Page 7 of Lovers in Lockdown

‘Have you seen your couch? It’s half the size of me.’

‘Well, sleep in the bed then.’

Is this guy for real?

‘With your sister?’

‘I mean, yeah, if you can’t fit on the couch. Or get her to sleep on the couch, does it really matter?’

‘You’d seriously be okay with me sharing a bed with your little sister?’

‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

This conversation is giving me a headache.

‘In case I tried it on with her?’

‘Not really the type to defend her honour, to be honest. She’s a grown ass woman, she can do what she wants. Not sure why you’d wanna go there though, she’s gross.’

The woman might be one peanut short of a Snickers, but she’s far from gross. The curve of her hips, the softness of her face, the pert, roundness of her breasts are all I will be dreaming about tonight.

But despite what he says, hooking up with your best mate’s sister is never okay. Reid’s just too much of a good guy to tell someone what they can or can’t do, so he might be saying one thing, but I guarantee he’d be none too pleased if he actually caught me balls deep in his little sister.

‘Dude, neither of you have anywhere else to go, so you’re just gonna have to suck it up,’ Reid sighs.

I know he’s right. I can’t get a flight back to China and it’s not like I have family to turn to. When I was three, I was adopted into a military family. They did everything they were supposed to do, they fed me, clothed me, kept me warm in the winter months. But that was pretty much it. And when I left for university, I never heard from them again.

So, Reid is kind of the only family I’ve got. Dude’s my brother. Even if he does do stupid shit like offering me the same place to live as his little sister without telling either one of us.

And I’ve missed him like hell while I’ve been living in China.

When my boss opened a new restaurant in Beijing three years ago and offered me the position of head chef, Reid was the one who encouraged me to take the leap. I’ve never really had a home. I have no roots, no responsibilities, no family apart from Reid. And I like it like that. I’m free to ride the wave of life without answering to anyone.

Or, at least, I was until a crazy bat virus took over the world, the country went into lockdown and I wound up locked in a tiny apartment with a woman I barely know, sleeping on a lumpy leather couch for the foreseeable future.

‘Yeah, alright, we’ll work something out.’

‘Good,’ Reid blows out a breath. ‘Now, I gotta go. Later, brother.’

He hangs up and I scrub a hand down my face.

Shit, my clothes.

My clothes are in the bedroom.

Where Honey is hiding from me after she nearly kissed me in the bathroom. And yeah, okay, it wasn’t totally her fault. I felt it too. That weird electric charge between us that seemed to force our faces together. But it wouldn’t be the smartest idea to attack each other's faces on the first day of living together, especially as she’s Reid’s sister and completely off limits.

And now, she’s barricaded herself in the bedroom, effectively holding all my clothes hostage, while I’m sitting out here, naked and freezing my testicles off. I tighten the towel around my waist, take a deep breath and prepare myself to break the news to Honey that she’ll be stuck with me for the next few months.

I creep down the hallway and knock cautiously on the bedroom door.

‘Honey?’

No answer.

‘Honey, my clothes are in there.’

Still nothing.

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