Page 90 of Fierce-Matt

He wanted Anya to fully trust him and he wasn’t sure she was there just yet.

His ego had to step back.

“We’ll step in if we have to, but you don’t want us to,” his father said.

“No.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing with Anya,” his mother said. “We know you didn’t in the past.”

He was going to have this thrown in his face for years.

“I wasn’t as smart back then,” he said, standing up. He didn’t need to get his ass handed to him again. “But I’ve got it handled now.”

“We hope you do.”

25

THINK ALIKE

“I’ve got takeout,” Matt said when Anya opened the door to her apartment later that night.

“Yum,” she said. “What is it?”

“Lobster rolls and fish and chips. Take your pick.”

“That’s great takeout,” she said. “I can’t decide.”

“We can share. Show me around.”

She didn’t want to feel self-conscious about her small apartment. It was almost half the size of his condo and not nearly as modern.

It was what she could afford and had to remind herself that she worked hard to be where she was.

She had money in the bank and was going to continue to have it grow before she made any life-altering decisions on career or living situations.

There were a lot of hard looks she had to take and wondered if she jumped too quickly in the past in her attempts to overthink and compare herself to others.

“There’s not a lot to see.” She took the yummy bag of food out of his hand and placed it on her table not too many steps away.

“It’s cozy,” he said.

He was looking at her living room. She had a small two-person table to the left. Past the table was the galley kitchen that she tried to cook in. Space and time prevented most occurrences.

“It works. You’re seeing all there is here. My bedroom is down the hall. The same with the bathroom.”

“You have it decorated nicely,” he said. “I like your style.”

She never thought she had one specific style. She bought what caught her eye.

Though she had to admit, when it came time to stage a house or give suggestions on staging, she sold much faster than letting clients do it themselves.

Maybe she had some hidden talent there she’d never honed.

“Thanks. I don’t try. That probably sounds horrible considering my profession.”

“No,” he said. “It sounds like you’ve got good taste. You can tell when someone forces something in a house. This isn’t forced but is very calming.”

She tilted her head. “I never realized I was going for that, but I think I was. I didn’t always have much of a calming household.”