Page 29 of Off Limits

DEX

Pulling open my fridge door,I checked my shelves to see what I could make for dinner.

Living with Asa wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, and we’d fallen into a good routine over the past few weeks.

Unlike when we lived with our parents, he seemed to be on his best behavior. He was quiet, cleaned up after himself, and spent most of his time in the den.

Our schedules weren’t completely in sync, with him working set hours and mine being a bit more erratic, and that made sharing a kitchen and bathroom easier.

Hell, most of the time I had no clue if he was home or not and only knew for sure when I caught glimpses of him in the hall or heard music coming from the den. It was like living with a goth ghost.

He’d also had no issues giving me the apartment when I cammed and hadn’t made any disparaging or snide comments about it.

I didn’t know what to do with this version of Asa, but I preferred it over the passive-aggressive teenager I’d been forced to live with.

After a few moments of deliberation, I pulled the ingredients for a stir fry out of the fridge. I wasn’t in the mood to cook anything fancy, and I was running low on options.

Making a mental note to stop at the grocery store after work tomorrow, I brought my food to the counter to start prepping.

“Is it okay if I use the microwave?” Asa asked.

The only reason I didn’t jump at his voice was because I was used to his stealthiness by now. I had no clue if it was deliberate or if he just stepped lightly out of habit, but the guy had a gift for moving silently when he wanted to.

“That’s fine.”

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Asa went to the cupboard I’d cleaned out for him and pulled a can of beans and a single potato out of it.

The cupboard, like his side of the fridge, was practically bare. He never seemed to keep much food in the house, but with his financial issues, I couldn’t see him eating out or ordering in all the time.

Asa might be a lot of things, but he wasn’t irresponsible, especially not when it came to money. I’d watched him spend almost three weeks researching laptops before he’d finally settled on which one he wanted to buy back when we were in high school. And I was pretty sure he’d had most of his wardrobe since then too.

Was he eating properly?

Asa had always been naturally skinny, and the guy could eat. I’d seen him finish an entire medium pizza by himself and still have room for dessert, but I hadn’t seen him eat even a full meal since he moved in.

Was he that strapped for cash? My grocery bills had skyrocketed over the past few years. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he wasn’t eating because he couldn’t afford to.

The only other explanation was that he was on some sort of diet, and that was even more worrisome than him trying to stretch his grocery dollars. He didn’t have much body fat to burn, and restricting calories at his weight was dangerous.

Being as covert as possible, I watched out of the corner of my eye as Asa washed the potato, then stabbed some cuts into it and put it on a plate so he could microwave it.

While it cooked, he opened the can of beans, then dug a nearly empty bag of shredded cheese out of the fridge.

“Did you forget how to use a knife?” he asked, not looking at me as he brought the bag of cheese to the counter.

“Huh?”

“The knife.” He met my gaze, then nodded at the knife I was clutching. “I was just wondering if you forgot what to do with it since you don’t seem to be using it to cut your broccoli.”

“I remember how to use it,” I muttered, more annoyed at being caught creeping on him than I was at his comment.

“I can leave if you’d rather be alone.”

“It’s not that.” I focused on the broccoli in front of me and started chopping it. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. It’s not like I can stop you.”

“Do you eat out a lot?”

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