“Good,” he says, thinking about it before he turns and heads to his office.
Yeah, I guess the timing of this is working out really well for her. For me? Not as well.
The apartment is dark when I get back.
“You home?” I call at her bedroom door, glancing to find the lights off in the bathroom, too. “Where is she?” I mutter, dropping my keys on the kitchen counter and grabbing myself some water from the fridge. The kitchen sink is empty and clean. Did she even come home after the interview?
It’s so strange that I live with a woman I just fucked. In my office. During her job interview.
Really hard to distance myself, too, because living with her is starting to feel normal.
A smile tugs at me and I find my feet heading to her room. A rap on the door provides confirmation that she’s not here. “Drew?” I crack the door a little. I haven’t been inside here since before she moved in. Leaning on the doorframe, I take it all in. She made it really homey in here. She must have had that bed delivered because she never asked me to help put it together.
I walk in and touch the goose-down comforter. She’s got a small table with a single chair in the corner and a book lying on it titled: Resumes For Dummies. Lifting it up I find four personal-development books all related to business –success manuals. Thumbing through them I discover she’s scrawled notes in pen on tons of the pages, circling parts, dog-earing others.
“Shit! So this is why you spend so much time in here, huh?” I mutter as I read a quote she double-underlined.
You are a summation of the five people you spend the most time with. Choose wisely.
Can’t deny that I’m impressed.
I stack the books back how I found them, and glance over to a coatrack with her hats and necklaces hanging on it. In doing so, I land on a framed photo on a small four-level bookshelf next to the rack. A frown spreads over me as I walk over to it and lean down. I inspect the face of a smiling man around Drew’s age who’s got his arm around her. They’re at a party from the people and lights in the background – an outdoor celebration. She’s smiling at the camera. He’s gazing at her like there’s nowhere else better in the world to look.
I know who this has got to be. But why would she keep a photo of her husband after…?
The soft turn of her key in the front door lock makes me nearly drop the photo. I shove it back on the shelf, rapidly aligning it with the dust outline its absence left behind.
The click of heels sounds for two steps and the door closes. I know she’s taking off her shoes.
How the fuck am I going to explain being in her room?!
Shit! My heart is pounding.
What the hell is wrong with me?
This is so not cool, Jake.
Running an unsteady hand through my hair I take a big breath and walk out, ready to face my own weakness head on. Better to just fess up. This ain’t gonna be fun.
Her gaze drifts over to me from where she’s slipping out of her heels at the mat. Her eyes widen with surprise and she glances from me to her room. Before she can say anything I grin. “Hey, I was just looking for you.”
Her frown flickers and then fades away. “Did you just get home, too?”
“Yep. Two seconds before you did.” So much for honesty. But looking at her reminds me of when I saw her last, when I smacked her ass on the way out of my office. She was grinning from ear to ear and trusted me in that moment. I’m not ready to give that up, just because I got a little curious about her.
“Where ya been?” I smile, shoving my hands in my pockets.
Her eyes flicker to them and her smile becomes forced. “Jake, we have to talk.” She sets her purse down and wrings her hands.
I exhaled and mutter, “Shit. Not this again. Just so you know I was going to tell you we have to talk, too.” She stares at me, and I admit, “Okay, that came out sounding childlike.”
She smiles. Fuck, she’s beautiful. I didn’t think so, at first. I knew she was fuckable but now the woman is growing on me. Except for these fucking talks.
“Okay, go ahead,” I grumble, leaning on the wall and crossing my arms.
She glances to my biceps and pauses. I flex them just to fuck with her. She smiles wider. “Nice. Stop that.”
“Stop this?” I pump them back and forth to make them dance for her. “This thing? Stop being charming? Have you seen my cock? Because that’s the finale.”
She stifles a laugh. “Okay, come on. I really think we have to discuss things between us because this is very weird living with you, doing what we did.”
“Fucking like wild animals in a man-made cage?”
Pushing her tongue into her cheek, Drew looks at me like the memory has her fired up again. She sighs and adjusts her blouse. “Yes, that.”