Her mind raced. She must have misheard him. There was no reason for him to bring up how quiet his bed was unless he wanted her to think about him fucking in it, think about him fuckingherin it.
But of course that wasn’t what he meant, if that was even what he said. He was just trying to be a good salesman. It wasn’t his fault that was where her mind went, though it was, admittedly, a very compelling sales tactic.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, just brushed her thumb over the engraved border and murmured a little in the back of her throat.
Downstairs, the front door slammed, and they both looked up. Merritt’s eyes flicked to his, questioning.
“One of my housemates.”
“Right.”
Neither of them moved. A voice drifted upstairs, singsongy and playful. “Niiiiiko-laoooos…you up there? Wanna roll up?”
Niko raised his voice slightly, his eyes still fixed on Merritt’s. “Yeah, I’ll be down in a sec.”
He descended the stairs first, Merritt following behind him.A lanky young man was already seated at the table, long legs outstretched, grinder in hand, rolling papers and lighter on a tray in front of him. She was startled at first by how young he was before remembering that Crested Peak was a popular destination for recent college grads looking for a stopover before starting their real life—including Niko himself, once upon a time.
When he caught a glimpse of Merritt, his hands froze on the grinder, and he barked a short, surprised laugh. “Oh. It’s you.”
That kind of reaction could mean a lot of things. Most people his age didn’t care very much about her unless they were superfans, and he seemed too bro-ey to fit the profile. Plus, she had no idea what, if anything, Niko had told him about her—although she was suddenly desperate to find out. “It’s me,” she responded, cool but not unfriendly.
Niko took the seat next to him, while Merritt stood behind an empty chair, draping her hands over the back. She tried to look relaxed, but inside she pulsed with nervous energy, ready to bolt the moment anyone made a sudden move.
“Merritt, this is my roommate Simon. Simon, this is Merritt. Remember, I told you I’m working on her house?”
Simon turned his attention back to the grinder. “Mm-hmm. And you were working on it upstairs? In your room?”
Niko flashed a guilty look at her that she refused to try to decode. She adjusted her glasses and smiled vaguely at Simon. “Niko was just showing me some of his furniture. It’s very impressive.”
Simon grinned. “That’s our Niko, a man of many talents. Speaking of which…” He dumped the contents of the grinder onto the tray and passed it over to Niko, who pulled a paper out of the pack and got to work without hesitation. She allowedherself one long ogle of his fingers as he cradled the delicate paper between them.
“I should probably get going. Thanks for inviting me over, I’m definitely interested.” She paused awkwardly. “In some furniture.”
“Come on, stay a little longer. Smoke with us,” Simon wheedled playfully.
She shouldn’t have even considered it. Getting high with her contractor and his barely legal roommate was probably not the best way to keep things professional. But when she opened her mouth to decline, what actually came out was “Okay.”
Merritt forced herself not to look directly at Niko when she said it, but out of the corner of her eye, there was no mistaking the pleased expression that washed over his face before he ducked his head to refocus on his task.
Actually, this was a good idea, she told herself. Smoking with someone you didn’t know that well was one of the fastest ways to realize you found them incredibly off-putting.
She pulled back the chair she was leaning on and sat down. She asked Simon a few questions and tried her best to absorb his answers, but her attention was on Niko. When he lifted the joint to his lips and ran the tip of his tongue across the edge of the paper to seal it, she had to ask Simon to repeat himself twice.
She expected them to smoke there at the table, but Niko stood up and led them out to the garage. Most of the space was taken up by an enormous workbench surrounded by various power tools, a half-finished chair leaning against it. One corner had been set up with a few folding chairs and a card table holding an ashtray. In the other corner was a bench and a small rack of free weights.
It was a little dirtbaggy, but Merritt was surprisingly charmed by it. It stirred a twinge of nostalgia in her chest for the partiesshe’d gone to as a teenager before she’d been expected to exclusively attend parties full of adults. Besides, the open garage door provided a breathtaking view of the sherbet sunset streaking over the mountains, which was enough to counterbalance the slight seediness of the setup.
Simon passed her the joint and the lighter.
“Ladies first.”
She sparked it and took two deep, expert inhales before passing it to Niko, his fingers brushing hers as he took it.
Pretty quickly, it became clear that Simon was the type who got extra talkative when he was stoned, while Niko turned quiet and introspective. Merritt tried to follow the conversation, but since it was more like a monologue, she found herself zoning out.
Her attention strayed to the far corner, where a set of open, vertical wooden shelves housed rows of canvases.
“Are those your paintings?” she blurted out, accidentally interrupting Simon mid-sentence.
