“Of course. Bye, Dex. I’ll see you around.”
Then she sashays out the door with a flick of her lustrous hair.
In the silence that she leaves ringing in her wake, Korren says, “You have a date?”
“I absolutely do not. Indigo and I have a history. Not that way, I mean, but—yeah. I was trying to sound cooler than I actually am.”
Korren snorts. “Good. I was almost worried.”
“What, are you jealous?”
“No, but with your track record, I didn’t want to end up living in a hideaway for stolen goods.”
“Fuck you.”
Korren is laughing, and I try to smile as well. For some reason Indigo’s assumptions really got to me.
“Let’s find some mattresses,” I say with false cheer. “We should probably make sure we can afford the essentials before we go overboard with anything else.”
“So practical,” Korren says. “I guess that means you’re not going to buy those drawers before Indigo comes back for them?” He grins at my surprise. “I saw you pining over them. I promise you this—if I’m ever not broke, I’m going to buy you some fucking carved drawers.”
Chapter 16
Korren
By the evening, our cabin has a queen-sized mattress on the bed, a futon in the main room, two chairs, and a coffee table. We also managed to pick up curtains, bedding, and a couple towels from the used clothing store. It’s lucky the kitchen is already stocked with the essentials, because I could see Dex cringing more with each purchase. The few packs of instant noodles we stocked up on at the end have probably cleaned him out.
I’m hoping it’ll be easier to sleep tonight knowing there’s a wall between me and Dex. And it’s a thick log wall, too, so I’m praying he won’t notice if I yell in my sleep again. I don’t know if I’ve been doing it every night, or if last night was different, because the fucking nightmares happen all the time.
We’re just finishing dinner—another pot of instant noodles, of course, this time shared around the rickety table on our new chairs—when Dex fixes me with an evil smile that tells me I won’t like whatever he says next.
“I dare you to let me wash you off in the shower,” Dex says, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
I can feel myself go bright red. I know I’m disgusting. I’ve been meaning to have a shower since we moved in yesterday, but there wasn’t much point until my clothes were also clean.
“That’s a cop-out,” I protest, trying to hide my embarrassment. There’s a difference between knowing you’re filthy and having someone else point it out to you. “Are you afraid of doing anything riskier?”
“Are you saying you’re not willing to jump in the shower with me, then? Am I winning this easily?”
“Fucking asshole,” I mutter.
I’ve never even done this with a girl before. It might not be a big deal to Dex, but to me it is. And there are other reasons I don’t want him to see me naked.
“I’ll let you wear my swim trunks,” Dex offers.
I give him my best scowl. “I guess I don’t have any fucking choice, do I?”
“Oh, and there’s a clean pair of clothes over with the towels,” Dex says. “For you to wear until we can visit the laundromat.”
I’ve finished my noodles, so there’s no point delaying any longer, as much as I’m dreading this. The clothes Dex mentioned look like another pair he’s snuck into our purchases today, because they don’t look like they’d fit him, and I hate the way my chest tightens at his generosity.
I lock the bathroom door behind me as I strip down and change into Dex’s swim trunks, only letting him in as I’m stepping into the shower.
In the bathroom, he strips off his clothes unselfconsciously—I notice he doesn’t have a second pair of swim trunks for himself.
“You’re unbelievable, Korren, you know that?” he says as he drapes his towel over the top of the shower.
“What d’you mean?”
