My Favorite Mistake(17)

“I don't trust you,” I said, eyeing the cake.



He chuckled.



“You shouldn't.”



“Can we eat it now?” Renee said, tapping her foot.



Hunter handed her a cake cutter I'd never seen before.



“Be my guest.”



Renee grabbed it and sliced into the beautiful cake. We should have taken a picture of it beforehand. I wasn't sure how often we were going to be seeing things like that.



She pulled the piece out with her hands and then seemed to realize that she didn't have a plate. Hunter handed her one from a stack he had waiting. He'd thought of everything.



“I wanted to make this, but I didn't want the masses devouring it. Nothing sinister, I swear,” he said, holding up his hands.



I still didn't trust him, but cut myself a piece anyway. It had three layers, with a thick layer of frosting in between. I knew before I tasted a bite it would be heaven.



It was.



“I'm not going to sleep with you in exchange for this cake,” I said.



“I don't need to use cake to get you to sleep with me,” he said, handing Renee a fork so she’d stop using her fingers.



“Can we stop with the sexy talk? I'm eating over here,” Renee said, her mouth full.



I crossed my eyes at her, finished my slice of cake and licked my fingers. Hunter swiped some frosting from his cake and smeared it on my cheek.



“Hey!”



“That's it,” Renee said, taking her plate and going into the living room, “when the frosting starts to fly, I get out of the way. If you two want to have sex on the counter, can you just clean it up after? Oh, and please don't screw each other on the cake? I'd like to have another piece.”



I really, really wanted to retaliate, but instead I swiped the frosting off my face and stuck my finger in my mouth.



“Tease,” he said.



“Takes one to know one. What kind of guy makes a girl an amazing cake without expecting something in return?”



“A guy who doesn't exist!” Renee yells from the couch, her mouth still full of cake. I hoped she didn't choke.



“Me,” he says.



“Whatever. You do owe me for the e-reader incident.”



“You enjoyed that as much as I did.”



“Whatever.”



“Like I said, Missy, I wouldn't need cake to get you into bed.” He looked at me in a way that made me go bright red. Ugh. I looked away as quickly as I could and grabbed the cake cutter.



“I will stab you with this, don't think I won't.”



“Threatening violence, interesting. You know you do that when you're uncomfortable.” His voice lowered until only I could hear it. Renee was licking her plate to get the last of the cake crumbs.



“Bite me,” I said.



“You also say that when you're uncomfortable. Why, Missy? Are you sexually frustrated?” That was none of his damn business.



“You're not ever lying in bed, thinking of me in the next one, sleeping naked right across the room and my hands and —”



I turned and snapped my elbow toward his stomach. His flinch was satisfying.



“Nope,” I said, flipping the cake cutter in my hand and catching the handle again. I'd taken baton for like a month when I was five and my wrists were still good at flipping and catching things like that.



“Liar.”



I ignored him and went to sit with Renee. I needed her as a buffer. Darah came in a few minutes later, so I had at least two people. Not that it made Hunter have any more of a filter. I was pretty sure he was born without one. Well, I didn't have an anger filter. When those two things combined, it was anyone's guess.





Ten





Monday morning I woke up a little excited. It was my first day at the library in the afternoon, and I was nervous, but happy to be having some money coming in. I would cut off my hand before asking my mother to spot me some. She had enough worries without me being a mooch.

I took out my retainer and glanced over at Hunter. He was on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes, as if he was blocking them from the sun. His other arm was slung over the side of his bed. Somehow his sheets always managed to cover what they needed to cover. Except...

I shoved my face under the covers. I did not just see that. I peeked out again. Yup. Hunter Jr. was awake and standing at attention. Oh. My. God. I faced the wall, unable to look at it anymore. He moaned, rolling over. I stayed as still as I could, but suddenly, I got a fit of the giggles. I stuffed my blanket in my mouth, but it didn't help. Hunter sighed and moved again. I really, really didn't want him to wake up.

The giggling continued. I was in deep and there was no end in sight.

“What's so funny?” His voice made me jump, killing all hope I had of pretending I was asleep. I froze anyway, hoping he'd think I was having a nightmare or something.

“I can still hear you laughing,” he said, and I heard him grabbing his boxers. How could he get them on over...

“Why don't you come over here and give me a hand instead of giggling like a twelve-year-old,” he said, somehow getting the boxers on.

“Why don't you just take care of it yourself? That's probably what you usually do.”

“That's what you think.”

He walked out of the room and shut the door. The giggles finally took over and I was lost. Something about man bits was just hilarious. My fit continued until I had tears on my face. I lay in bed after it was over, gasping and trying to regain my composure.

It was only seven, but there was no way I was going to be able to sleep. I might as well get up and do some homework. I needed to wash my face and brush my teeth, but I wasn't going near the bathroom once I knew Hunter was out of it.

I parked myself in the living room with my textbooks, a bowl of cereal and a cup of black coffee. I heard the shower turn off and glued my eyes to my book.

“Shower's free,” he said, behind me.

I made a noncommittal sound and pretended I was absolutely fascinated with my French textbook. I heard him walking closer and I kept my head facing away. “You come any closer with that and I'll break it off. Got it?”

“You're feisty this early in the morning. I like it. Watcha reading?” He leaned over my shoulder, his damp skin inches from my face.

“Go away, Hunter. Seriously.”

“Fine, fine.” He shuffled back to the bedroom, and I went back to my homework.

An hour later Darah stumbled toward the coffeepot.

“What are you doing up so early?” she said.

“Couldn't sleep.”

“Was that you laughing like a psycho earlier?”

“Yeah, sorry. I didn't wake you up, did I?”

“Meh,” she said, gripping the coffee cup and taking a deep sip. “I wake up if Renee breathes too loudly. Not your fault. So,” she said, shoving some of my books aside so she could sit next to me, “what was all the giggling about?”

“It's nothing,” I said, the giggles threatening to come up again. “Just something I was thinking about.”

“Or someone?” She poked my shoulder.

“No.”

“Yeah, that was very convincing, Taylor. There is something going on between you and Hunter. Everyone else seems to see it but you.”

“The only thing that's going on is that he drives me up a wall and I want him to get hit by a bus.”

“Right, sure.”

“I'm serious!”

“Okay, Taylor. Whatever you say.” She gave me a look and went back to her coffee, and I went back to whatever the hell I was working on and not thinking about Hunter.





*****





I headed for my first day at the library with nerves and excitement. I punched my old-fashioned timecard and walked back to the office.

“Hello, Taylor, it's nice to see you again,” Tom said, shaking my hand. There were a few other people who worked in the department, and I was introduced to Nancy, Mary and Jeff.

“And this is the student worker section. We usually only have two workers at a time. The other student who shares your shift should be here any moment.”

I was a little early. He showed me to a desk that was split into two workstations facing each other with two ancient desktops, lots of stamp pads and pens.

“Oh, here he is,” Tom said, turning around. I turned my head and saw my coworker.

“Fancy seeing you here, Missy. Small world.” Hunter Zaccadelli, we meet again.

“You have got to be kidding.”

“Do you two know each other?” Tom looked both confused and uncomfortable.

“We're roommates,” I said.

“Well, it is a small world. That's not going to be a problem, is it?”

“No, not at all,” I said. There was no way I was giving up this job.

“Agreed,” Hunter said.

Tom gave us a look, but took our word for it. “Okay, then. For today I just need you to complete a few workplace safety tests. It's a pain you have to do them, but they're required for all new employees.”

Hunter sat down directly across from me and booted up the computer. I did the same as Tom told us how to log in to the website and what the test would entail. Didn’t seem too difficult.

“You sure this is okay? I know how hard it can be to work with someone you live with. My wife used to work in this department.” He smiled and we both reiterated that it would be fine. At least for now. We’d only been there for a few minutes, and I was still reeling. I didn’t believe in luck, but I seemed to be having a lot of the bad kind lately.