10 Not Bad
Not Bad
The next morning, I wasn’t sure what had happened. There was an arm wrapped around me and my face was resting on a shoulder. Then I remembered. All of it. And my pulse started racing.
Ross was still sleeping soundly, arms around me, lips almost touching my forehead.
I’d never slept like that with anyone. Certainly not with Monty.
And although it was strange, I had never felt so comfortable.
I didn’t want to leave, but I needed to.
I was confused and needed to organize my thoughts.
And I knew I couldn’t do that with him still in front of me.
He murmured something in his dreams as I rolled aside and stood softly.
When he was asleep, he looked like an angel.
I walked on tiptoe to the closet and put on some panties, a sports bra, and some shorts.
A run—that was what I needed just then. Even if I was exhausted from a very different form of exercise.
I looked once more at Ross and couldn’t help but smile. But I tried to stop myself. I needed to slow down. We were just friends, right? Just friends having fun.
Exactly.
Now my brain piped up: Don’t make me laugh .
OK, I needed to get my mind on other things. I didn’t run as far as usual, but I killed some time stopping for coffees for the whole house and a jar of peanut butter for Sue. As I was walking back into the building, I felt my phone buzz. It was Monty.
Don’t ask me why, but I decided not to answer.
When I got upstairs, I found Sue digging around in the fridge. Ross was at the bar yawning, shirtless, in a pair of cotton trousers. I couldn’t help but look at the eagle tattooed on his back. And when I did, I remembered how I’d caressed and kissed it just a few hours before.
When Will and Naya stumbled in, I announced, “Look what I got you.”
Naya responded, “Will, I’m sorry, but you’re no longer the person I love most in the world.”
“I can deal with it,” he said.
And when Sue turned her nose up at the coffee, I announced, “And peanut butter for the lady,” getting her to smile despite herself.
Her eyes lit up as she grabbed it and turned around to take out a spoon.
When I passed Ross his coffee, he gave me a smile meant only for the two of us and touched my fingers, and I wondered if anyone had noticed. He giggled as I drew back, embarrassed.
Taking a seat next to him, Will said, “Hey, guys, I’m sorry about the noise last night. My bed’s busted and it makes this noise. I hope it didn’t bother you.”
“You always bother me,” Sue replied, sitting in her favorite armchair.
“I was fine with it,” I reassured him.
“Me too,” Ross said. “Actually, I slept like a baby. Like, I haven’t slept that well in ages. Maybe ever. What about you, Jen?”
I blushed. He knew perfectly well what that question implied. To make time, I took a long swig of coffee, swished it around in my mouth, and swallowed.
“Uh…pretty good,” I replied.
He wouldn’t let that go. “Pretty good?” he asked, looking almost offended.
“Not bad,” I said.
And we went back and forth, with him pressing me each time I gave an answer.
Not bad wasn’t enough for him, so I tried again with Pretty good , but he wanted to know exactly how good Pretty good was, so I said maybe a seven out of ten, and he asked why I was such a downer, and this continued, with Ross arguing it was a nine out of ten at the least. Everyone was watching us, looking a little lost. Naya asked, “So you guys rate how you sleep? Is that a thing?”
“Yeah, it’s one of our hobbies,” Ross said.
Sue interrupted us, screaming, “SHIT!” We all turned to see her standing in front of the sink, staring down into the stagnant water. “It’s stopped up. And I guess I should go ahead and tell you who’s not going to plunge it.”
Naya nudged Will with her elbow and he said, “Yeah, I’m actually busy.”
“With what?” Ross asked.
“With me,” Naya responded.
Ross cursed and said he was tired of being everyone’s errand boy. Half an hour later, the room had cleared out, the problem still wasn’t solved, and he was on the floor with his head under the sink while I sat on the counter eating toast and watching him.
“How’s it going down there?” I asked as he emerged briefly to pick up a wrench.
“You think this is hilarious, don’t you?” he replied.
“I’ve done worse things,” I said, trying to keep myself from gawking at his nude torso, even though it was the perfect time to do it, since he couldn’t see me.
OK, I admit it: I wasn’t trying that hard.
He asked me for a wrench, and I responded, “What’s the magic word?
” He said, “Pass it to me or I’ll do it to you again here and now, and everyone in the apartment will know. ”
“Those aren’t the magic words.” I handed him the wrench. “Ross, tell me something. How is it possible that you can take apart a sink but you don’t know how to buy your own groceries?”
“Listen, everybody’s got their own talents. Though honestly, I’m getting to the point where I’d just as soon call a plumber.”
“Oh, Ross, don’t disappoint me! You look so manly down there,” I joked.
“The things I do for women…”
He looked out at me and, to my surprise and embarrassment, asked me, “Are you enjoying the view?” I said I didn’t know what he was talking about, and he laughed. “Sorry, cutie, but I can feel your beautiful brown eyes on me. There’s no point in denying it.”
Beautiful? Were my eyes beautiful?
He announced he was done, and I tried the faucet. It was fixed. The water flowed down the drain better than before. “I’m impressed,” I told him, and he asked, “Who’s a seven out of ten now?”
“Don’t be silly. It was just a dumb joke. It’s not bad, having a handyman around the house.”
“I’m getting tired of the phrase ‘not bad.’”
“If you want me to call you something better, you’re going to have to earn it,” I said.
“Well, I aim to please. If you have any notes for me, I’ll study them before we meet back up tonight.”
That made me clam up—I was still struggling to act normal about what we’d done—and I tried to distract myself by taking another bite of my toast. But he reached up, grabbed my wrist, and took such a huge bite of it that there was barely anything left but the crust.
“Ross, dammit! That was my breakfast!”
“I earned it,” he said. And before I could complain more, he grabbed my chin and kissed me, and I would have collapsed on the floor then and there if he hadn’t reached down and grabbed my butt at the perfect moment. He separated from me with a mischievous smile while I tried to catch my breath.
“Not bad, right, Jen?” he said before turning and walking off down the hall.
I walked into the living room and almost jumped out of my skin as I noticed that Sue was sitting motionless in her chair.
She hadn’t made a sound the whole time, and I just assumed she was gone. She looked up at me and asked, “So…?”
Oh no.
“How was last night?”
No. Please tell me she didn’t hear us. No. No. No.
“Did you and Lana have it out?”
Thank you, God.
“Almost,” I replied.
“Turns out she’s not such a sweetheart after all, right?”
“Yeah. Anything but, actually. Why do you hate her so much, though?”
“Jen, in case you haven’t noticed, I hate everybody.”
“Even me?”
“You less than most people. Anyway, listen, if you do come to blows, give me a heads-up. I’m thinking of making a YouTube channel. ‘Preppy Bitch Gets What’s Coming to Her’ could be a good concept for my first video.”
I laughed and walked to the bathroom, where I took a long shower.
When I emerged, wrapped in a long fluffy towel, Ross was nowhere to be seen.
I spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon studying for my French exam—which reminded me of Lana and made me wish I’d never taken the class.
I’d hoped doing so would get my mind off of Ross, but of course I spent half the time staring at the door and asking myself where the hell he was.
I didn’t start worrying until dinnertime came around.
I asked Will, who was on the couch toying with his laptop, where Ross had gotten off to, and whether it was normal for him to just up and disappear.
He didn’t seem worried, and said, “He’ll come back when he’s tired.
Especially now that he’s got an incentive. ”
“Was it that obvious?” I asked.
“Nah,” he said, reassuring me. “Naya hasn’t mentioned it, anyway. And I won’t say anything to her. I’m sure Ross will show soon enough. What do you feel like eating in the meantime?”
“Honestly, whatever.”
“You want to cook something?”
“Sounds good. Is Naya coming over?”
“She can’t,” he said. “She’s tired. She’s got tests all week. And Sue already said she wasn’t coming out of her room tonight and no one should try to bother her.”
The two of us went in the kitchen and got to work making lasagna.
We didn’t have all the ingredients, so we had to improvise, but to my surprise, Will knew what he was doing, and the end result was impressive.
We ate on the couch, watching a house reno show and joking about how lame the host was.
At eleven, Ross still hadn’t shown. Will started yawning and said, “I need to hit the sack.”
“Good night,” I told him, and I guess he could tell the situation was eating at me because he stopped to say, “Jenna, don’t wait up for him. He could be anywhere.”
“I won’t,” I lied.