“Holy shit. What do you have in these? Bricks?”
“Just a few books.”
“That feels like a whole freaking library.”
“So all those muscles are just for show?”
“Sis, stop playin’.” He flexes a bicep with a cocky grin, and I roll my eyes.
“I’m a mood reader,” I say, pouting. “I have to bring a bunch, because I never know what I’ll feel like reading.”
He shakes his head, using his foot to push the bags away from where they were blocking the door. “Remind me to buy you a Kindle.”
“I’ve got one! But sometimes I just like to hold a book, ya know? To feel the weight of it in my hands. The satisfaction of turning the pages and seeing your progress. To run my nose up the center and take a big ole sniff.”
“I don’t wanna hear about you shoving your face in cracks to sniff things.”
My head falls back against the couch in laughter as he plops down beside me, pulling my leg into his lap as he rubs the heel of my foot with his thumbs.
“Things are weird at home,” I admit, wanting to break the silence.
“What’s going on there? Oh wait, I think I know,” he says suspiciously.
“What do you know?”
“You’re going to need to talk to Ethan about that. Speaking of, you might need to tell him you’re staying here. I don’t need him accusing me of sleeping with you again.”
I laugh, thinking back to earlier in the semester when I came to his apartment to escape classes one day and walked in on my stepbrother humping his girlfriend in the living room. I saw so many things I can never unsee. “Why do I need to tell him? It’s not like he’s ever here.”
“Actually, he was here after Thanksgiving for a few weeks. It’s the longest he’s spent the night here since meeting Bridget.”
“Is everything okay with them? I really like her,” I ask worriedly.
“I think so? He said Bridget needed some space, but I thinkthey worked out their issues because he came back a week ago and packed a big bag of shit. He’s also got that dopey grin at work again.”
“I wonder what happened.” I pull out my phone and FaceTime my sister.
“El!” I cry when her face fills the screen.
“Em!” she echoes.
I turn the phone, pointing it at Alyx as she continues. “N-O-P. Ugh, E. Nope, not the stupid face I wanted to see.”
“Good to see you too, princess,” Alyx snaps.
“Why are you with the playboy? I know things are weird over here, but you don’t have to stay there. Come back here,” she whines.
“Cuz you’re so much more pleasant to be around than me,” Alyx mumbles as he rolls his eyes.
“Don’t you have a kitchen to burn down?”
“It was one fucking pan that caught fire, not the whole kitchen,” he claps back.
“Oh my God, I was joking, but this is even better. You’re a walking disaster.”
“Says the princess in her tower. So high and mighty on your high horse,” he taunts.
“So this is fun,” I say awkwardly, caught in the middle of their bickering.
