“Are you wearing panties now?”
She smirks at me and grabs more popcorn, slowly shaking her head.
“That’s mean,” I inform her.
“It’s not mean,” she disagrees. “You’re the one who refuses to let things get physical.”
“I told you, I don’t want a relationship.”
“And I told you, I don’t either,” she shoots back.
“Yeah, but I don’t believe you,” I state, honestly.
Grinning, Carly states, “Well, I don’t believe you either.”
“I don’t fuck my neighbors,” I inform her. “It’s a rule. Too messy. When you have to live near people, it’s not a good idea to fuck them.”
Pointedly running a hand down her chest, then her abdomen, and down her hip, she asks, “What about copping a feel? That’s not against the rules, right?”
“Tease,” I toss back, turning my attention to the television and ignoring her bare belly, full tits, and blow job lips. If I avoid looking at her, I’ll be fine.
Since she’s so close, I feel her shrug even though I’m not looking at her. “I’ve been called worse.”
“What does Laurel think about all this?”
Laughing a little, apparently caught off guard, she asks, “What? About you?”
Even though it’s a disaster waiting to happen, I glance at her. “Yeah. I figure you’ve mentioned me.”
“Many times. She thinks you sound hot. I sent her a picture of you with the turkey basket, but she was not impressed with your attitude.” Gasping, as if just thinking of a brilliant idea, she leans over and plants her boobs directly in my face as she reaches for her phone on the end table. “Let’s take a picture to send her. You’re full of popcorn and cuddles—surely I can get a more pleasant facial expression today.”
“I don’t like having my picture taken.”
“That’s weird,” she states, touching her screen a few times. Then she leans even closer, drapes my arm around her shoulder, and holds her phone out in front of her, “Say, Smallville!”
I do not say anything, but I do give her more of a smile this time.
Leaning into the half-assed embrace she posed us in, she touches the screen and pulls up the picture. “Aw, that’s a cute one. We look adorable.” She holds it up to show me, in case I need proof. “Look how freaking adorable you are. I can’t handle it. Laurel’s gonna flip out.”
I watch her open up a message chain and send it, then she opens up an app and starts to post it there.
“Nope, don’t do that,” I tell her, grabbing her phone. Just in case she thinks she’s being cute, I discard the post myself and hand the phone back to her.
“Are you my dirty little secret?” she jokes, setting the phone beside her on the couch.
“I’m serious; don’t put pictures of me online. Remember the cousin who wants to kill me? I’d prefer he doesn’t kill you, too.”
“Are you sure he wants to kill you?” she asks. “Like, did he specifically say that, or are you just assuming?”
“I am positive he wants to kill me.”
“Maybe he just wants you to stay out of Chicago. Isn’t that the point of an exile? Had he wanted you dead, I have to imagine he could have simply killed you.”
“It’s complicated. Mia didn’t want me dead, so he didn’t kill me. He pretended to. But she couldn’t handle it, so he had to tell her. But that was a long time ago, before the whole kidnapping incident. I wasn’t very nice to her during that ordeal and now he definitely wants me dead. That’s actually one of the reasons I don’t like hanging out at my apartment in the evenings. I assume one of these nights I’m not gonna wake up. At least if I’m alone, no one else goes down with me.”
There’s no humor on her face when I deliver that little nugget. She looks casually pensive, like she doesn’t agree with me, but doesn’t know how to argue it. “That’s no way to live, Vince,” she finally says.
I shrug. “I made my own bed.”
The lightness of the moment dies the kind of death I hope to get—quick and relatively painless. For all her optimism, Carly seems to be mulling over what I’ve said. I don’t want to think about it, so I just try to focus on the damn show. At least the soberness of reminding us both I’ll be dead soon cools my interest in all the goodies Carly’s serving up on a silver platter over here.
I haven’t gone home with anyone else since Carly started coming around. Some bastard part of me thinks maybe I should, just to push her away. I get much more out of hanging out with Carly at her apartment than I do any of those hook-ups though, so ultimately I can’t bring myself to pull the trigger. It would be the best thing I could do for her. She clearly likes me or she wouldn’t be tolerating my shit, and regardless of her claims that she’s not looking for a relationship either, I know she’s only saying that because I am. If I changed my mind all of a sudden and told her we should try it, she would be game.