I thought about the kiss we had shared, and I reminded myself that this wasn’t about short-term goals. This was about the end game.
16
Zoey
Somehow, I had become a gypsy, and I hadn’t even realized it. Each morning I woke up it took me a moment to remember where exactly I was. Was I at mom’s place, was I at Seth’s place… was I back with Devlin? The sad truth was that I missed him. We had a great connection, and the only real barrier to our living together was the fact that Devlin seemed to need to party all the time and I just couldn’t abide that lifestyle.
It might have been different if he just took the party somewhere else. Then our apartment would be quiet and I could stay put. But when I really thought about it, I realized that my attraction to him would end up screwing that set up as well. I would probably end up obsessing over what he was doing at each party, who he was with and what he was doing. I’d probably work myself up into a jealous frenzy, and that would seep into the relationship anyway.
I knew he wanted me. That was obvious from the kiss we had shared when I had left the apartment. But my feelings on the matter were more complicated. I had been the one who had pushed for a platonic relationship. I had been the one who had taken any romantic entanglements off the table, so why couldn’t I stop picturing the two of us together? I knew there were differences, and I had no idea if we would make it long-term, but I just couldn’t help but wonder.
I had spent the first night at mom’s place. Despite our last fight, she had been gracious about my appearance on her doorstep. But there was still residual tension left, and because of it, I had found myself opting to spend the second night at Seth’s. I had been so eager to get off mom’s couch that I had failed to take into account Cory. It was obvious from the minute she saw me that she wasn’t happy with the fact that I was back on her couch… again.
I was in the kitchen pouring myself a cup of coffee when Seth walked in. “Hey kiddo,” he said warmly. “Slept well?”
“I did,” I replied. “Off to work?”
“Yup,” he nodded.
“Thanks for making dinner last night,” I said. “I could have done it.”
“You realize that you don’t have to do all the work around here every time you sleep on my couch right?” Seth told me.
“I feel bad—”
“Well don’t,” Seth said. “You’re my sister, and if you ever need a place to crash, then you have every right to show up at my door. Also, I had the evening off yesterday after like a million years, and cooking is my way of relaxing.”
I smiled. “You are weird.”
“So I’ve been told,” Seth nodded.
I poured Seth a cup of coffee too and passed it to him. “Where’s all your stuff by the way?” Seth asked. “This can’t be it?”
“Oh, it’s not,” I said. “Most of my stuff is still at the apartment. I haven’t really moved out yet. I just needed a little breather. I needed some peace and quiet so that I could get some rest and get some work done.”
“When are you moving out?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I told… uh… my new roommate that I would give him time to find someone else…”
“That was nice of you,” Seth said, pursing his lips in the way that told me he didn’t think I needed to be that nice.
I smiled. “He’s a good guy, you know,” I said. “I really like him; we actually became good friends. The only problem is that he parties hard and he hosts these parties in the apartment. It’s a little more than I can handle, especially with my workload.”
“What’s his name again?” Seth asked.
I had avoided using Devlin’s name this whole time, and since Seth was asking me a direct question I didn’t want to lie, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to admit to him that I was living with one of his colleagues.
“Dave,” I said, picking a name a name at random.
“Last name?” Seth asked.
I tensed a little but laughed to cover over my deception. “Are you trying to check him out or something?”
“A little background check never hurt anyone.”
“He’s a good guy,” I said, putting my foot down. “You’re not getting involved. You promised.”
Seth sighed. “Fine…”