Page 19 of I Want You
How did I like having Aurora staying with me? I loved it.
How was work in the mortgage industry going? Still strong despite the sellers’ market, coupled with high interest rates.
Any fun plans for the weekend? Nope.
The world’s most uneventful date came to an end, and despite neither of us having any plans for the next two days, he didn’t make plans with me until next weekend.
It wasn’t that I wanted to hang out with him every day. Our relationship was still new—although wehadbeen seeing each other for weeks, even if that only meant four dates—and too much time together could seriously backfire. But it would have been nice to feel like someone wanted to see me, wanted to hang out with me.
God, I sounded so needy. Eddie was respectful and nice and mature enough to know what healthy space in a relationship looked like.
He pulled up outside my apartment building, and I turned to him to give him a hug. Instead, Eddie lunged forward and smashed his lips into mine, his tongue spearing into my mouth like he was trying to catch a fish. I kissed him back for a few seconds, recovering from my shock. Up until now, we’d ended each date with a hug. His kiss was… nice. It was nice. I searched inside of myself for some spark of heat or desire but came up empty.
“Thanks for coming all the way down here just for pizza,” I told him when I pulled back.
“Turns out it wasn’t just for pizza,” he smirked.
I smiled back at him. “Have a good night.”
“You too.” He pulled away from the curb before I had even turned toward my front door.
At that moment, a man popped out of the shadow of my front stoop, and I screamed.
“Does Aurora Hart live here?” the man asked. He looked well put together. His neat hairstyle and bright white smile contradicted the darkness in his eyes though.
“Who are you?”
“I’m looking for Aurora. Is she here?”
“No,” I told him, immediately reaching for my phone in mypurse. “There’s no Aurora here. But I’m trying to get home, so if you’ll excuse me. I have to get ready for my shift at the police department.” I wasn’t on shift tonight, but the lie had the desired effect of getting him to step aside.
“You look like her. Same beautiful red hair,” he said. His tone missed the mark of charming by a mile. The smoothness of his voice sent a shiver down my spine. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”
I shuffled past him without replying. Only when I closed and locked the door to my apartment did I breathe again.
“Rory?” I shouted.
Wait, no, her car was gone when we pulled up. She must have gone out like she said. I sent her a text, warning-slash-asking her about that guy.
We would be having a serious talk in the morning about whoever he was. I just hoped she hadn’t gotten herself mixed up in anything.
6
Scarlett
Aurora got home at 2:00 a.m. last night. And I knew that because she banged into the door, dropped her keys on the floor, and I was pretty sure she bounced off the hallway walls until she reached her bedroom. The girl was a clumsy drunk. It was clearly not going to be any use talking to her in that state. I went back to sleep, postponing our conversation until the morning.
She shuffled out of bed a lot earlier than I expected, plopping herself down at my little dinette. I reached into the fridge and pulled out two more eggs.
“Do you want scrambled or fried eggs?”
“Fried,” she groaned.
I set about making her eggs and finished cooking the sausage links I had started. “How are you feeling?” I asked her.
“Could be worse.” She shrugged.
“Did you get my message yesterday?” I glanced back at her, but she was looking down at the table, avoiding my eyes. A slight nod was all I got. “Who is he?”
