Page 14 of Definitely Not a Thing

And ifyes,enough formean as fuckto be accurate?

Damn.

Okay.

I needed to chill.

None of this is his fault.

He’s trying to help you.

Don’t be a bitch.

“It’s not a ton of stuff,” I explained as I unlocked and unlatched the roll-up door. “I tend towards minimalism anyway, and even half ofthatis in storage from moving in with Hun—with my ex,” I corrected.

“That’s tough – you moved in with a ni—well, let me not assume.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Not assume what?”

“That your ex was a nigga,” he shrugged. “You kinda givethosevibes.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Not in a bad way,” he continued, peeking into the truck. “Like youonlyfuck with white boys. In you’ll fuck with anybody kinda way.”

My frown deepened. “You realize that’smoreoffensive, right?”

“Shit – I’m not articulating myself well,” he chuckled. “You’re the equal opportunity type.”

“An equal opportunitywhore?” I questioned, propping hands on my hips.

“No judgement here.” He hit me with a dazzling grin, then looked back to my stuff. “This shouldn’t take that long sweetheart.”

“Stopcalling me that.”

“My bad – what do you prefer? Babe? Shorty? Ma’am?”

I rolled my eyes. “Amelia is just fine.”

“Cool – let’s get to it, Amy.”

Who the fuck is Amywas the question I successfully kept in my brain, off my lips. It was clear at this point that he was hellbent on wrecking my already flayed nerves, and I was not trying to give him any more encouragement.

We did, indeed, get to it.

Me struggling with plastic totes I’d overpacked in effort to use as few as I possibly could, him carrying them two at a time like they were nothing. We worked together on the furniture, including the deceptively heavy mattress box I undid as soon as we had it in the room.

It would take hours and hours to get to proper size, and I wanted that process starting ASAP.

We were on the last trip up the elevator, just waiting for the doors to close when they suddenly reversed course, letting another resident onto the elevator.

Immediately, I wanted to sink through the floor.

Hunter saw me first – I watched the surprise, then confusion register on his face before he noticed Calvin, whose presence brought a different, unfamiliar something to his expression. I quickly shifted my gaze away, sinking back deeper into the elevator – unfortunately closer to Calvin.

Who, for some inexplicable reason… wrapped his arm around my neck.

Pulled me into him.