Page 5 of Ink & Snow
I indicated the puddle. “I’ll be right here to watch the puddle and make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.”
He cleared his throat and left, though he looked over his shoulder before he closed the door behind him, meeting my eyes. Yup, he’d do.
Amory came back with a mop and a bucket. Thankfully, he’d gotten rid of the atrocious hat. Yet that minimal undressing was a mixed bag. He’d also taken off his winter jacket, which had been a normal grayish-blue affair. I sort of wished he’d kept it on because the man who owned a tattoo parlor was wearing a fucking holiday sweater. And yes, it was a spooky holiday sweater with a skeleton rather than a reindeer and mostly black as the base color, but honestly, it wasn’t an improvement. If anything, it added to my determination to get him out of his clothes.
By now, night had fully fallen even if it wasn’t that late yet. And while I’d opened a few boxes and surreptitiously watched Amory’s ass while he mopped, I’d managed to locate some of my kitchen stuff.
“You’re staying for cake and coffee, right?” I asked, carrying the box with my coffee maker over.
He straightened and faced me, one hand wrapped around the broom handle. “Oh. Isn’t it late for coffee?”
I shrugged. “I like living on the edge. Plus, it’s still really cold in here. Maybe I can convince you to share body warmth with me.”
“I think Fran actually left a space heater downstairs. Do you want me to fetch it?”
I lifted an eyebrow. Cecil had hated that I could do that. He knew it looked cool, and he was jealous. Served the little fuck right.
Amory just seemed confused. “Do you…not want me to get the space heater?”
Maybe my gaydar was a little off after all, although that hadn’t happened in, well, ever really. There was one other possibility, so I decided to test the waters.
“Do you always fetch things for your boyfriend, Amory? Has he not learned to get his own things instead of making you serve him?”
He turned crimson. It absolutely clashed with his skeleton holiday sweater.
“Uh, I don’t actually, you know. Have one. A boyfriend, I mean. Sorry.”
I reconsidered my initial evaluation of Amory. Yes, he was cute-looking bordering on hot. He had also committed a felony by randomly walking into my home uninvited, then he’d made me look past that by offering to clean up slush from my kitchen floor. And now he was acting all kinds of innocent, almost like he wanted to seduce me rather than the other way around.
He was either deviously calculating or blessedly ignorant and good-hearted, and in that moment, I couldn’t really tell which was worse. Which was better.
“All the more reason to have chocolate cake and coffee with me. Trust me, chocolate is better than boyfriends any day.”
“Oh, okay.”
“You have to close up your shop?”
He shook his head. “Already did that. There are no more bookings for today, and with this weather and it being a weekday, there won’t be any walk-ins. I left a note though, so people can find me, just in case.”
I chuckled, pointed at the mop. “Scared I’ll take that broom from you, beat you over the head with it, and lock you into my basement?”
His eyes went wide. “That is…oddly specific. But no, I don’t think you’re a bad person. Bad people don’t drive electric cars.”
“Which a bad person would know. A bad person might pick the car just to appear good to cute little things who come into other people’s homes like brownies doing chores and spreading cheer. If you’re done in the kitchen, I’m making coffee.”
He nodded. “Brownies… Do you have a knife?”
“Huh?”
He pointed. “For the cake, not for you. I can’t stab yet another neighbor in the back. If they keep vanishing, Dwayne will notice.”
It was my turn to stare at him. Amory wasn’t good at the whole poker face thing though, and before long, he broke out in giggles.
I snorted, took a step closer, and ran my index finger up the mop handle just above the point where he was holding it. “Hilarious.”
“Thank you. I try.” He ignored my finger stroking wood. Was I off my game already?
I kept my poker face in place. “That box there should have what you need.”
