Begin Again (Again #1)(13)

Kaden was sitting there. To be precise, he’d made himself at home in my chair, his feet up on the desk. He looked at me unmoved, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to watch me sleep.

“Good morning, sunshine.” His voice dripped with irony.

Only a few hours ago he’d broken up a party and certainly he’d slept even less than I had. How could he be sitting here looking so fit?

“Coffee,” I groaned in my pillow. “No coffee, Allie doesn’t talk.”

His look of amusement surprised me. I’d never seen this expression on his face. After last night I had expected almost anything, but not this.

“Who would’ve thought you weren’t a morning person.”

“I might have told you that if you’d done a normal interview with me,” I muttered. I sat up, struggling to keep the blanket over my breasts.

“There’s coffee in the kitchen. I left some for you.”

I blinked at him. Was this a dream, or why was he being so nice? Something didn’t make sense.

I straightened my top, got out of bed and looked around for my sweater.

“Here,” Kaden threw the gray bundle at me. “Now start waking up.”

“Why?” I muttered. Before leaving the room, I turned to him again. He had folded his arms behind his head and was looking me up and down.

“We’re doing something today.” There was an undertone in his dark voice that I couldn’t quite interpret.

I walked to the kitchen, shaking my head. The apartment had already been straightened up. There was zero evidence of last night’s chaos. Instead, the smell of cleaning products mingled with the heavenly aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

I reached for the biggest mug I could find and filled it. With the cup in my hand I went back to my room, where I poured a generous portion of creamer into my coffee. A minty scent filled the air.

“You just poured mint-flavored creamer in your coffee,” Kaden said, making a face. He leaned forward and took the bottle from my hand. “Ugh.”

“You have no idea,” I replied and took a big gulp. I sighed with pleasure. “It tastes like a peppermint patty. Want to try?”

He grimaced as he read the label on the bottle. “No, thanks.”

I shrugged. “It’s another thing I would’ve told you if you’d given me the chance.”

“Do you have any other habits I should know about as an afterthought?” As he studied my face, he dropped his feet to the ground, and leaned forward.

Now that I was pretty much awake, I noticed how pleasant Kaden smelled. His spicy shower gel was a good match to the minty-vanilla candle fragrance in my room. How nice.

His hair was still damp and uncombed, and I felt a strange urge to run my fingers through it.

“Aside from the fact that you have a weird sense of smell and taste.” He nodded first to the candles, then to my coffee.

I thought for a moment and then leaned against the desk next to him. “I like Taylor Swift; I know most of her songs by heart and love to sing them in the shower. I have a thing for TV series of all kinds. Since I arrived in Woodshill, I’ve been surviving on fast food. I wasn’t allowed to eat that stuff at home. Oh, and I’d really love to have a cat. But don’t worry,” I added, since Kaden had already opened his mouth in protest. “Of course I won’t get one as long as I’m living with roommates. What else? Oh, if I watch a sad movie I start to cry, usually without noticing it myself. Probably because I’m just super empathic.”

Stop. Kaden was staring at me with his lips slightly parted, and I could see his thoughts moving like clockwork.

“Am I going on too long?” I asked, contrite. Hopefully he wasn’t overwhelmed with all my quirks and wondering how he could get rid of me as fast as possible.

“No, it’s okay.” Kaden ran both hands over his face.

“How did the party end up?” I asked, just to change the subject.

Now he leaned back again and folded his arms in front of his chest. My eyes wandered to his many tattoos. They were beautiful, not clumsy looking like so many others I’d seen.

“After your performance, the mood kind of cooled.”

“Oh no,” I cried, looking up from his tattoos. “I’m so sorry.” I put down my coffee and ran a hand through my hair. “Really, I didn’t mean to hurt your girlfriend’s feelings. I just didn’t like the way she spoke to Monica.”

I held my breath as Kaden let his eyes travel over my body. Then he shook his head a bit, raising his chin to look me in the eye again. “She isn’t my girlfriend. And I didn’t like it either.”

“That’s why I’m sorry. I just had such a long week and lost control, and then there was the wine, and … ” I paused and blinked. “Huh?”

“I didn’t like the way she spoke to Monica, either,” he said. For a moment he seemed lost in thought, then folded his arms behind his head. “To tell the truth, I didn’t like anything that came out of her mouth. It was more what she did with her mouth.”

I gulped my coffee.

“Yuck, Kaden!”

He grinned. A sly, self-assured grin. I wished I could just pour my coffee over his head. “What? Since we’re roommates now we can talk about this stuff openly and honestly, right? That’s what I always did with Ethan.”