Page 44 of Crave Thy Neighbor

For fuck’s sake, I need to get laid or something.

Or get a damn grip.

I swallow, giving myself a mental shake, and clear my throat.

“I was thinking this could be your room,” I tell her. “I can move the chair to my bedroom so there’s enough room for a bed and whatever else you’ll need.”

“Because you don’t trust my kid in here around your books?”

I cringe when she says it aloud, and she barks out a laugh when my face crumples, caught.

“It’s fine. I understand. I wouldn’t trust him either. Like I said, he can be a shit sometimes.”

Relief floods me. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

“So, three bedrooms—I assume that means two bathrooms?”

I nod, then point down the hallway. “End of the hall. Though I don’t ever use it for some reason, so I’ll have to hit the store to grab some supplies for in there.”

“You don’t need to do that,” she says. “I can get everything.”

I nod but have no intentions of letting that happen.

“You mentioned it would need to be a quick move-in. Did you have a date in mind?”

“Is Monday too soon? If so, I can figure something out. I have Thursdays off too. I need to vacate my apartment by the end of the month—though I suspect you already knew that.”

“Hey, I just show up on the jobsite and go where I’m told. That’s it.”

She laughs. “I’m teasing. But you have to admit this whole situation is rather comical. I mean, what are the odds?”

I think back to that first night in the bar.

I was going to bring her home with me. We know where the night was leading. We were ready for it.

Then everything blew up.

“It’s an…interesting situation, that’s for sure.”

She tucks her hands into her back pockets, then rocks back on her heels. “So…are we going to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?” I ask, playing dumb.

“The fact that I was going to go home with you that Friday night. I’m going to be living with you, so we should probably discuss it at some point.”

I hoped we’d pretend it never happened, but…

“But you didn’t. There’s nothing to discuss. No harm, no foul. Just a…missed connection.”

She tilts her head again, and I’ve learned she does that when she’s trying to figure me out.

She stares at me so long I start to feel uncomfortable under her gaze.

Or maybe I don’t want her to see right through me.

Finally, she sighs, nodding once. “Okay. It never happened then. So, move-in day?”

7

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