Chapter 5
Kelsie
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I lament as I stare at Hayes, who has climbed the remaining steps to the front door and is now face to face with me.
I was just leaving for my 10 a.m. yoga session at the student fitness center where I’m meeting Grace and Lucy. Looks like I’m going to need a helluva lot more than some deep breathing and shavasan poses to deal with this new revelation.
How is it possible that my ex-lover is now living in the same house as me?
Hayes gives me an apologetic shrug, his eyes cast down to his feet. “This is pretty weird, right?”
“Yeah,” I grunt, letting out a haughty huff. “You can say that again. Guess you’ll be looking for a new place to live.”
I dismiss him with a wave of my hand, brushing past him down to the top step, securing my yoga mat strap over my shoulder. I’m stopped when he tugs me back, halting my quick escape with a firm hand on my arm.
“Uh, I’m not moving. I just moved in.”
Snapping my head around, I stare at him in defiance, yanking my arm free from his grasp. “Uh…not my problem. I was here first so you need to leave.”
To my surprise, Hayes doubles over in a fit of laughter. He laughs so hard he has to place the bag he was carrying on the ground and holds himself up with one palm on his thigh and the other wrapped around his stomach.
I stare at him in indignation. “What the fuck is so funny right now?”
When his laughter dies down, he lifts his torso and shakes his head. “You don’t find this whole situation funny, Kels? I mean, what are the chances that we’d not only end up at the same school but also in the same house?” He sputters through a chuckle. “And you can probably bet dollars to donuts we’ll be in some of the same classes too.”
I pin him with a murderous glare and straighten my back. “If so, I guess you’ll not only be moving out but also switching programs.”
He hoots out again and crosses his arms over his chest. “Not happening. I’m here for the semester and committed to the football team. You’ll just have to put on your big girl panties and deal with my presence like a grownup.”
I’m seething inside now. How dare he suggest I’m anything but mature?
“Ha! That’s rich coming from the immature asshole who left me without a word on Christmas Eve. Yeah, that was so grown up of you, Hayes.”
Something shifts in his expression and his eyes turn soft. God, those eyes of his could melt me into a puddle. Warm brown honey and amber. Add that to his beautiful smile and the thick dark hair that’s always a bit shaggy, it all reminds me why I fell so hard for him in Paris.
But that was then and this is now and I will not be fooled again.
“Kelsie, I know I owe you an explanation. I didn’t mean to hurt you like that when I left Paris.” He tries to reach out and touch my arm again, but I flinch away. “I had my reasons and none of them had to do with you. I swear.”
I glance away, fighting off the tears wanting to spill out as I stare down the front path that’s now covered by a light dusting of snow. As if my body just realized how cold it is in only my yoga gear, I shiver and wrap my arms around my middle.
“I don’t care about your reasons, Hayes. You did what you did and I’m not going to forgive and forget. The best you’re going to get from me is my middle finger and my ass as I walk away.”
I swing around and march down the steps. I throw my hand in the air and give him my middle finger while smacking my butt cheek, which I know for certain looks amazing in these leggings. “Bite me, asshole.”
He mutters something that I can’t hear because I’m already shoving my earbuds back in my ears and jogging down the street.
If anyone is in need of a stress-relieving yoga session today, it’s me.
By the time I make it to the studio, I’m already five minutes later than I’d planned because I had to stop and catch my breath before entering the building. My body is hyped up on the adrenaline that kicked in when I learned that one of my new housemates is my former fling.
I inhale deeply and open the door to the studio, toeing off my shoes and leaving them in the cubby at the front before entering the fairly crowded room. I’m immediately greeted by Grace flapping her arm in the air to wave me over.
“We saved a spot for you,” she says with a proud smile.
“Thanks.” I unroll my mat and place my water bottle on the floor next to it, avoiding Grace and Lucy’s gazes. I’m afraid if I look at them, they’ll see everything that’s swirling around in my head.
I just need to get through this class and let out all this pent-up irritation from the last few days.
The problem is I’m not very good at letting shit go. I tend to hold on to emotional baggage and pack it in tight, letting that grudge fester like an abscessed tooth. Once someone burns me, my trust in them is gone once and for all.
“Is everything okay, Kels?” Lucy whispers, leaning over to talk just as the instructor welcomes the class.
I wave her off and give her a tight smile. “I’m fine. S’all good.”
The class begins with tadasana and then lengthening our bodies to the sky. The stretch that normally feels so good has me feeling stuck instead of elongated. I have so many questions whirling around my head about Hayes.
Why is he here at CFU?
How did I not know he was a football player? I thought he told me he played soccer?
And how is it possible we’re living under the same roof?
All these unanswered questions have my muscles tightening in frustration instead of relaxing.
His reappearance also has me rehashing the time we spent together in Paris. At the time, it was just a fling and I didn’t want anything too serious. So we made a pact that we’d live in the present and would only tell each other three things about ourselves, leaving everything else off the table. That way, it was all about the here and now and we wouldn’t become attached when it came time to leave.
That day, we’d been sitting outside at a sidewalk cafe just a block from the Louvre, sipping on our coffees and eating pastries while enjoying the gorgeous fall afternoon together.
Hayes reaches over to wipe a crumb from the corner of my lip and I teasingly try to bite him, snapping my teeth at this thumb.
“Why you be hatin’?” he jokes, sticking out his tongue before licking the crumb away.
I waggle my eyebrows suggestively. “You didn’t seem to mind my teeth last night.”
Hayes closes his eyes and smiles dreamily. “No, I did not. God, Kels. You are so dirty. I’m afraid to ask where you learned that little trick.”
He opens his eyes again and looks at me with a more serious expression.
“I feel like I don’t know a lot about you.”
I grin and flick a strand of hair over my shoulder. “What more do you need to know? I’m hot, young, and I’m good with my tongue.”
Hayes chuckles and rolls his eyes but leans over the table to kiss me on the cheek “That’s an understatement.”
The last two weeks since our first hookup has been the best sex I’ve had in my whole life. Hayes is an incredibly giving lover, so unlike the guys I’ve hooked up with back at home. He matches my sense of adventure both in bed and out in the real world. He’s fun and witty, sweet and thoughtful.
I usually get bored with a guy after one hookup. But with Hayes, I’m insatiable and want him all the time.
It kind of freaks me out how quickly I’ve grown attached to him. Which is precisely why I don’t want it to get serious.
I scoot my chair closer to his and lift my hand to the side of his head, sifting my fingers through the hair above his ear. It’s long and shaggy, and it drives me crazy with desire.
“How about this?” I suggest, leaning in to kiss him, flicking the tip of my tongue over the shell of his ear. “Let’s each share three things about ourselves. But nothing about our homes, schools, or families. Will that satisfy your curiosity?”
“Okay, that works,” he agrees. “What questions should we answer?”
I tap my finger at my chin. “Hmm…let’s start with favorite food.”
He grins. “Easy. My grandmother’s homemade apple pie. And yours?”
“French pastries.” I pop the last bite of my croissant into my mouth and moan.
We barely finish asking the next question before we start making out and soon all the questions are forgotten as we rush back to my flat to make each other orgasm.
As we lie in bed, arms wrapped around our naked and sweaty bodies, the light of dusk streaming through my loft window, Hayes returns to our earlier discussion and asks me the final question.
“Where’s your favorite place you’ve ever been?” His finger lightly traces over the curve of my collarbone and I sigh.
“Right here with you.”