Page 13 of Forging Chaos

“I don’t know, can you?”

She chuckles and lifts my hand from her ass, placing it on my chest and patting it in place. “Some other time, Stag, when you’re less stoned.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” I yell after her when she closes the apartment door. At least, I think that’s what I say. I fall asleep before I can check.

CHAPTER 10

ODIN

By Friday,I’m barely taking any more of the pain meds, and Thora and I have hit a groove. I leave the apartment only to go to the arguments class, and she comes over between class and work. She doesn’t bring up the ass incident, but she also looks away less often when I catch her staring at my junk. I’d say we’re about even.

At one point, she throws her pencil across the room with a roar, and I stare at her, not used to seeing her react that strongly. “Was it something I said?”

She shakes her head. “No. I’m just being a brat. Sorry. I really wanted to work tonight, but my manager shifted me to Sunday.”

I scratch my stomach, and maybe I let my shirt ride up without fixing it. “Won’t you get a lot of tips during the football game on Sunday? That’s a good thing, right?”

She sighs. “You’re probably right. I hate being so close to finishing all this, like I can taste it, but I’m still so far off.” She stares at my stomach, giving herself a long look. “You don’t want to hear about this stuff.”

“I don’t mind. You might have noticed I don’t have much going on right now.”

“That’s not the same as listening to your unfortunate classmate whine about growing up poor and getting shafted at work.”

I grin and gesture at my crotch. “You want to talk about getting shafted, Thora? I’m very open to that.” She throws a pillow at me, but I deflect and grab the one behind my head, throwing it back. She giggles. “Seriously, though. I’m very interested in that discussion if you are.”

Her cheeks flush, and it’s really satisfying to achieve that. She bites her lip and says, “It’s not a good idea, Odin. I’m counting on this grade.”

“You think I’m going to piss you off before we present next week?”

She humphs. “You already piss me off.”

“Well then, what’s stopping us, gorgeous?”

Thora rolls her eyes, grabs another pencil from her bag, and returns to scratching away in her notebook. I prop my laptop on a couch cushion and scroll through articles about public universities in Germany until she throws another pencil. I eye her cautiously like she’s a bomb about to explode. “What now?”

“I can’t concentrate.”

I rub a hand across my chest, teasing, and say, “Because of my rugged good looks? It’s the cast, isn’t it?”

“I just really need to be done working today.” Okay, so she’s not in the mood to joke around. Noted.

I close the laptop, figuring I’ve learned all there is to know about tuition-free higher ed in Europe. Thora starts gathering her things like she’s going to leave me here alone on a Friday night, and I sort of panic. “Want to play a game or something?” The question comes from nowhere, but as soon as I ask it, I realize I’m desperate for her to say yes. I can’t be alone in this apartment; it’s too hard to leave, and we have a really fun game shelf thanks to decades of Stag family competitiveness.

She picks up both the pencils she threw and taps one against her cheek, considering. Finally, she shrugs, and I exhale. “Sure. Like checkers or something?”

“Checkers? Are you ninety years old?” I grab my knee roller and scoot over to the shelf by the never-used dining room table. I peruse the options and grab a small box of cards from the top. “How about Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza?”

“What?” Thora laughs. “I don’t think any of those words go together.”

“Oh, they definitely do.” I tip my chin at the table. “Get your ass over here and prepare to go down.”

She humphs again and walks toward me, sliding past my scooter and into a chair. “You should know that I don’t lose, Stag. And I never go down first.”

I kick the knee roller aside and open the box, shuffling the cards as I stare into her eyes from across the table. “Care to make things interesting?”

She shakes her head. “You know I’ve got no money.”

I shrug. “Bet something else then.”

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