“Liar.” It was definitely Jonah. “I have your stuff.”
Well, I couldn’t very well leave my stuff in the hallway. He had my pillow. “All right, fine.” I got up and made my way toward the door. I found him grinning with my bag in one hand and my pillow in the other.
He stood there for a second, looking me over. His gaze started at my face and worked its way down, over my ratty sweatshirt, over my joggers, to my socked toes. Somehow his smile got bigger. “You have so many different looks.”
I stepped out of the way so he could bring my things inside, then contemplated pushing him out the window. “Are you saying I’m ugly without makeup?”
“No,” he said quickly. “How did you get that from what I said?” I blushed as my insecurity tucked its tail and hid. He added, “You’re never ugly. Sometimes scary. But that’s only when it’s a combination of makeup and somehow not makeup.”
Listen, I should be offended right there. But I knew exactly what he was talking about. It was when I went to bed with my makeup on and woke up looking like an extra inThe Walking Dead. It was a totally fair, if not annoying, assessment. Plus, he’d happened to see me multiple times like that lately.
“What I mean is,” he continued, “you always look so good for work. You’re always so...” He stared off into the distance for a minute, seemingly searching for the right word. But apparently, he didn’t find it. “But here, you’re dressed down and still look...”
I waited patiently for him to get to the end of his sentence. Compliment? Insult? It was too early to tell, but he had to say something. Hehadto finish his thought.
“Still look...” I prompted when he didn’t come up with anything.
He looked at me and tilted his head. “You know you’re beautiful. Why do you make me say it?”
Was he serious? Like genuinely, heart-melting, goose-bumps popping was he serious? But also, all the eye rolls, andwas he serious??? “The thing about girls,” I told him in my best teacher voice, “is that no matter what we think we know about ourselves, we always prefer to have it confirmed.”
Something in his eyes gentled, and he took a step closer to me. “You are beautiful, Eliza. All done up, makeup, hair, the whole thing. And just like this, comfy, no makeup, mismatched socks.”
I looked down at my feet. My socks were two totally different colors. Oops. I smiled and met his gaze again, ready to say something back like thank you, or you’re beautiful too. Or... whatever.
Instead, my brothers’ voices sounded in the distance. I looked at my wide-open door and froze. There they were. Both of them. Walking this way.
BUT WHY?!
Charlie lifted a hand in greeting, and Will followed shortly behind him. Charlie looked a thousand times better than he had yesterday. Relief flooded me. His coloring was so much better compared to the deathly pallor he’d been rocking only twenty-four hours ago.
“Jonah, what are you doing here?” Will asked instead of explaining why he was here.
“What areyoudoing here?” I demanded.
Jonah lifted the bag and pillow he still held. “Dropping off some stuff.”
Will’s gaze went right to my pillow. “Yeah, are we ever going to talk about that or—”
“No,” I said sharply. “What is going on?”
“We’re bored,” Will explained. “You have better TV over here.”
I did not have better TV over here. Will and I shared the same Netflix account. What was really going on was my brothers were probably tired of each other and needed someone to balance out their mood swings. I was that person.
Charlie shot Will a look and said, “Lola kicked us out. She said she needed peace and quiet or something. Apparently, we were bothering her.” Will didn’t refute Charlie’s explanation, and I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing.Good for you, Lola. He added, “We thought we could order takeout and watch basketball or something.”
I liked watching basketball. Being raised with two brothers plus Jonah had introduced me to all sports. We were especially close to Duke basketball for city loyalty reasons. But recently, we’d become big Hornets fans. And we loved ourselves some Panthers during football season.
But did I want my brothers couch-coaching basketball games all afternoon? When I’d been planning a trashy reality dating show and popcorn marathon?
Hell, no. They moved into my apartment. Charlie toed off his shoes and headed straight for the couch. Will hovered around Jonah and slowly removed his coat. He was totally waiting on Jonah to spill his guts, but it wasn’t happening.
Charlie started messing with my remote. I didn’t have enough energy for this. But I wasn’t totally unreasonable either.
“We can watch something, but not basketball.”
“Surgery!” Charlie cried.
