Page 38 of Tears and Other Fears

Roommate? He hadn’t said anything about a roommate. It was bad enough I had to navigate learning how to live with one virtual stranger. Now I had to worry about two? The hallway ambush didn’t make sense. If we were supposed to live together, why the hostility?

“Oh, I see. So you’re the current mooch, worried I’m coming in on your turf, yeah? Don’t you worry, I have no plans to stay long,” I said with a little bite to my tone while fumbling to shake his hand. I could only manage one confident gesture at a time, and my shaking fingers betrayed the fierceness of my words with their clumsiness.

He lingered in the touch for a moment, and it wasn’t until a good few exhales had escaped my trembling lips that I realized he was still holding me, pressing his index finger into my wrist, as if he was testing my erratic pulse. He looked pissed as hell.

“Were you waiting for me?” I asked while snapping my hand back. I rubbed where our skin touched, not sure if I should run or punch him in the dick.

“Maybe. Come inside so we can talk,” the dangerous looking man demanded while glancing down. “Is the rest of your stuff in your car?”

I tucked a blonde strand of hair behind my ear before responding. “This is it,” I barked. At my words, my feet started bouncing in embarrassment.

It wasn’t my fault I didn’t have anything. Money was tight. I was all about surviving. There was nothing left in that trailer home I wanted anyway. It all reminded me of her. The only reason I saved her photo was for Lance.

“Fine. Come in.” He looked me up and down quizzically, then walked past me to unlock the door. I got a whiff of his scent and breathed it in.

He smelled like soap, leather, and expensive single malt scotch. I knew that drink. One of Mama’s boyfriends, Colby, always came over smelling like it. He had a wife and kids and a big house in the suburbs. Colby liked to come over when his life was feeling stagnant. He used to tell my mama that the cure for boredom was getting his dick wet. I learned long ago that you could tell a lot about a man by the way he smelled. And Decker smelled like trouble.

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