Just One Year(3)

“Is this your first time in the US?”

He wiped his mouth and nodded. “Yes.”

“What do you think so far?” she asked.

“I love it. But I’m definitely noticing some differences.”

Maura leaned in. “Oh? We’d love to know more.” She turned to my sister. “Shelley, pay attention. This is good for you to learn.”

“Well, for one, the portion sizes here are more fit for a gorilla.”

Everyone but me got a good laugh at that.

“Not that I’m complaining…” he added. “I think it’s great. We just aren’t served that much food back home.”

Smiling, my dad crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair. “What else?”

“Well, thus far I’m finding there are two types of people here. There are extremely friendly ones who start talking to you on the tube for no reason. And then there are people who can’t seem to take a joke or laugh at things.” He turned and looked right at me. “I feel like Brits are somewhere in between the two—more neutral, really.”

Maura filled his glass with more water. “That’s so interesting. So our personalities are more extreme.”

“Perhaps.” He smirked at me.

My stepmom continued to grill Caleb through dessert. He seemed more than happy to answer her questions. Meanwhile, I longed to escape but stayed since I didn’t want to appear any ruder than he apparently thought I was.

After dinner, Caleb helped us clean up, despite Maura’s insistence that he didn’t have to. He definitely had good manners. I’d give him that.

It was late by the time everything was put away. Much to my delight, Caleb retreated to his room.

Relief washed over me, since I no longer had to avoid looking at him. I could momentarily forget he was living in my house.

***

The next morning as I was in the kitchen pouring coffee, I felt the vibration of his voice at my back.

“Morning, roomie.”

I jumped and, with my back still turned to him, managed to say hello.

“You know, if we’re going to be living together, you might as well learn to look at me. I can imagine it’s a lot more work to avoid eye contact. It’s sort of like playing dodgeball with your eyeballs.”

That made me chuckle a little. I turned around to face him. “We didn’t exactly get off on the right foot. I guess I’m still trying to accept that you’re here under our roof, given how we were introduced.”

“You must have nearly crapped when you saw me.”

I rolled my eyes as his mouth spread into a wicked smile, his white teeth nearly blinding me. He was painfully handsome, and I hated it. His thick, gorgeous head of hair was a beautiful mess in the morning, too. Pretty-boy asshole.

“Yeah. It was supposed to be Bo Cheng, not you,” I said.

His eyes narrowed. “Bo Cheng?”

“The guy you replaced. That’s his name.”

“Ah. That bloke. I met him briefly when I was moving out of the other place. His eyes were all puffy.”

“Yeah. He was allergic to Catlin Jenner.”

“Who?”

“Catlin Jenner—the cat.”

“Ah, that’s her name?”

“Yes. Shelley named her after that Kardashians dad who’s now a woman—Caitlin Jenner. Except ours is Cat-lin Jenner. Get it?”

“She’s a clever one, your sister. And that makes sense about the allergies. That cat certainly has no lack of hair.”

“She’s Persian.”

“She’s beautiful. We slept together last night, actually.”

I was certain it wasn’t the first time he’d said that. “Be careful. She scratches sometimes.”

“Scratches don’t scare me.”

Why did every word that came out of his mouth put my mind in the gutter?

He grabbed a mug from the cabinet. “So I have Catlin Jenner to thank for the fact that I’m now living in this awesome house?”

“Are you being sarcastic?”

Caleb closed the cabinet a little too hard. “Are you kidding? This place is brilliant. I’ve never eaten better, slept better. I love it here. I feel more at home than my own house in England.”

“Oh. I couldn’t tell whether you were joking.”

“You don’t feel the same?” he asked.

“It’s different when something isn’t novel. I guess I ju—”

“Take it for granted?”

I sighed. “Maybe a little. Yeah.”

I looked down at my shoes—anything to avoid contact with those blazing green eyes of his.

“So…would you have looked Bo Cheng in the eyes?”

“Probably,” I said, still refusing to look up.

“Should we bring him back, give him some allergy medication? Put you out of your misery?”

“That’s not necessary. We won’t see much of each other aside from meal times anyway.”

“Oh, that’s right. You hide down in the basement, hardly pay attention to your sister…”

What?

How dare he!

“Who said that?”

“Shelley seems to think you avoid her.”

Now he’s ganging up on me with my family?