“Get some ice cream?” I asked, cutting in before he could finish his sentence.
His smile grew a little wider. “Exactly,” he nodded. “What do you recommend?”
“One scoop of everything,” I teased.
“Tempting,” Devlin replied. “But I’ll stick with one flavor for now. Will you join me?”
I nodded. “I’d be happy to join you,” I said. “Jordan can cover the last few minutes of my shift.”
We both ended up choosing the salted caramel ice cream, and then I led Devlin outside to the quaint little benches set up outside the parlor. We sat down together and enjoyed a couple of minutes of silence while we finished off the top of our cones before the ice cream melted. It was funny because we hadn’t really known each other long enough, but even the silence between us was comfortable.
“So… how’ve you been?” Devlin asked.
“That’s a loaded question,” I replied.
“Why?”
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “It’s just… been a hectic couple of days.”
“Managed to get some work done without me around to distract you huh?” Devlin asked.
I smiled but didn’t say anything. I was starting to wonder if telling Devlin to look for another roommate had been a bad idea. Maybe I had jumped the gun without thinking things through.
“I did,” I nodded. “But moving from place to place hasn’t been easy.”
“All the more reason to come back,” Devlin said abruptly. “Come on, Zoey… I know we hit a road bump, but I’ll try and slow down the partying… I’ll try to be considerate of the fact that you live there too. Because other than that, you have to admit, we work well together. And I really, really don’t want to have to look for another roommate.”
I paused. “Well…”
“Admit it.”
I smiled. “Ok, we do get along well.”
“See?” Devlin said. “I just assumed you were ok with the parties. If you had just told me—”
“I didn’t want you to have to change everything for me.”
“I’m not talking about changing everything,” Devlin clarified. “I’m just talking about… compromising… that’s part of living together right?”
“Right,” I nodded.
“Then… you’ll try this again and come back to the apartment?” Devlin asked.
The kiss we had shared stood between us though, and I wondered if I should address it. He had chosen to ignore it, and so I decided to do the same.
I nodded slowly. “Sure,” I said. “I’ll give it another go.”
Devlin smiled, and I realized I was cautiously optimistic. But the bottom line was really… what other options did I have?
17
Devlin
“So… do you have a girlfriend?”
She was tall, leggy and very blond. She had dark, seductive eyes and a sway to her hips that was obviously for my benefit. She had heard of me through a friend and given me a call. She had shown up to meet me with two of her friends. The shortest of the three, Tracy, was dark haired and buxom, the third, Tatyana, was light eyed with short hair, cut close to her neck. They were all attractive and obviously up for anything… and apparently, they wanted me to know that.
“I don’t,” I said, but the whole time I kept thinking about Zoey.