The Roommate Agreement(15)

I was speaking into an empty room because I knew for a fact Jay was still in bed. He hadn’t managed to shut his door before he’d passed out on his bed, fully-clothed, at one-thirty this morning.

That, and I could hear him snoring from here.

He was like a fucking horn bringing boats into a harbor.

With my eyes half-closed, I felt my way through the room to the drawer with the drugs with my head pounding. If I felt this bad, I hated to think about how bad Brie felt. I’d been drinking water along with my mom’s lethal cocktails, but she hadn’t been.

She and Sean had made up sometime during dinner, and since everyone apparently had a day off tomorrow, the drinks had flowed.

I’d pretended not to notice when Sean and Jay had slipped some money into my mom’s back pocket. So had she, even though she’d giggled at their not-so-stealthy attempt.

There was a chance Sean might have stumbled and grabbed her ass while he was slipping a couple of twenties in there…

I found the ibuprofen and shook the bottle. Good. It wasn’t empty. The cap was tough to unscrew, but I managed to get it off and shake out two pills.

Once I’d taken them, I left another two on the counter next to the cooker for Jay and got him a glass of water. There was no way in hell he’d have enough mental capacity this morning to get his own. Kind of like a baby bird.

Opening the fridge door, I stared inside. I wasn’t sure what I was actually doing looking inside it, but I needed to eat before I headed to the library to do some research for the haunted hotel article. If I didn’t, I’d fall down the rabbit hole of research and never come back out.

Well, I would. Just not in any decent amount of time.

I hummed and pulled out some yogurt and berries. That would do for now. If I had anything heavier, I’d probably throw it back up.

I stifled a yawn and tipped some of the yogurt and mixed berries into a bowl to eat. I was halfway through it when Jay wandered into the kitchen, looking a hell of a lot more awake than I thought he would be.

Without speaking, I pointed behind me to where I’d left him a helpful little present.

He walked past me without acknowledgment, and the next noise was the sound of the glass being put back down on the counter. “Thanks. I needed that.”

His voice was raw and husky, full of sleep, and far sexier than it had any right to be.

“You’re welcome,” I said around a mouthful of fruit. “How do you feel?”

“Like I need some of your food.”

I wrapped an arm around my bowl and pulled it into me, glaring up at him. Damn it, even with his hair sticking up in all directions and the imprint of his sheets on his cheek he was still hot.

He was also shirtless, and while it was against the agreement, I just… didn’t have the heart to tell him to put a t-shirt on.

What?

I was only human.

He had abs for days—the perfect, lean kind that screamed kale was one of your food groups but also said that you liked pizza and beer. His entire body was perfectly molded, from his strong shoulders to his tight chest and that tantalizing ‘v’ that curved over his hips and sent girls wild.

“There’s plenty more left,” I said, using my other hand to push the pot of yogurt and berries toward him. “You’re not eating mine.”

“Are the berries frozen?”

I shook my head. “I took them out of the freezer yesterday and forgot to put them back, but they’re super cold.”

He grunted, grabbed a bowl, and joined me at the small island. “How do you feel?”

“Better than I thought I would. I was drinking water, too, though. You?”

“Dehydrated,” he replied, shoveling a spoonful of food into his mouth. “Not as bad as I thought I would feel, either. I woke up and drank like three bottles of water after you went to bed.”

“See? I’m a good influence on you. Three months ago, you’d be the walking dead the morning after drinking.”

He pointed the spoon at me and nodded while he chewed.

I smirked and got up, grabbing two bottles out of the fridge. I slid one his way and uncapped mine.

Then watched as Jay drank the entire bottle in one go.

“Are you a walking desert or something?”

He laughed, choking on the final mouthful, and knocked his fist against his chest. “Told you—dehydrated. I might have to go for a run in a bit to sweat this hangover off. Wanna come with?”

“Run? With you? Are you trying to recreate The Hare and The Tortoise so that the tortoise loses dismally?”

He laughed again, knocking his elbow gently into mine. “No. I promise you—twenty minutes and you’ll sweat most of it out. Otherwise, you’re gonna feel dead by midday.”

“I don’t know. Running in this heat with a hangover sounds like the quickest way to kill me.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

Rolling my eyes, I scraped the last of the food from my bowl and put it in the sink. “Good to know.”

“Seriously, Shelbs, come running with me. We’ll go down to the front, run along the pier, then come back.”

I side-eyed him. “You promise?”

He mimed crossing his heart. “I swear on your Oreos.”

“Don’t swear on my Oreos. They’re not yours to swear on.” I paused. “If it’s longer than twenty minutes, you owe me two packets.”