Page 27 of Crave Thy Neighbor

Not because I’m being a dick, but because I’mthattired.

A hand slips between the twin doors just as they’re about to close.

Dean slides into the elevator car with a hard stare directed my way.

“Hey, fucker. I said hold the door.” He shakes his head, taking up a post next to me. He leans one foot against the wall and tilts his head back, looking up at the ceiling. “How come nobody in this damn apartment building can hold the door for people?”

“Probably because nobody wants to share an elevator with you.”

“You kidding? They only wish they could be so lucky. You look like shit, by the way.”

I loll my head his way. “Careful, Dean. You keep sweet-talking like that and I might start to suspect you’re crushing on me.”

He huffs. “Only in your wildest dreams.”

“See you’re wearing your work purse. You just get off?”

“It’s a briefcase.” He side-eyes me. “And yes.”

“Kinda late, no? You’re not fucking around on River, are you?”

He barks out a laugh. “Please. Like I could find anyone better than her.” His words are so sweet they almost make me queasy. “Post-season football shit.”

“Sorry you guys sucked ass this year. But just so you know, that’s entirely your fault,Coach.”

“Fuck you very much,” he mutters. “You hear from Maya about the rooms yet?”

I stiffen at the mention of her.

The crew wouldn’t shut up about her for the first thirty minutes of lunch, grilling me about how I knew her and if I was “tapping that shit.”

Jake finally steered the conversation in another direction after I snapped at the new kid when he mentioned how great Maya’s ass looked in her jeans.

I mean, shit. He wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t need to bring it up in conjunction with the half-chub he got from staring at it.

I shake my head. “Not yet.”

“She’ll come around.”

I grunt.

Given my reaction to seeing her today, I’m not sure Iwanther to come around.

He turns to me. “What’s that look for?”

“Nothing.”

“Right. Like that same nothing that was happening at the bar?”

“Yep. Just like that.”

He scoffs, settling back against the wall. “Gonna take a stab and guess you two met before we got there, and I bet you flirted your ass off because it’s who you are. Then I’m going to guess you realized who she is and how off limits she is to you, huh?”

Fuck.

I kind of hate how well he knows me sometimes.

But I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing whether he’s right or wrong.

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