“I would laugh at that, but it wasn’t funny,” she said. She held up the paper. “I have to leave my apartment.”
“What? Why?”
She read the note to him.
“At least they’re paying for a hotel,” Taylor said. “Unfortunately, it’s not a very nice one. I’ve passed it a couple of times when I had to take an alternate route through the not so nice part of town to get home.”
Jamar was silent, his face unreadable.
“What?” Taylor asked.
“Huh?”
“You’re thinking,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, I do that from time to time.”
“Smart-ass.” She snorted. “Care to share?”
He paused for a moment, then asked, “Why don’t you stay here?”
She was sure she’d heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”
“I have the room. In fact, I havesevenrooms, along with a pool house that’s basically a private apartment. You can stay there if that makes you more comfortable.”
Oh, he was not playing fair. That pool house was ten times nicer than her little studio.
“Jamar, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Do you want me to list the reasons why this idea is straight up banana pants? How much time do you have?”
“What does banana pants even mean? I swear, it’s like you speak another language.” He chuckled. “Look, I already know what you’re going to say.”
“Really? Why don’t you tell me?”
He held up a hand, ticking items off with his fingers. “You’re going to say that we haven’t known each other long enough for you to move into my house. You’re probably also going to point out that it would be unprofessional.”
“Damn, you’re pretty good at that. That’sexactlywhat I was going to say, because both are true.”
He was shaking his head. “Either of those would be good excuses if you were still my fitness instructor, or if we would be living under the same roof. Since we already established that you’ll stay in the pool house, and since youfiredme as a client, none of that matters.”
“I did not fire you. We agreed to terminate our working relationship.” She paused, then asked, “You would really let me stay in your pool house? Rent-free?”
“Hell no. You have to cough up some cash if you want to stay here. Of course, rent-free.” He didn’t even give her a chance to call him a smart-ass this time. “It would make up for you not allowing me to cover your hospital bill.”
“Except that youdidpay it,” Taylor pointed out.
“It would make up for the grief you gave me over covering your hospital bill,” he amended.
She rolled her eyes at his attempt to be sarcastic.
Taylor knew she should be grateful for his offer. Shewasgrateful.Extremelygrateful, especially if it meant she could pocket the money the property management was providing for lodging. But Taylor also knew she would be remiss if she didn’t point out the staggeringly obvious elephant in the room.
“Jamar, have you thought about the . . . uh . . . complications that could . . . ” She was about to sayarise, but that probably wasn’t the best word to use in this particular conversation.Comewas even worse. “That could occur if the two of us live so close to each other?”
“I only thought about that after I’d already asked you,” he admitted. “Look, I know ignoring this . . . this attraction between us may be difficult, but I can control myself.”
