Page 24 of Landlord Wars
I glanced at the closet. “It’ll fit through the doorway. Especially with the help of my loving sister.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. It won’t fitat home.”
The breath whooshed from my lungs, and I stilled. I’d been so focused on moving forward, I’d forgotten what it would mean to move back.
My new furniture wouldn’t fit at Mom’s. Nothing would fit inside my family home, not even me.
I squeezed the top of my head, forcing back a headache. Moving backward didn’t matter. And it didn’t matter if the darn dresser fit. My aversion to hostile people who disapproved of me surpassed my reluctance to move into my mother’s house. Mostly.
Part of this was my fault for caring so much what people thought, and part of this was Landlord Devil’s fault for his attitude and subtle threats.
I joined my sister at the closet and started pulling the jeans and pants I’d carefully hung not long ago off the hangers and setting them in one of the boxes I hadn’t gotten rid of. “I have no choice. Max has made it clear I’m not wanted here.”
“He seemed fine last night. He even stuck around until you got home.”
Thathadbeen a surprise. Though it likely had nothing to do with me. “To be your and Jack’s referee! What was up with you two?”
Elise waved off my comment. “We disagreed about a reality show and men’s motives. It was no big deal.”
“No big deal? Elise, for a moment there, I thought you might come to blows.”
She sank onto the bed, her gaze focused on the wall. “Maybe it’s not such a bad idea for you to leave this apartment.”
I sat beside Elise, shocked. She had been urging me to move out of Mom’s for years. She was the last person to support my neurotic reason for moving back home.
She turned to me. “That Jack character is a massive jerk.”
Now we were getting to the real issue. Enough of this relaxed attitude about me moving out.
Elise’s face turned a reddish shade, and her hands clenched in her lap. “He had the balls to say that women are to blame for why men flip out.”
My head jerked back. “Wait, what? That doesn’t sound like Jack.”
“And then he went on to praise some guy on the reality show for lashing out at a woman in order to protect his fragile male ego,” she said, her voice rising.
I glanced at the door. “Keep it down. Jack is home, and he can hear you if you yell like that.” My nose scrunched. “Are you sure you understood his meaning?”
She looked off, her lips pursed. “In so many words.”
Which could mean anything. I waggled my head. “Okay, well, Jack is fragile right now. His last girlfriend did some pretty awful stuff.”
Elise’s face snapped up to mine. “Did you just defend him?”
I held up my hands. “Hell no. I hate it when women are blamed for men’s bad behavior. But I understand why Jack might be sensitive right now.”
“Doesn’t justify his defense of a man being an asshole,” she muttered.
“True. But there are reasons men behave the way they do, even if they’re wrong.”
Elise’s eyes narrowed, and she studied my face. “What about the landlord? You willing to excuse his bad behavior because of life experiences?”
Fair point. “That’s different. Max Burrows is a jerk, and Jack is a sweet guy.”
“Jack is not sweet!”
I clamped my hand over her mouth, and we toppled onto the mattress. “What did I say? Stop yelling before I kick you out.”
Elise sat up and smoothed her already flawless blowout hair. “You can’t kick me out. You need me to help you move.”
