I stop in my tracks, my arms flapping at my sides in frustration. Slapping at my thighs is all I can do to keep from screaming. I’m not usually one to lose my temper, but all things considered, I think I’d be well within my right to have a tantrum in the middle Jovi’s kitchen right now. “Maybe instead of abandoning me in your foyer and leaving me to search for a bed on my own, you could perhaps nod or point or grunt—or fuck,throw a noodle—in the general direction of your guest room?”
He crumples the now empty box and tosses it in the trash a few feet over from where he’s standing. “First of all, I didn’t abandon you. I left you with Casey. And second, I kind of assumed she would show you to your room.”
“Why?” I retrace my steps until I’m about to pass him a second time and stop. “Do you not know where it is? Is that it? Not sure what’s behind all the extra doors in your mansion?”
“No, that’s not it,” he huffs, marching around me and toward the adjoining living room. He gets halfway across the open room before he notices I’m not following him. “Do you want a tour or not?”
I don’t answer. I do, however, start to walk in his direction. When he starts moving again, I make a point to keep back a few more feet than ordinarily necessary. I’m not scared of Casey, but the last thing I need in my life is more drama.
“Formal dining,” he grunts as he goes from room to room. “Fancy living room I never use.” He veers slightly left. “Hallway to the stairs.”
We take the hall for a few steps before the stairway comes into view, crawling the wall to the right of us, while the left is littered with more doors. “There’s a gym, a movie room and a half bath if you keep going.” He turns back over his shoulder, one hand on the banister. “Don’t keep going.”
“Why?” I have no plans to keep going. I simply resent being told not to.
“Because the toilet in the half bath can’t be flushed until I replace the lever, and the movie room only exists in theory right now. The space has been designated. The equipment is there. But nothing has been set up.”
There’s such structure in his movements as he takes one step after the next, I can’t help but wonder if he’s putting extra effort into the simple act of walking. Kind of like I’m funneling all of my energy into arguing with him. My brain doesn’t need to be on it one hundred percent, and yet, I’d rather it be all in on something trivial right now than let my mind wander.
“What’s wrong with the gym?” I hate gyms. If I want to go for a run, I want torun. Feel the ground moving under my feet. Sink into the sensation of getting somewhere, even if it's to escape. Nothing pisses me off more than picking up speed and colliding with the stupid bar across the front of the treadmill.
“Nothing.” He reaches the top and turns halfway, waiting for me to reach the landing as well. “It’s sacred. And I don’t want your shitty energy tainting it.”
I make a face. “My energy is excellent.”
“Your energy is judgmental and pessimistic. The gym is no place for a glass half empty, cracked and leaking, kind of attitude.”
“Wow.”
“I know. That’s how we all feel about it.” As soon as he says it, we both freeze up.
We.
Him. Trent. And Lena.
Neither of us acknowledges the slip. Instead, he turns left down the upstairs hall, which notably splits off to the right as well, probably to the master bedroom. No need to have a tour of that.
“Casey thinks grief may cause me to steal you away from her,” I change the topic all together. “So, you know, she’s probably not going to take it all too well when you tell her you’re moving out to come live with me for a year.”
He reaches a door, the very last door at the very end of the hall, and stops. Not that he had many options outside of stopping. Unless he wanted to run into the wall to amuse me. But making me laugh on purpose isn’t really his style.
“I don’t suppose you mentioned that while you were talking to her?” A sly look creeps in over his face.
And it suddenly dawns on me. “Oh my God! That’s why you left me with her. You were hoping she’d push my buttons so much I’d break up with her for you.”
He chuckles, twisting the handle to reveal my room at long last. “I like to be open to possible silver linings whenever I can. And let’s be real, Liz, we could do with a little favor from fate after today.”
“I’m pretty sure I would have been the one doing you the favor there.” I step around him into the room. It’s huge. With limited furniture. But there are double glass doors leading to a balcony surrounded by trees, a king-size bed already made, and an attachedbathroom. My needs are more than met. In fact, “I could do you that favor if you really want me to. Say the word and I’ll go cut her loose for you right now.”
He grins, shaking his head as he backs out of the room, pulling the door toward the frame as he does. “Get some sleep, Liz. You’re being nice to me. Clearly, you’re delirious.”
“Night, Jovi.” I wait until the latch clicks into place. “And thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” It’s muffled. But undeniable.
JOVI
“She’s pretty,” Casey remarks when I come back to the kitchen and find her perched on my counter, eating ice cream from the carton. A habit I generally have no beef with, except she’s using my coffee spoon to do it. “You never said she was pretty.”
