Page 5 of Meant for Them
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I don’t sleep great after all the stress of yesterday, and I’m pissed when there’s a loud truck from one of my neighbors right outside our building before it’s even properly daytime yet. They are clearly reversing, playing that irritating-as-all-get-out beeping sound that’s way too loud to be necessary, and I peek through the window because I’m nosy, jaw dropping when I see that arrogant pretty man from the gas station hopping out of the driver’s side door.
What the hell is he doing here? How does he know someone at my complex?
It gets worse.
He’s downright jaunty as he unloads a hand truck from the back of the massive vehicle, carrying it over his head as he climbs the stairs and then he disappears from view.
It’s totally plausible that he’s going somewhere else, right?
But of course, he knocks on my door. “Come on beautiful, rise and shine! It’s move out day!”
It’s barely seven fucking am, is what it is.
My hair a mess, my pajamas wrinkled from sleep and my feet bare, I stomp to the door and pry it open, doing my best glare at him. “What the hell are you doing here? How do you know where I live?”
He sucks in a breath and runs his eyes slowly up and down my body, lingering overlong at my bare legs beneath the giant promotional beer T-shirt I got for free at work, and then that irritating smile is plastered on his face as he leans an arm on the hand truck. “I’m here to help you move.”
“And how would you know I needed to move?”
“Oh, well, see, it’s quite simple. I bought your place of business, got your employee records because that was included in the purchase, found your address, then bought that place as well, and now here we are. Your knight in shining armor, ready to bring you somewhere… better.”
I scrub my face and then decide the best way to deal with him is to straight up slam the door in his face.
He immediately knocks again, but I’m already carting my ass to the kitchen to turn on my coffee pot.
He would take that as an invitation to enter.
“Don’t need your help,” I tell him as I reach for a mug from my drying rack.
“According to my sister, that’s not true.”
I spin and nearly slam the mug on the counter in my haste to glare at him. “Iwouldn’t have needed to callif a certain asshole hadn’t taken it upon himself to buy out and destroy not only my place of business, but my home as well!”
“Morgan, that gas station and these apartments are a blight on the neighborhood. You deserve so much better.”
“No. What I deserve is for you to fucking listen to the words coming out of my mouth. Back. Off.”
“…So, you don’t want the job, then?”
It’s perfectly acceptable to scream, right? I yank open my fridge door and scream into that before grabbing my carton of cream, then dig my hands into my scalp. “Obviously, I need the job because you fucking took my other one away. I spent the entire day yesterday traipsing here and there, trying to find someone else hiring, and nobody wanted anything to do with me, as I expected. So, you win. I get to go and whip off my top for money while I scrub houses for some cringy, crusty, creepy-ass man. You happy?”
He takes a step forward and I swear to the fucking moon he’s trying to placate me, holding his hands out like I’m the one being unreasonable in this situation and need tempering. “I’m trying to take care of you. Give you a better life. Didn’t think you’d up and just agree to move in with me and let me take care of you otherwise. I created the job so you’d still have some independence.”
I pour my coffee and way too much cream into my mug and chug down half of it before crudely wiping my mouth and glaring at him again. “You don’t even know me. I don’t know you. Why on earth would I just up and want to move in with you?”
Now he looks confused, and I almost wish I could understand the male brain to understand why. “You’re my mate. That’s all we need to know.”
I lean sideways and stare out at the yellow truck parked outside, then pointedly stare at his hand truck. “That’s most decidedlynotall we need to know, but where exactly do you think you’re going to be moving me? You think it was difficult to find someone to hire a half-breed? How many problems do you think I’m going to have finding someone torentto me, especially when I had less than zero notice about needing a downpayment for a new apartment?”
“You’ll be living with me, of course.”
“Oh my gods, you’re serious. How thick are you? You want me to come work for you, cleaning naked, live at your house randomly, and still think I’ll be interested in pursuing something romantic with you? Have you ever in your life tried to date somebody before? Did you seriously think the situation over and come up withthis,as the best-case scenario? You bought out two businesses at the drop of a hat, so you obviously aren’t hurting for money; there are so many other ways you could have gone about this if you actually wanted me to consider you.”
He steps closer again and has the audacity to reach for my mug of coffee and take a sip. Oh my fucking gods. He finishes it off.
“Fuck you! That was mine!”
