The Hardest Fall(44)
“Please tell me you don’t have a bag of roasted potatoes tucked away somewhere—and also, for the love of God, don’t tell me you occasionally like to take these M&Ms down, line them up on the counter, and just stare at them.”
“Of course not! I’m not a weirdo, I just have…some quirks. It’s cute to have quirks.”
“Well, excuse me for asking. If you did that, I was gonna start worrying about you.”
“Don’t you have that one—or, okay, a few food items you’re afraid to eat too quickly because then that will be the end of it and you won’t have more? I like fries, too. I can never share fries, and I always get extra even if I don’t eat all of them. I just want the option of eating more. Do you get it? If you still don’t get it, I’m pretty sure you’re the problem here, buddy, not me.”
As she looked up at me with hope-filled eyes, I could do nothing but just stare at her.
She bit her lip then started laughing, and two seconds in, a small snort escaped her. She slapped her hand over her face, but it was too late.
The grin I gave her was a little filthy, a little lazy. “You’re so fucking fascinating, Zoe Clarke.”
What did I get for my compliment? A smack on the arm and an impressive growl.
*
It was around ten when I heard a key turn in the lock and the apartment door slammed open, hitting the column right behind it.
I leaned back in my seat and watched Zoe struggle with taking her bag off her shoulder.
“I’ve gotta pee! I’ve gotta pee! I’ve gotta pee!”
Each time she repeated it, her voice rose higher.
My eyes dropped to the dress she was wearing: black and tight on her upper body, leaving nothing to the imagination as far as the size of her boobs, and looser on her hips—not by much, but still. It ended a few inches above her knees. Date, right—she was coming back from her date.
“Miss Clarke!” another voice chimed in. “Miss Clarke, I need you to—”
Holding on to the door and squirming in place, Zoe replied, “I’m sorry, Ms. Hilda, I’ve gotta pee. I can’t. I really really can’t. I have to pee.”
With that she slammed the door, finally managed to untangle the strap of her bag from her hair, threw it right over her head, and ran straight to the bathroom.
Like I said, I found her fascinating.
A few minutes later she came out of the bathroom, and just when I thought she was heading to her room, she stopped in her tracks. I could’ve sworn I saw her tilt her chin up and smell the air.
“I smell pizza. Is it pizza? Did you have pizza?”
This time she was running toward me, or more like the pizza box right in front of me, and the expression on her face—priceless. When she finally made it, she didn’t waste a second before she tore into the box…only, I’d already eaten pretty much all of it and there was only one slice left.
Again, her face when she realized it was all gone—priceless, and cute as fuck. Turned out she could pull off a mean face better than I expected.
“You ate it all? This is all you left me?” she asked slowly, big eyes staring down at the empty box.
I raised an eyebrow. “I was really hungry. Didn’t you eat on your date, anyway?” I hadn’t meant to mention her date at all, but apparently I was still stuck on that.
She scrunched up her nose and the appalled look on her face disappeared, leaving sad, sad eyes. “He couldn’t make it.”
My brows drawing together, I checked my watch, just to make sure. “It’s a little past ten, Zoe—don’t tell me you waited for him for two hours.”
She blew out her cheeks and dropped down on the couch behind her.
“He said he might be late but would try to make it.” She gave me a half-hearted shrug as if to say it was okay, but her facial expressions were so easy to read. Anyone could see that it wasn’t okay.
Worthless son of a bitch.
“You didn’t have anything to eat while waiting for him?”
She rubbed her temple. “The restaurant wasn’t anywhere near campus, and it was a fancy place. I didn’t feel like having anything on their menu—didn’t wanna spend over fifty dollars for a few spoonfuls of pasta. Also, I’m not good at eating by myself at restaurants, or anywhere really. It feels like everyone is looking at me and collectively thinking, Oh, poor girl. So, short answer to your question: nope, I didn’t have anything to eat.”
There were a few things I could’ve gone after in her speech, but I chose to focus on one thing and one thing only while fishing for more. “Your boyfriend is a college student and he can afford fancy restaurants, huh? I guess I can see why you would have trouble ending it.”
Just like that, I’d screwed up. I didn’t know what had pushed my buttons exactly, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I had fucked up—big time.
Her brows inched up to her hairline and she met my eyes—a rare occurrence—then tilted her head.
“Wow.”
Placing both her palms on the couch, she pushed herself up. The pizza forgotten, she continued to hold my eyes as she stared down at me.
“Wow, Dylan. I don’t expect you to know me in a month, or however many weeks you’ve been here—hell, we barely see each other some days—but…actually, you know what? Maybe I did. Maybe I did think you’d figure out at least that much. I’m the last person who’d date someone for the amount in his bank account.”