Because it’s still new.
Just be careful. Please. And don’t get your hopes up. Men are dicks.
I sighed, tossing my phone onto my desk before dropping my head back with a groan. Great. Now, I had to find out everything I could about this new guy in her life. It was a necessary evil in order to carry out my big brother duties. I didn’t make the rules…except when I did.
And now I’d officially exhausted my options for people to hang out with tonight.
Thingscouldhave been different if a certain pain in my ass had taken me up on my offer a few weeks ago; I could have spent the night having sex, but no. Instead, I was going to be alone with takeout and crappy television. I scoffed at the memory. Morgan didn’t even allow herself a chance to think about my offer and the benefits that came with it before she shut me down.
I stood by what I said when I called it a win-win. I wasn’t looking for a relationship of any sort. I didn’t know Morgan’s exact stance, but I knew enough to know she was nowhere close to having any sort of commitment with anyone. And we both had needs that we were having trouble getting met. We wouldn’t have to worry about things turning messy or complicated because we didn’t even like each other. And we’d already slept together more than once, so we knew what to expect.
To me, it was a no-brainer. I thought the impulsive suggestionwas fucking genius. Out of the blue? Yes. A little crazy, considering our history? Also yes. But genius nonetheless.
To Morgan, it was a straight-up, simpleno.
At the end of the day, I walked out of my office at the same time Grace rounded the corner from hers, carrying an enormous bouquet of red roses. She fell into step beside me as we headed to our cars. “Ugh…so gross,” I teased.
Grace smiled. “You should see the bouquet he gave me this morning before I left for work.”
“Oh, do they just get bigger as the day progresses?” I quipped.
She thought for a moment. “Come to think of it…yeah, they do.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Of course they do.”
“What about you? Have a date or anything lined up for tonight?”
“If you want to count a bottle of Moscato and my couch as a date, then sure. I have a date.”
She chuckled. “Girl, we need to get you a fuck buddy or something.”
I looked at her, forcing a small smile as we stepped outside before saying goodbye and heading our separate ways. When I got into my car, I let out a breath as I started the engine, letting it idle to warm up and stave off the bitter chill from outside. And as I sat there, my mind was replaying Grace’s words.
A fuck buddy.
How about a fuckenemy?
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been thinking about the suggestion Wesley made a few weeks ago. He wouldn’t know because we went back to our usual ignoring each other when we saw one another, save for a few snide comments and insults here and there. But that particular subject hadn’t been mentioned by either of us.
I never expected him to make that suggestion. Hell, I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we slept together at all—not once, not twice, but three times. And then he hit me with, “What if you and I made a deal with each other?”And my first instinct was to kick him out of my apartment.
Because in what world would something like that work betweenus?
I’d read enough romance books and watched enough rom-coms to know that arrangements or agreements like that were typically made between friends or, at the least, acquaintances who were on decent terms. Not two people who could hardly stand to be in one another’s presence, who couldn’t speak to each other without bickering or throwing out insults in some capacity.
But the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t help but wonder if our mutual disdain for each othercouldmake something like that work. It’s not as though either of us would be risking anything. There was absolutelynothingat stake…except perhaps my dignity.
An hour later, after taking the ferry from Charleston to Halloran, I drove back into Bayport but didn’t go home.
Instead, I found myself standing outside of Wesley’s apartment door.
I had to do some sleuthing to find it—when we said we weren’t friends, we meant it. We didn’t even have each other’s phone numbers. So, while I knew where his apartment complex was, only because it was the sister to mine, I had no idea what apartment was his. And I couldn’t exactly reach out to our mutual friends to ask. So, I pulled up Instagram and searched for Wesley’s page, scrolling through more photos than I cared to until I found one of him with the front of his apartment door behind him, the gold numbers on it glinting from the flash.
And here I was now, looking at the door of apartment 504.
I took a breath and let it out slowly before raising my hand to knock. I could hear murmuring, and then I panicked, thinking of something my impetuous decision-making made me forget. Today was Valentine’s Day. There was every possibility he had someone else inside with him right now. I cursed under my breath for not thinking of it before and was about to bolt down the hall when the door swung open.
I looked up at Wesley, holding a container of Chinese food and staring back at me with a gathered brow. “What are you doing here?”
