Page 53 of Challenged by the Single Dad

The water shut off. “Jesus fuck. Calm down.”

Waiting for the trespasser to vacate, she stalked back to the open door. “Joey!” she called out. “Joey! Someone is in my room and using my bathroom.”

The bathroom door opened and one of the twenty-something bros from the dorm room who was louder than a fucking woodpecker on a metal pole, came sauntering out, dripping wet and with a towel slung low on his hips. “What the fuck’s your problem, lady?”

She gaped at him as the sound of Joey coming up the stairs echoed toward them. “My problem? My problem? My problem is that I locked my door before I left for work. Myprivateroom, with myprivatebathroom. Then I come home after a long shift only to find my room no longer locked and someone—you—in my shower. That’smy problem.”

“All the other bathrooms were in use, and I needed to shower. I smell like fish. I’m working too, you know. On the boats.”

“I don’t fucking care if you’re the goddamn crown prince of Monaco. You broke into my room.”

Joey arrived, a very uneasy look on his face.

“Joey, this guy broke into my room.”

Joey met the idiot’s gaze. “You said you’d be out of there in like ten minutes.”

Chloe was going to have a stroke. “Excuse me?”

“Come on,” Joey said, “he smelled like fish. I let him into your room and told him not to touch any of your stuff, and make sure it looked just the way he found it.” Then he glared at the bro in the towel. “Orrin, you said you’d be gone before she got back.”

Chloe pressed her fingers to her temples. “Youlethim into my room?”

“You’re being very dramatic, lady. It’s not a big deal. I didn’t touch your body wash or anything like that. I used my own soap.” Orrin rolled his eyes. “Calm down. It’s not like I jerked off or anything in there.”

“You did not just tell me to calm down, you repulsive, entitled little shit. I have every right to be irate. I have every right to contact your boss,” she directed this next bit to Joey, “and tell him what you’ve done.”

Now, Joey looked genuinely worried.

Orrin, on the other hand, just flicked his wet, blond hair so it rested over the top of his head. “You on the rag or something? Chill out.”

Joey blanched.

Orrin chuckled.

Fire filled Chloe’s belly, and she growled, reached for Orrin’s towel, and yanked it off. “Get the fuck out of my room!” she screamed, gripping the bro by the shoulders and shoving him out into the hallway where people were now hanging out of their various rooms to see what was going on.

Orrin wasn’t socockynow and cupped himself. “Hey, lady, not cool.”

People snickered as he scrambled like an idiot back toward his room, his cheeks—both sets—red with embarrassment.

“I expect a full fucking refund from you,” she said, turning back to Joey and shoving Orrin’s towel at him. “And I’m out of here in the morning. That was a massive violation of my privacy, and you fucking know it.”

Joey swallowed and nodded. It was hard to tell how old the guy was. Twenty? Thirty? Forty? He had a baby face, but very thin hair on top and a badly receding hairline. He hurried away, nodding and apologizing.

Chloe slammed her bedroom door and locked it, then pushed the nightstand in front of the door as well.

Growling, she threw her purse onto her bed.

Great. Now, she had to find a new place to live.

Just fucking great.

The universe was really using her as a punching bag now.

What next?

A tsunami? An earthquake?

---