throw me over his shoulder, slapping my ass with one hand, and carrying me into the back.

Where, in fact, we reenacted the scene from page one-fifty. Which was leaps and bounds better in real life than fiction.

Kick - 3 months

“Ugh, damnit!” I snapped, tossing the Allen wrench just as the apartment door opened.

“The fuck are you doing?” Rico asked, tossing his keys in the bowl then closing the door behind him.

“Building a rotating bookcase. Or, failing to build a rotating bookshelf, more like,” I said, waving at the mess of parts still spread out in front of me on the floor. Except for the box it came in. Which was set a few feet away with Evander happily sleepinginside of it. Only popping his head out every once in a while to remind me with judgmental eyes how little he thought of me and my skills.

I should have known I would have no success with this after trying to put together that little plant stand I’d bought after a simple spider plant from the grocery store led to a pothos which led to a fiddle leaf fig and a monstera. And, well, it just kept going. We were going to be living in a jungle in the near future at this rate.

But it was the first time in my adult life that I could actually buy things without having to worry about leaving them behind. My life had stability. It was safe to start accumulating things. Plants, books, stuff I found I loved and that Rico was happy to have in the apartment.

He was always trying to get me to spread out, to really move in, to make the place my own.

Rico had ended up needing to step in and build that plant stand for me. With the kind of ease that made me embarrassed to have spent the whole afternoon on something that took him fifteen minutes.

“You should have just waited for me,” Rico said, coming over to sit on the ground next to me and reaching for the Allen wrench. “How about you get the books while I get this together?” he suggested.

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