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“You too.”
“This is a little weird, right?”
“You mean the fact that we’re both after the same woman, but we’re encouraging the other? Yeah, I’d say it’s pretty fucking weird.”
“At least I know she’ll be looked after when I leave,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me.
“I guess that means that no matter what happens, you want me to take your position as the friend.”
“You’re capable of that, right? She needs someone to look after her and make sure she doesn’t get involved with any tools.”
“Right? There’s quite a few around town.”
“No kidding. And she doesn’t always have the best taste. There was this one guy she dated who only looked at her breasts when he said hi. And she still went out with him twice! I finally pulled him aside and told him to get lost.”
Yeah, it was amazing the shit a woman would put up with for a date. Men were such bastards, myself included. But I could see that Andrew was super protective of Laura, and when a man asked you to look after someone, you did it.
“You got it, man. I won’t let anyone near her that isn’t worthy.”
18
LAURA
“I can’t believeEdith bought that place,” I said, flopping down on the couch with Andrew. I made sure to leave an ample amount of space between us. Normally, I would snuggle up next to him, but knowing what I did, I needed to get my head on straight. I was too jumpy. Every time he looked at me, I was wondering what he was actually thinking.
“It’s a dump. Dash and I looked inside. The whole place needs to be renovated.”
“Hey,” I said, sitting up. “Did you see Edith with that guy at the house?”
His eyes jerked to mine, and I swore he looked slightly panicked. “Which guy?”
“The one she was flirting with. She was ready to take him home with her.”
“Oh, uh…yeah, she’s always been a cougar,” he said, laughing slightly.
There was something off with Andrew today. Or maybe that was just me. Maybe I was projecting my uncomfortableness on him. It was a bad idea to stay here. I was never going to be able to walk around here without thinking about what I heard.
“We should have dinner,” he said, suddenly standing.
I stood at the same time, thinking it would be a good idea to put my hands to use. At least then I could stop thinking about him for five seconds.
“Oh, you can stay here and I can cook for you. For us,” he added quickly. “Or not. It doesn’t matter.”
“I was just thinking that we could do it together. Cook! We can cook together.”
“Right,” he frowned. “Yeah, cook.”
He stared at me for a moment, then turned on his heel and headed into the kitchen. I was going to need wine to get through this night. I followed him into the kitchen and immediately headed for the liquor cabinet. He usually kept something in here that I could drink.
“What are you looking for?”
“Uh…wine,” I said, frowning when all I saw was the hard stuff.
“I don’t have any. Actually, I was trying to cut back.”
“Oh,” I said, closing the door. This was going to make things a little more frustrating, but I could still handle it. I took a deep breath and turned around, plastering a smile on my face. “So, what are we making?”
“Um…spaghetti?”