When he opened his mouth to argue, she continued, cutting him off. “And every night you watch porn!” Zoe said accusingly, and he swore he felt his cheeks burn. Fuck. This was embarrassing. Well, at least she didn’t say-
“And you’re loud. Really loud,” she stressed, further pissing him off.
“Look, no one stopped you from telling me all this shit before. You wouldn’t have gotten any of those tickets if you had just opened your fucking mouth and asked me to move my truck. Same deal goes for the water. How the hell was I supposed to know that you were having a problem with your water if you didn’t tell me?” Trevor demanded, not mentioning any of those other things since they just made him look bad.
“Why in the hell would I tell you about the water?” Zoe demanded, trying to steal his pizza.
“Because I’m the fucking landlord!” Trevor snapped, yanking the pizza away from her sneaky little hands.
“No, you’re not,” Zoe snorted, trying to steal his pizza, again.
“Call my aunt if you think I’m lying. I own this house,” he said, stepping away, but not fast enough.
The damn woman managed to steal his chicken fingers!
She considered him for a long moment while he tried to figure out how to steal back his precious chicken tenders. “Why would you have your aunt pretend that she’s the landlord?” Zoe finally asked.
“Because I hate dealing with tenants,” Trevor said, switching the pizza to one hand and swiping out with the other to grab the small box away from her. She simply moved it out of his reach.
“Well,” she said, sighing, “then, I guess you’re the one I should talk to since I’m probably going to have to move out in a month.”
“Fine,” Trevor bit out, glaring at the box in her hands. If she tried to leave with his chicken tenders, so help him, he would-
“Okay, so give me back my pizza,” Zoe said, holding her hands out expectantly.
“No. You give me back my chicken tenders.”
“No.”
Something in him snapped. He wasn’t sure if it was from hunger, the embarrassment from knowing that she could hear him at night, or just the bullshit in general, but he said something that he regretted before the last syllable left his mouth.
“It’s not like you need it.”
Chapter 3
Zoe felt her face burn and her eyes water as his words hit home.
“Oh, shit...” Trevor muttered, looking horrified.
Biting back a sob, she carefully placed the box of chicken fingers on top of the pizza box in his hands. “Bon appetite,” Zoe mumbled, heading for the door.
“Zoe, wait!” she heard him say, but she didn’t stop. She ran into her apartment, shut the door, and ran upstairs, all while wondering when she was going to learn how to keep her big, fat mouth shut.
She crawled onto her bed as she angrily wiped away the tears. After all the crap she’d gone through in the last couple of years she couldn’t believe that a gorgeous guy calling her fat was what finally broke her.
“What an asshole,” Zoe mumbled around a sob as she buried her face in her pillow.
It wasn’t like she didn’t know that she was fat, but having it pointed out by someone who looked like him was beyond humiliating. Granted, she knew that he’d said it because he was pissed. She had kind of, sort of gone out of her way to embarrass him with that “You’re loud” bit, but that didn’t change the fact that what he’d said hurt like hell.
She’d lost count of how many times over the years she’d tried to lose weight. Sometimes the diets worked and she’d lose a few pounds only to gain all the weight back plus some when something in her life didn’t go as planned or work depressed her more than usual.
Well, at least she didn’t have to worry about overeating after receiving another write-up for using too many paper towels in the women’s bathroom, Zoe thought dryly. Being unemployed was depressing, but at least she wouldn’t have to worry about binge eating while she looked for another job since she couldn’t afford it.
What in the hell was she supposed to do now? She was unemployed and probably couldn’t count on a good recommendation from The N.W. Corporation, the firm she’d been booted out of only a few hours ago. Why hadn’t she kept her mouth shut? She’d heard some truly frightening stories about how they’d treated their employees, but she’d stupidly ignored them. Had those horror stories stopped her from opening her big fat mouth?
Nope.
Stupidly, Zoe thought that they’d appreciate finding out where their money was going. She’d never expected them to show their appreciation by giving her a raise or a promotion or anything. She wasn’t delusional after all, but she had hoped that they would relax their rules a little bit so that going to work wasn’t so damn stressful, but she really should have known better.
