Blue rubs his hands together. “All right, should we get started? We can head into my room?—”
“I thought you were putting it out here, along this wall?” Bridgette asks. “It’s probably easier to assemble it where you're going to put it, right?”
“Good thinking,” Blue says, frowning, and I feel his pain, not that we could really do much inside his room with Bridgette right out here, but still. This is our only window of secret-sexy-time opportunity for the next week. And we’re not just doing it for fun; it’s part of my study, and that basically makes it homework. I wonder if we could reserve one of the quiet study rooms at the library. I mean, this really is the definition of a partner project, so I think it counts. And aren’t some of those rooms soundproof? Hmmm. I may have to look into that.
Half an hour later, we’ve pushed all the furniture out of the way, and the room is a landscape of cardboard, tiny plastic bags with all the parts labeled, and enough wood beams to build a shed.
Blue is paging through the directions, looking clueless.
“We don’t need those,” I tell him.
His brow furrows. “Didn’t know you were minoring in witchcraft.”
I smile down at him as I stand to reach another piece for the base. “It just comes naturally to me. I’m a born witch. Sometimes people abbreviate it to bitch. Not sure why.”
Blue bites back a laugh and I can tell he wants to say something teasing and playful, but he can't, because Bridgette is here. She’s not paying us a whole lot of attention, since she’s camped out on the couch with her laptop and a notebook, but it’s smarter for us to keep playing up the tension that’s always lingering between us. We do not need anyone to suspect what we’re up to.
Not that we’ve had much of a chance to be up to anything, not since we were in my room Friday night. It’s funny how you can go years without having something, and your life doesn’t feel empty because you never got used to it in the first place. But then you have one taste and it’s game over.
“So, you’re sticking with the whole engineering thing?” Blue asks, sorting through a bag to find the right sized screw.
I’m still standing, and I’m a little tempted to kick him in the teeth for questioning my freaking career path, especially when I’m basically building this cat castle by myself, but instead, I settle for plucking the screw from the bag he’s been rooting through.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” I ask, dropping it into his open palm. “And yes, I’m going to be an engineer. It’s literally my major.”
Immediately, his hands go up. “And you’re obviously suited for it. I just figured witchcraft would be more lucrative. Sorry.”
“The health insurance is better in the mainstream job market,” I quip. We fall silent for a few minutes, working to put this thing together. It’s really adorable. I don’t know where he found it, but I feel like the initial pitch for the product was something along the lines of a six-year-old girl’s dream bedroom, but for cats. It’s got built-in fairy lights and real shingles on the pointed roofs. There’s even a tree swing hanging from ropes that reek of catnip.
I’m so locked in on finishing the moat that I don’t hear Dutton come upstairs until I hear Bridgette squeal with delight. By the time I look up from my project, they’re hard at work sucking each other’s face off.
“The fuck is all this?” he asks when he comes up for air and looks around the room.
“Hazel needs her own place, now that she’s gonna have a family of her own. And since you refuse to move out of your room and into Bridgette’s dorm, I had to improvise,” Blue explains. “It’s like one of those tiny houses.”
“This thing is bigger than a tiny house,” I assure him.
“Oh, if it’s for Hazel, I’ll keep my mouth shut,” he says, rubbing his fingers together to call for her. She’s made a nest forherself in one of the cardboard boxes, so Dutton has to make do with a few meows in lieu of cuddles.
“We’ve gotta leave in an hour,” he tells Blue. “You think you two will be done by then? And by the way, Liza, what the hell bet did you lose to have to spend the afternoon with this guy?”
“I’m here on Hazel’s behalf. And don’t worry, we’ll be done by the time you guys have to leave.”
“How?” Blue asks, throwing his hands up. “I’m only on step three of the hammock. And there are ten steps!”
“If you’re not finished with that in forty-five minutes, I’m taking over. And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m nearly finished with the rest of the project. I’ll just need a hand screwing the turrets on. But that will be one of the last things we do.”
“How in the—” Blue stops talking when he looks up at the structure I’ve been working on. “Holy shit. You used a spell, didn’t you?”
“You got me,” I deadpan. “I mixed up a potion and here we are. I definitely haven’t spent the last hour and a half working my ass off while you stressed over one tiny part.”
Bridgette shakes her head at us while Dutton reaches for her hands and pulls her up to her full height. They kiss again because that’s what they do when they’re in the same room, then Dutton opens his door and ushers her inside. “One hour, Halliday,” he calls as he follows his girlfriend into his bedroom.
“Same to you, dude. What are you two up to, anyway?”
“Studying,” Dutton calls absently, probably already blocking us from his mind so he can enjoy the time he has with his girlfriend. A second later, he proves me wrong by sticking his head out the door. “Hey, Liza, try not to kill him, okay? I know it’s tempting, but we really need him.”
“Don’t worry,” I say, waving him off. “I’ve been thinking along the same lines. He’s safe until mid-spring, I promise. After that, all bets are off.”
