Page 39 of Bargain with the Bachelor
My housemates had started dressing better, and someone—I hadn’t pinpointed the guilty party yet—had started wearing cologne.
Anytime Kristal said something remotely funny, all the guys laughed like they were at a stand-up comedy show. When she’d admitted her love of animated films, they’d “confessed” to their own secret “kid movie” favorites.
She basically never had to get her own drink refill or carry her own laundry up from the lower level where the washing machine was.
But Kristal didn’t seem to notice the pandering and drooling that got on my every last nerve.
She treatedallof us with kindness and friendliness. Nothing more.
Just like in high school.
And she was a good sport about the Tech House show, playing her role for the cameras so well Hap started musing aloud about her potential as an actress.
“You’ve already got the waiting tables part down,” he joked. “You’re basically ready to move to Hollywood.”
“Sounds good.” She laughed, playing along.
“She doesn’t want to be an actress,” I harrumphed. “She’s a photographer.”
“What crawled up your ass and died?” Aiden asked. “We’re going to have to re-distribute the nicknames around here cause you’re out-grumping Reid these days.”
He leaned back in his chair to put himself in Reid’s sightline. “Hey, you wanna be the new Doc?”
Without looking up from his computer, Reid said, “I want to moveoutof this madhouse altogether. This show better not get picked up by the network. I’d rather die than have Mara see me on it.”
He pointed a warning finger at Hap, who laughed. “Well, thatiskind of the idea. But if it does get picked up, they’ll shoot it with a new cast.”
“They’ll never find a cast of bigger idiots than these,” Reid muttered.
Josh laughed. “Nah. He’s still Grumpy.”
Unable to get into the jovial mood of the others, I headed for the door. “I’m going for a run.”
I put in my earbuds and hit the street, headed for the open waterfront where I could clear my head and wear myself out physically.
Though I had on lined athletic pants and layered shirts, it was bracing near the water. The icy air and ocean spray hit my face like a hard slap.
Good.I needed a slap.
This whole crazy situation was my fault. Reid was right—the filming was disruptive to our work. We’d gotten less done in the past couple of weeks than we had since starting this venture. The whole idea behind living and working together was to getmoredone.
I felt bad for luring Kristal here under false pretenses and forcing everyone else to go through the stupid ruse of filming the reality show fornoreason.
I felt even worse for myself.
She hadn’t magically fallen in love with me, and she wasn’t going to.
Which made it torment to live with her. We were together all the time physically but miles apart emotionally. It was almost worse than not seeing her at all.
No matter what I did, I just couldn’t seem to manage to view her as a friend. I’d tried, but it was impossible, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. MaybeIshould be the one considering moving out instead of Reid.
Returning to the house covered in sweat, I jogged up the stairs and headed straight to the shower, still ruminating on the situation.
My wireless earbuds blasted old-school Stones as I moved on auto-pilot through my room toward the bathroom and shucked off my pants. Then I stripped my damp shirt and sweatshirt over my head.
I realized my mistake when the garments dropped to the floor just inside the bathroom door.
Beside a small pile of women’s clothes.
