CHAPTER EIGHT
Nora
Stepping into fresh air and sunshine at nine in the morning should be a crime, but I meandered down the path like a felon anyway. My first day off in five years caused my nerves to treat my stomach as a stress ball, and the fact that I wasn’t even really sick made me actually feel sick.
‘Let’s do this.’ Corey danced by his car, his tightened belt causing the waist of his jeans to ruffle.
‘You look like a child playing dress-up.’ I adjusted the neck of his baggy white shirt, trying not to gawk at his lack of bra.
‘I forgot to take clothes when I left your place yesterday, and you’re so little that I didn’t have anything to fit this tiny body.’
He stopped dancing when he finally looked at me.
His gaze slid from my head to my toes in one swift movement, and his lips rolled into his mouth to stifle a laugh.
I tugged at the biggest black shirt I’d found, trying to unsuccessfully cover my midriff.
I might as well slap a sticker labelled hypocrite on my forehead considering my own ridiculous outfit.
‘I look good in that.’ He released the laugh he’d been holding.
The stretchiest pants I had to fit his waist were leggings, and the bulge at my groin looked like I’d shoved socks down my pants.
‘Should we go inside and switch clothes?’ I asked.
‘Are you kidding, you’re like a walking advertisement for me, right now.’ Corey nodded in approval.
His smile dropped when I leaned over him and insisted we change. He raised his hands in surrender before I resorted to stripping him bare in the street and sensibly followed me up the stairs to my apartment.
‘Your ridiculous hat isn’t exactly something I’d normally wear.’ I tapped the green brim.
‘Hey, it’s our day off. I can wear what I want.’
I eyed his outrageously large outfit to demonstrate that no, he couldn’t.
‘I’m not taking the hat off.’ He crossed his arms like a defiant child.
I exhaled a large puff of air through my nose to signal my gracious defeat, though inside, my blood thrashed through my body like water rapids leaving me on edge.
Not having control over my own body was a challenge I never expected to experience.
He yanked the shirt over his head in the living room, and I spun to face the wall.
Corey laughed. ‘This is your body; you can see it naked if you want.’
I twisted my head, squinting as though it would make it any less creepy. Somehow, it felt wrong. Like a perverted stranger peeping through the cracks of a blind, or that awkward moment when a dog takes a shit on your lawn and their owner knows you’re there, watching through the window.
‘Oh my gosh.’ My fingers skimmed the soft skin across Corey’s back. ‘I have a scar from that stupid corner I scraped the other week.’
Corey went stiff, goosebumps scattering across his back. ‘Stop.’ He shuddered.
My fingers were magnetised to the spot. Brushing the skin I used to feel every day was like finding my way home.
Like a road I could follow in the dark, or with my eyes closed, or in reverse while performing the chicken dance.
It was mine, damn it, but instead I had this new arm covered with black drawings like a child who’d been left alone with markers.
Forcing my hand from the soft skin I ached for, I curled my fingers so they wouldn’t seek it out again.
Corey dropped his pants, collected the clothes into a ball, and threw them at me. Snatching them with my stupidly large fingers, I hurried into the bathroom.
‘What, I gotta wait out here naked?’ he yelled after me.
‘Go get a bra from my drawer while I change,’ I called out.
‘No, those contraptions are uncomfortable. I couldn’t wait to come home and take it off yesterday.’
I poked my head out the door and caught his gaze. ‘It’ll hurt if you try running without one. Or spin around too fast. Or—’
‘Fine.’ Corey walked to the drawer in a huff and pulled out the black one on top. ‘But you need to help me put it on again. I don’t understand how you twist your arms to clasp this damn hook.’
I bit my lip to avoid laughing as he curled his arms around his back then gave up, leaving the bra hanging loose from his shoulders. ‘Give me a minute.’
I stripped my clothes and threw them through the crack in the door, then pulled it shut to seal the privacy required for my moment of panic.
The muscly reflection staring back at me made me want to peel my skin until nothing but the fleshy muscle beneath remained.
Which I would then claw at until there was nothing but bone, which would still leave me with the same problem, only exhausted and writhing in agony at having ripped this body apart.
I forced my mouth into a smile to trick myself into a better mood, but the manic face staring back threatened to send breakfast up my throat.
I wanted to rip those teeth from my mouth. They weren’t mine.
My gaze dropped to my chiselled stomach.
I had to admit, Corey wasn’t just fit. He was fit.
Perhaps he secretly lived with apes in the jungle and entertained a lady named Jane in his spare time.
I pulled on his clothes and joined him in the living room, riddled with curiosity as to how he attained a physique like this. ‘Why are you so toned?’
He frowned. ‘What?’
‘Your body. It’s muscly as heck for a guy that spends all day in an office. Shouldn’t you be overweight and balding or something?’
Corey laughed. ‘That would be my father you’re describing. I do Muay Thai. I guess it keeps me healthy.’
‘Ha! Healthy? It keeps you something all right.’
An irritating smirk appeared on my face he wore. ‘Something, hey? Got something you want to tell me, Nora?’
My appreciation for his body faded with his show of arrogance. ‘We’d better find this umbrella today because I’m not going to Muay Thai for you.’
‘Well, obviously not. I want my body back before the weekend.’
‘Obviously,’ I agreed. ‘Besides, I have Pilates on Saturday.’ And I was desperate to see Hayley for her reminder that love exists after this excruciating disaster.
I don’t intend to let a man into my life, but her refreshing take of ’til death do us part compared to Mum’s they’re death, keep apart allows me to dream.
Then there’s our end of year exam in two weeks, dangling over our heads with the allure of winning our bet. I just wanted to be seen as the worthy worker I am, but what if we hadn’t switched back by then? Fear curled around my spine at the thought of spending two entire weeks as Corey.
My image contradicted my values, and I was terrified I might lose sight of pushing for women’s rights in the workforce if this continued much longer.
Especially considering Hayley’s voice floated in my mind about how there’s something sexy about a man who can take control.
I wanted a man to take control of the laundry – not my career.
Outside on the pavement, I suggested we start checking the trash cans nearby before we search second-hand stores.
Corey stuck his head into a small metal trash can outside a kebab shop and produced a half-eaten falafel roll. ‘Hungry?’
A few stores up, my nose scrunched when I lifted some black trousers with a questionable stain on the crutch out of a large, black bin. ‘New pants?’
We frowned at each other through the stench.
‘This is fucking gross.’ He dropped the roll.
True, but possibly not as gross as the blood bubbling through my body.
‘Let’s find some second-chance stores, though I’m sure anyone who found that umbrella would have thrown it in the bin. I know I would have,’ I said.
‘It isn’t hideous,’ Corey said for the twentieth time.
The bell above the door jingled as we walked into a musty store of nick-nacks.
There were books with crinkled spines, rusty lamp stands, and an entire section dedicated to half-used yarn and knitting needles.
The young lady behind the counter giggled at something on her phone, oblivious to our arrival.
‘I’ve always wanted a typewriter.’ Corey ran my slender fingers over the metal lump.
‘Yes, because your expensive laptop is utterly useless, therefore you must replace it with that hunk of junk.’
‘What’s your problem?’ He rolled his eyes.
Argh, I didn’t realise I looked like a moody teenager who’d been told she couldn’t stay at a party past eleven when I did that. ‘We need to focus,’ I reminded him.
Mainly, I didn’t want to listen to him harp on about the crap in here he could afford. After a disapproving huff, he begrudgingly stepped away and continued searching.
‘Oh my goodness, this might be it.’ I rushed to an umbrella stand at the side of the store dedicated to furniture.
Grabbing the metal stem, I released the canopy until it covered me in disappointment and a sprinkle of dust. Plain black. Not it – and now I’d likely added to my bad luck by opening an umbrella inside. I’d need to search for a four-leaf clover at some point.
‘Hey! You can’t do that inside, you’ll break something.’ The lady finally noticed us.
‘Sorry, do you have any other umbrellas in here?’
Without a second of consideration, she shook her head and returned her attention to her screen. This store was nothing more than a dead end. I sighed in defeat and closed the umbrella.
‘Where’s the next one?’
Corey checked the map on his phone. ‘Around the corner, we can walk to it. And don’t worry, we’ll find it.’
Had he stolen my optimism with my body? I couldn’t summon a single positive thought. ‘How can you be so sure?’
His gaze softened, almost giving the illusion he cared about my feelings. ‘Because I’m sick of sitting down every time I need to take a piss.’
‘Charming.’ My nose wrinkled, and I dug my elbow into his side.
His eyes may have been mine, but somehow he’d manipulated his own charm and mischief into them. They do say our eyes are the window to our soul, and I was getting a peek at what made Corey who he was.
Ridiculous and cocky.