A voice I wished I’d never become familiar with stabbed at my eardrums. “Hunter.”
Every muscle tightened. “Keep walking.”
“Who is that?” She peeked over my shoulder, but I shifted, blocking her view. A gentle ding signaled the arrival of the car, and the doors opened.
“None of your business. Get in the elevator.”
Her grimace was set to ear steaming, but she got inside.
“If that’s your plan, I want you to know, I’ve put up with way bigger assholes than you.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“A warning.”
5
Sabrina
Two weeks later and it was still a warning I’d yet to be able to follow up on. Having a bum arm hadn’t helped things when it came to dealing with my new roommate and truly getting rowdy. Plus, I’d been pretending I was a lot tougher than I was. I’d never been too good at maintaining the façade of impenetrability, even when I didn’t have a roof over my head due to sheer good will.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had bags?” Hunter tried to snatch the bag from my non-injured arm.
“Are you angry with me because I’m not asking for your help?” I held on tighter, grimacing.
“Let me take it. Do you want to hurt yourself even more?” He snapped at me like this was all my fault.
“Like you care.” I rolled my eyes and let go of the bag. Fine, if he wanted to carry my tampons, shampoo, and conditioner, that was on him. I released my grip on the bags and he stumbled back.
He recovered and picked up a bag that had fallen to the floor. “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”
“No, you were just trying to make things difficult enough that I’d pack up and leave.” I leveled my gaze at him. Our truce had been uneasy to say the least.
His eyes softened a hair before he turned and walked toward my room. “You’ve got no place else to go? No friends, boyfriend, parents?”
“My best friend is living in Russia, no boyfriend.” I was proud I kept from wincing. “And my parents are in Arizona, where they downsized to a smaller house. If I had other options, I wouldn’t have taken Barbara up on her generosity. I don’t make it a habit of taking things offered to me that I don’t need.”
“What did the doctor say?” He stopped in front of my bedroom door, his eyes not boring into mine with his barely contained annoyance, but searching.
I didn’t like the fluttering in my stomach. It was hard to concentrate when his gaze was locked onto mine. There were lines I wasn’t crossing, especially not with him. Everyone else seemed to think Hunter was the nicest guy ever, but I’d seen what he was like when he didn’t get his way. I did not need to deal with another overgrown man-child and lose another place to live. “None of your business.” I reached for my bags.
He jerked them back. “Are you sure I can’t pay for the visit?” The soft, caring way he said it sent even more confused signals to my brain. He was only trying to cover his ass so Barbara didn’t chew him out.
“I wouldn’t want you to think I was taking advantage.” I took the bags from his hand and slipped inside my bedroom, then closed the door behind me. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tattle on you to Barbara. Your secret is safe with me.”
Insufferable asshole. Somehow, on the cusp of thirty, I’d been transported back to college—no, high school—when dealing with Hunter.
His shadow under my door rocked back and forth before darting off toward his room.
When I walked down the hall, I expected to be hit in the back of the head by a spitball.
Music rumbled the walls, which made my recording even more difficult than usual. That and my sprained wrist.
“How’s the wrist?” Cat’s voice came in over the speakerphone at full volume. Not that I needed to worry about disturbing Hunter since he wouldn’t hear an explosion in the living room.
“It hurts less.” With my arm in a sling, I fought with the mouse in my left hand, trying to edit my latest disaster of a video.
“You’re sure it’s a sprain?”
“That’s what the doctor said.” Paying for the visit out of pocket hadn’t been first on my list of how to spend any of my savings, but it needed to be done when the swelling had taken a while to go down. He’d given me a brace and some ibuprofen, and I was kicking myself for not toughing it out.
“What’s the music in the background?”
“Hunter said he needs to listen to the music for work.” Who the hell needed to listen to music at floor-shaking volume for work?
Although the lighting in the room was great, the overall feel was boring. Not that bedding was overly exciting, but I was up against big agencies for this work and beating them at their own game was just going to end up with me getting my ass kicked. My angle was more natural, high production, but images and video that felt more like a friend recommending a product or taking pictures to share. It also came with a much lower price tag for the companies than other, more established companies. Sometimes it worked and I landed the jobs, but lately my inbox was a trickle of possible positive responses, but there was still a ways to go until a paycheck arrived.
The bundle of abandoned sheets sat on the floor.
Background noise on her end was low.
I couldn’t tell if she was at home or outside.
“What does he do?”
“I have no freaking clue. For all I know, he’s a male escort.” His comings and goings were all over the place. Not that I cared or even noticed him aside from the brain-pounding music, stomping, and the pot of coffee that seemed to always be brewed. I got it. He hated the way I made coffee. And damnit if his brews weren’t as close to heavenly as possible. I never had to go out for coffee, which was a good and bad thing. My time in the apartment bordered on hermitville with all the work I needed to get finished by the end of the week.
“It’d be super weird if he were a female escort.”
“You’re hilarious. Most of the time he’s in and out at random times during the day or out late at night. He wears suits a lot, and the rest of the time he’s in that business casual, rolled-sleeve, button-down-shirt look.” The same look that made me think dirty thoughts, not the murderous ones I usually held for him.
She growled. “Oh, I know the one. How are his forearms? Does he flex a lot? Are they sinewy and muscly?”
God were they. Tightening and bunching with every move. It was mesmerizing. “They’re okay.”
“You’re totally hot for those arms. That’s the first thing you mentioned about…” She clammed up, and her voice trailed off.
A pang hit me in the center of my chest, like it was being used as a punching bag.
“How are you doing? You know.” She cleared her throat. “With the whole Seth situation.”
“As good as can be expected. I blocked him on everything. There were lots of messages at first, but I checked the folder I dumped them into and they’ve petered out.” Somehow that hurt more, and the guilt washed right in after the waves of pain washed away. I didn’t want him coming after me. He never should’ve pursued me in the first place. But I guess a part of me hoped he’d be hung up on me for longer. I wanted the torture drawn out a bit more. Now it felt like I’d be replaced in a week.