Two
Jamie
My security system beeps, but I’d be more concerned by it at this hour if I hadn’t seen the lights of Hunter’s jeep shine down my driveway.
One day. Damn. I’d given it at least a week.
I barely make it to the door before Hunter swings it open. “Couldn’t sleep without me, huh?” I grin widely at him, but Hunter just rolls his eyes. Someone’s pissy.
Shit, did they really break up? Not likely, unfortunately.
“Did you replace my mattress already?”
“I got one today.” It was my first step in accepting this is happening. Soon, some other asshole will live here too—with me. Joy. “I have some people to interview next week.”
“I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“You and Mark broke up?” Fingers and toes crossed.
“No, and fuck you for thinking that.”
“I was giving it at least a week.”
“You know, Jamie, you’re kind of a dick.”
Clutching my chest, I fall back into my comfy chair. “I love you too.” Hunter glares. Sleep deprivation is not a good look on him. “What’s up with the insomnia? That’s my thing.”
Rubbing his temples, he sinks onto the couch and I start to feel bad. “Just shut up, please.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s three in the morning and I’ve barely been to sleep yet.”
“You two fight?”
“Mark’s best friend showed up about an hour ago after his father beat him and kicked him out of his house. When Noah comes calling, Mark goes running—” His lips purse. “It’s fine. I’m just tired.”
“Why did he kick him out?”
“Noah’s gay. Information his dear old dad did not know until he caught him sucking a dick tonight.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“Yeah, he looks pretty bad.” Hunter shakes his head. “Can I just stay here for a couple of nights? To let him get some sleep. I won’t interfere if you have people looking at the room. I can stay on the couch, I don’t give a shit. I’m going to drop.”
“Why didn’t you sleep—” His brows rise to his hairline. “Ew.”
“Excuse me. I was enjoying living with my boyfriend until Noah showed up not even an hour after we passed out.” He takes a deep breath. “It’s fine. Everything is fine.”
“Sleep in bed with me.”
“Now now, this isn’t high school anymore.” He winks.
“You wish I’d let you have this again.” Standing, I reach out a hand to help him off the couch.
“I didn’t have it nor want it the first time.” Smacking my ass, he walks around me, beating me to my room. “Dibs on the inside. I promise it’s only for a couple of nights.”
“As long as Mark isn’t here, we’re fine.”
Hunter stops dead, and yeah, I shouldn’t have said it. It slipped out. A lot of words slip out when we talk about Mark. “You can act like an asshole to me, but don’t talk shit about him.”
Hunter walks into my room. It’s not my fault he has questionable taste in men. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m too tired to fight. Turn the light off.” Hunter gets in, lying up against the wall. This all feels so strange, yet normal at the same time.
When Hunter first came to live with my family, we often slept together. He’d still been in shock over his mother’s death and then finding all his things on the front lawn one day after his father changed the locks to the house. His mother had accepted his sexuality, and his father had bitten down his hatred for her sake, but once she died, so did his father’s reason to keep him there.
“I’m going to hold you. Don’t be a dick about it.” Hunter wraps his arms around me and it’s on the tip of my tongue to tease, but fuck it feels good. A tiny little secret I keep close to my chest—I love to cuddle. Hugging someone while sleeping just feels so damn good. It’s been a while since I slept with anyone, let alone allowed them into my bed.
I close my eyes, ignoring the emotion that’s clogging my throat. “Night.”
Feeling a kiss press to my forehead, I relax. “Night, asshole.” It hits me how much I’ve missed this. Not with Hunter—that’s too gross to think about—but with someone else maybe. Someone who loves me. All of me. Someone who wouldn’t leave. Someone who could see all my twisted bullshit and still love me despite of it.
Maybe because of it.
I made peace with how unlikely that is long ago. People have always left me, and if they didn’t leave me first, if by some miracle they stayed and loved me back...
They died.
I first learned to cook during one of the darkest moments of my life. While Lia had saved my life and brought me home, it had still been hard to adjust. I was wary of everything—of everyone.
Rightfully so.
Being in more than a dozen different homes for eight years would give anyone trust issues. My entire life, people had only hurt me, and then for the first time ever I had someone who wanted to take care of me.
Lia soon had enough of my acting out after she adopted me. I really put her through it, but instead of hurting me like so many others had, she taught me. While we cooked she’d tell me stories about her nonna cooking with her when she was young, and her summers in Italy. It became our thing, and I soon learned I didn’t have to be afraid.
This was my family now.
Finally, I was safe. It only took sixteen years, but better late then never I guess. Who knew where I would have ended up without her. For the first time in my life I was happy.
At least for a little while.
Hunter, freshly showered, walks into the kitchen towel-drying his short hair, wearing a pair of gym shorts and a tank top. “Put more clothes on,” I complain.
“Not all our wardrobes consist of sweatpants and giant T-shirts. I just got back from a workout. Shut up and enjoy my body.”
“Are those gray chest hairs?”
Giving me the finger, he drops into a chair. “What are you cooking?”
“I made rice, and I have eggs cooking now. Chili oil’s in the fridge.” I need to place a grocery order because with Hunter here it’s a stretch. There are two things I always have on hand, though—eggs and rice.
“Make some for me?”
“Your power smoothie isn’t enough?”
“I’m starving.” Hunter’s stomach growls in confirmation.
I already made extra, anyway.
“Hear from Mark at all?” I ask him.
“I haven’t texted him back.” Earlier this morning I’d heard them arguing but I’m not about to tell him that.
“Stay as long as you want, but if you’re going to keep sleeping with me you’re going to have to tame that monster.” I wink. I’m joking, but yeah, I’d really prefer not to be poked by his dick first thing in the morning. It made for a real awkward wake-up call.
“Fuck off.” Hunter looks at his phone before shutting it off and sliding it across the table.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Doesn’t seem like nothing.”
“I’m not mad.”
“Didn’t say you were mad.”
“It’s just—” Here we go. “I don’t know. I keep feeling like...” Thinking a moment, he shakes his head. “Never mind.”
“Where else are you going to get to freely complain about Mark? Judgment-free zone. In fact, let me start.”
“I’ll talk to Bri.”
“Bri will tell you to stop being a dumbass and be nice to Mark.”
“It’s not that serious. I’m just annoyed.”
“Why?”
Balling his fingers into fists, he shakes his head. “When Noah graduated, I was excited, which is terrible. I knew that when he graduated he’d have to go back home and work for his father, right? I knew he’d be away and busy, and for the first time I...” He trails off.
“What?”
“I’d have Mark to myself.”
“Go back home to the city, where?”
“His father owns Gaitlan Security.”
What the fuck . “So, rich rich, then.” Why is he staying with Mark? Noah has to be rich. Well, maybe not if his father kicked him out I suppose. I doubt the money floweth over.
Picking at the wood on the table, I watch him as he continues. “When he graduated, I knew he’d have to start working there, and I knew he’d be busy. For a couple of months, it was just us. It was great. They talked every day, but there was this wall... That’s so fucking selfish, I know, but I’ve had to literally share my boyfriend with that tiny psychopath our entire relationship.”
“Tiny?” Looking at Hunter, I smirk. “Are we one to talk?”
“I’m not tiny! I’m five-seven, a perfectly respectable height!” He’s also built like a brick shithouse. “Anyway, I know he has to help his friend, but last night when Noah asked to stay, Mark didn’t hesitate to say yes. Then he realized he hadn’t even asked me how I felt about it.”
“Do you think he has feelings—”
“No,” he says, so fast. “Not at all. I know it’s not like that, though at first, maybe I wondered. It’s a weird relationship, and they have messed around before.”
“Like us.”
“No, Jamie. Not like us. They were friends with benefits for a bit before we met. They’ve had sex but that doesn’t bother me. I don’t know what I’m saying, I’m just upset. Not even one day with Mark and this happens.”
“Well, maybe it won’t last that long.”
“I don’t know. But I do know I don’t want to go back tonight, if that’s cool?”
Yeah, that’s fine. The longer he stays here, the better. The last thing I want to do is search for a new roommate. This won’t last, though, I know that. Hunter will bitch for a few days and then they’ll make up and he’ll go back.
“Why doesn’t his friend take your old room?” I ask.
“You don’t want that.”
“Why not? I’ll need to find a new roommate eventually. Mark can come and visit him, and you can visit me.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
“I just need some asshole to split the bills with. I don’t give a fuck what he’s like as long as he won’t kill me in my sleep.” My friend quota is full. All I need is someone here to help pay the bills.
“You think Mark will let his best friend live with you?”
“Noah’s an adult, yes? Can make his own choices?” And fuck him very much. Mark’s hatred for me is on another level. I don’t care. “Just trying to help.”
“It’s fine.” Hunter’s mood says otherwise. The rice cooker pops, so I stand to get us both a bowl. I feel bad for Hunter. He put a lot of thought into moving in with Mark, just for it to end up this way not even twenty-four hours later. “We still on for the party this weekend?”
“Are you still moving out?”
“I’m still moving. This is just a slight bump.”
“A slight bump?”
“A Noah-shaped bump.”
“Is he that bad?” I want to meet the menace. Even more so because I know it’ll piss Mark off.
“Noah isn’t bad, he’s just... a lot. No filter. No boundaries. A lot.”
“He hot?”
“No.” Hunter deadpans, and okay, I was not asking for me—not even a little. It’s been years since I hooked up with anyone, and with the current state of my body, and the problems that come with it ... there’s no way. “Hideous, in fact.” Yeah, I have a feeling that’s a lie.
Whatever, it’s not important. “What do you want to do today?”
“I’ll finish packing while I’m here, maybe load up the car. There’s a Viper’s hockey game on. Can I watch it?”
“Fine.” He can do whatever. I’ll enjoy having him here one last time. I know he and Mark will make up—they always do—then Hunter will move out again and leave me. It shouldn’t be surprising, or hurt as badly as it does.
People always do.