Fighting Silence (On the Ropes #1)(22)

One day, as I was coming home from work, I saw two guys fumbling a bed down the stairs from above Eliza’s apartment.

“Hey, you need a hand?” I jogged over to catch the mattress just before it fell over the railing.

“Shit. Thanks, man,” the short guy groaned as we carried it the rest of the way to a truck.

“Damn. That was heavier than it looked.” The taller of the two cracked his neck as I pushed it with one hand to wedge it between the two dressers.

I laughed and headed back toward Eliza’s apartment, but he stopped me only a few steps away.

“Big man, wait! You wanna make a quick fifty bucks?”

Money.

“Whatcha got in mind?” I asked as I turned to face him.

“I got to get on the road in, like, an hour, and there is no way the two of us are going to be able to get some of that shit down the stairs.”

“One hour? Fifty bucks?” I could definitely use the cash, and if I got to combine that with a workout of hauling all his stuff down, I wouldn’t complain.

“That’s the offer.”

“All right. Half now. Half when I finish.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

He dug in his pockets, pulling out a wad of bills. “What’s your name?” he asked, handing the money over.

“Till.”

“I’m Daniel. That’s Scott. Follow me, Till. Let’s get this knocked out so I can get the hell out of here.”

Forty minutes later, I was carrying the last box down to his truck. He didn’t have much, so it didn’t take me long, but it would have taken those two forever. It turned out Scott was staying in the apartment, but Daniel was moving to Wisconsin to be with some girl he met online. Scott gave him an endless amount of shit about it too. It was hilarious listening to them go back and forth. They both seemed like good guys.

“I am out of here!” Daniel said, bumping fists with Scott. “Hey, please try to find someone to take my room. I can’t afford to carry this place more than another month.”

My head snapped to Scott. “You looking for a roommate?”

“I am now that this * is taking off on me to move in with his mail-order bride. Why? You looking for a place?”

“Yes!” I jumped forward a little too enthusiastically. “I applied here, but they didn’t have anything available. They put me on a twelve-mile-long wait list, but I really can’t afford anything else I looked at.”

Daniel glanced over at Scott, who shrugged.

“You got a job?” Scott asked.

“Two.”

“You a partier?”

“Nope. I work, go to the gym, then sleep.”

“Rent’s five fifty a month. So you’d need to have two twenty-five in cash by the first of every month. If you’re late, it’s an extra hundred bucks. All the bills get split right down the middle. No exceptions.”

“I’m cool with that,” I said quickly as I began to get even more excited. That was a hundred bucks cheaper than what I’d thought I was going to have to spend to get my own place.

“Well, okay, then. I know you saw the bedroom, but you want to go up and take a look around the rest of the apartment?”

“Yeah, definitely!” I answered, even though, there wasn’t a chance in hell that anything I could see would prevent me from signing a lease. I needed a place.

“I’m gonna take off. Let me know if this works out. Thanks again for your help, Till.” Daniel pulled out the other half of the money he owed me and passed it with a handshake.

“No problem. Any time.” I tucked the cash in my pocket and turned back to Scott. “Let’s go check it out.”

“Sure. Have a good trip,” he called to Daniel over his shoulder as he headed up the stairs.

I followed behind him, hiding the smile that was working its way onto my face regardless how hard I tried to fight it.

“I work nights and sleep during the day, so you won’t see me much. I’ve got a girl who lives across town, so I stay over there sometimes on the weekends.”

We walked through the door, and he immediately stilled as we were greeted with loud music blasting through the floorboards.

“Shit. She must be at home. Okay, so maybe this is a good thing.” He let out a huff that showed me that what he was about to say was anything but good. “Look, the only catch to this place is that the building is shit. I swear I think the floors are made out of tissue boxes. You can hear everything that goes on in the apartment downstairs. It’s a real nice girl who lives there, but her taste in music is almost criminal. She treats us to Justin Timberlake at least once a day. I got pissed when we first moved in. I went down to bitch that her music was too loud, but I swear to you it was louder in our place than it was in hers, so after talking to her, I just let it go. It didn’t hurt that she’s sexy as f*ck.” He winked.

My eyebrows popped up in surprise. She was sexy. He at least got that part right.

She was also mine.

He continued. “I’m not home enough for it to bother me, but your room would be right over hers. The bad news is you’re able to hear every single sound she makes. However, the good news is that you’re able to hear every single sound she makes.” He finished with another wink, and my self-restraint that day must have been aligned with Mother Teresa because my hand remained fisted at my side and not in his mouth.