Page 17 of The Significance of Moving On

“You’re not dripping paint all over my house.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?”

“Guess we’ll have to take our clothes off here,” I say. They both shoot me theChantal’s lost her mind againlook. “Listen, it’s not that big a deal. I don’t mean strip naked, just out of the heavy paint.”

“Isn’t this illegal somehow? Having two half-naked girls with me, one of them underage?” Casey asks.

“Uh,no. You’ve already seen me in my underwear, like twice. Turn around if you’re worried.”

But he doesn’t turn around. He doesn’t look away either, just in my eyes. And we never blink, not even once as I pull my shirt off and he pulls his up over his head. Our stares stay fixed. Bending, we each unzip and slide our shorts down our legs. I step out of mine. He kicks his.

Then I hear Kelsey. “Wow.Um, yeah, I’m going to shower.”

My head snaps to look at her breaking the eye contact for only a second but when I turn back Casey has turned around.

He’s partial to those longer boxer briefs, gray, always gray. And man, if the physicality of his jobs doesn’t reflect in his physique. Seeing an almost naked Casey, even from behind, reminds me of exactly how attracted to him I’ve grown since I moved in, and what it felt like to kiss him. A kiss we haven’t brought up since it happened. One, that I’ll admit, I think about more than I should because thinking about it makes me want to do it again—like right now. I won’t. What are the chances he’d let me get away with it a second time? But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to do all sorts of very unladylike things to him.

I don’t know if he’s every girl’s fantasy, but he sure is mine.

“Whoa. Is it hot in here?” I don’t mean to say it out loud, the words sort of spill out as I fan myself.

“No, it’s just you,” he says back.

I laugh watching the blush creep along his shoulders.

“Done.” Kelsey calls from the living room.

“I’m—I’m just going now,” I say.

Having a male roommate is different from living in the girl’s only dorm at school or even living with Tom. I come out of the bathroom as I would after any other shower, blue Hawaii wrapped around my body and Budweiser wrapping my hair. I’ve kind of adopted them as mine since moving in.

Demetrius stands in the doorway between my room and the living room, giving Casey crap about being almost naked in my bedroom.

I laugh, totally getting caught listening when he turns around with Casey standing directly behind him.

“Shower’s free,” I tell them, not sure what else to say.

“Damn, C-man.” Demetrius’s eyes do a slow perusal of me top to toe. “I get it.”

“Don’t.” Casey warns, and pushes past his brother.

“I’m gonna dress in your room,” I call after him and grab shorts and undergarments from my drawers in the living room, but my shirts are hanging in my closet, and Ido notwant paint on me again. While I’m inside his room, I pull Casey’s maroon Dr. Pepper T-shirt. It only takes me two figurative seconds to dress before heading back to the living room.

“I have never seen that ratty thing look so good,” Demetrius says to me when I join them sitting down on the sofa. With Kelsey wrapped in his arms, he brushes soft kisses along her forehead.

“I’m sure it looks better on Casey.”

“I’m sure it doesn’t.”

Okay, time for a subject change. “What are your plans for tonight?”

“Kels and I are going to the fair. You and C should come.”

“That sounds fun.” My words sound muffled as I rub the towel over my head to dry my hair more. “I guess you’ll have to ask him what his plans are, Saturday night and all.”

“Girl, please. Where areyougonna be at? Because that’s wherehe’sgonna be at.”

Hearing that shouldn’t make me happy, but it does. Casey hasn’t hung out with friends or gone on a date since I moved in with him. It’s a vicious cycle—I don’t want to monopolize his time, yet I don’t want him to hang out with anyone else.

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