Page 12 of Life To My Flight

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

I didn’t bother asking how he got in.

The man was a freakin’ genius. He could get in positively anything.

Pickle jars and locked doors being the most common.

Even bypassing my complicated alarm I’d had installed as soon as I’d moved in wasn’t out of the ordinary.

It’d cost a mint, but it gave me piece of mind.

I was a single woman living alone in a new, big city.

It was worth it.

It did make me question the system, though, if it could be so easily bypassed.

“I have to go to work today. Thought I’d give you a ride. Took your car in to the shop,” he said simply.

I blinked at him.

“But...but I don’t have any money to pay to fix my car right now. And how am I supposed to get to and from work if you’ve taken my car away from me? And what if Nonnie needs me?” I asked somewhat shrilly.

His eyes opened. “What part of ‘I’d give you a ride’ did you not understand?”

“The part where you took my car without asking. I have shit in there I needed!” I yelled.

The man was so goddamned high handed!

Always doing things without asking my input.

A year ago, it was kind of nice that he did that for me. Now, though, when we had zero potential of a relationship, it was not something I needed, nor wanted, to put up with.

If I was being truthful, though, it was nice of him. And I knew he wouldn’t leave me to fend for myself. I also liked how he cared enough to make sure I had a reliable car.

I didn’t like that he was making me feel things I hadn’t felt in so long. Things that made me start hoping.

Wanting.

Needing.

“You have ten minutes before we need to leave. I have to be on shift here shortly, and it’s going to be tight getting you to work and then getting to mine,” he said as he sat up from the bed and looked at me with an impatient gesture.

I was habitually late.

Cleo was habitually early.

We fought over that constantly.

The one thing he didn’t do was wake me earlier than I wanted to be woken.

I was a bitch to the extreme if I was woken early.

Sadly, he knew that, too. Which was why he’d let me sleep this morning instead of waking me.

I wasn’t selective in who I was mean to.

He knew better, having chosen to wake me early only once before, and then never doing it again.

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