Page 56 of The Lair

So as Travis pulls into the parking lot of the apartment building, and I gulp down the remains of my coffee, I tell myself I’m allowed to daydream about his hands from time to time, but that I should stop before my heart becomes even more invested.

“Is that him?” I ask Travis when I spot a middle-aged man pacing back and forth in front of the building’s entrance, dangling a set of keys in his hand. His jeans are worn and dark, matching his puffer jacket. I’m assuming he has long hair since it’s pulled back with a tie. Nothing about him looks familiar.

He kills the engine. “Yeah.”

We exit the car at the same time. As Travis throws my bag and our empty coffee cups in the trash, I make a beeline for this Robert Marcelli guy.

Mistake number one.

“You Allie Smith?” the man in questions asks, and not exactly in a nice way.

But I nod, my smile not faltering because I need to move out and won’t jeopardize this opportunity. There are no other long-term rentals available within my budget right now, so it’s either this or I risk being robbed.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

He doesn’t say it back. “I need to be somewhere else in fifteen, so hurry up.”

I blink.

“I’m sorry,” I start, unable to hide my confusion. “We can reschedule if you’d like. My friend said you’d be free?—”

“No rescheduling,” he interrupts, making something anxious and ugly sit at the pit of my stomach. “You either like it or you don’t, darlin’. I don’t have all day. Let’s get moving.”

My feet stay rooted, not moving an inch. Robert’s back is turned to me as he struggles to unlock the door, and I feel him before I see him.

“Who the fuck are you talking to like that?”

Robert freezes, then unfreezes a moment later as he turns to look at the menacing presence at my back. Travis is standing so close, I feel his body heat against my skin, lighting it on fire.

“Ward.” By the way he says it, one doesn’t need to be a genius to know the man who probablywon’tbe my future landlord isn’t a fan of my boss, for whatever reason. It no longer surprises me that everyone knows everyone in small towns. “You with this chick?”

This chick.

My eye twitches.

And just like that, even if this were the last available apartment in the whole of Maine, I decide I would rather set up camp in the changing room of The Lair than see or speak to this clown ever again.

“You know what? I don’t think this place is for me after all,” I say loud and clear. I’m proud that my voice doesn’t quiver, that my shoulders don’t drop as Robert’s face surely does.

“You kiddin’ me? You didn’t even see it,” he argues.

“It’s not the apartment I have an issue with.”

Mistake number two.

Robert’s expression morphs into something ugly and mean—something I haven’t seen in six years. I fight against making the connection with all I’ve got, but the way his lip curls reminds me so much of my mother, I take a step back.

This man has no power over me. He isn’t her.

Robert opens his mouth. “You b?—”

“Careful how you speak to my girl.”

The air whooshes out of my lungs.

My girl.

Me… Travis’s girl?

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