Page 57 of Resonance

When, three-quarters of the way through, he let his arm slide from the back of the couch around my shoulders, I inched a little farther into that cozy nest as casually as I could and pretended not to notice the pleasure that wrapped around me when he rested the popcorn bowl on his lap and pulled me closer.

Aural Addiction, Episode #17 transcript:

Dan:I think a song like “Rise” is what country needs right now. It’s got that anthem feel that—what’s going on over there. Something wrong with the latte?

Owen:Did you ask for one pump of vanilla syrup in it or two?

Dan:One.

Owen:Well then, that’s what’s wrong with it.

Dan:You know what’s right about it?

Owen:Definitely not the amount of syrup.

Dan:The fact that I brought you coffee in the first place that you didn’t even ask for.

Owen:If I’d asked for it, I’d have asked you to make sure you got two pumps.

Dan:Can I fire you on air?

Owen:There’s probably a law against that.

Dan:Probably.

Owen:Twopumps of vanilla.

Chapter 20

“What’s the word?” I looked up from the register as Owen drifted out of the stockroom where he’d gone to take a call from his landlord. The dismal expression on his face wasn’t promising.

“Another week at least. The carpet people couldn’t come for another three weeks, so Tinsley decided to go ahead and install a wood floor instead, which is great because wood floors are way better than carpet, but…” He sighed.

“You’ll stay put. Like I said, you’re doing me a favor.” Saving me from having to find a place for Jez, too, for as long as he stayed. And if I sounded a little gruff and ornery, it was only because I liked having him around and had started to dread leaving him to go on tour in the first place.

Owen was easy company, easy on the eyes, and though I was trying to distract myself from the latter part, it was increasingly difficult.

He’d wandered into the kitchen the other morning in just his boxers, and I caught myself staring in the middle of doctoring my coffee, thinking back to how nice he’d felt sliding through my hands, how good fucking around with him had been.

“Is this… should I put—I should totally have put a T-shirt on. Here I am walking around your place like I own it. Sorry, I wasn’t even thinking. Although usually I’m naked, so I guess this is a slight upgrade. So maybe I was thinking a little.”

I’d waited until he tapered off and then joked that he was fine aside from the fact that he was hanging some brain. He’d flushed and glanced down, then fixed me with a blistering glare that nearly had me spitting out my coffee.

We had fun. Stupid fun, but it was a welcome change from years of one-sided conversations with Jezebel. Even the shitty horror movies had started growing on me. No, that was a lie. Watching shitty horror movieswithOwen was what had me coming around to them.

“You sure?”

I nodded, resting my elbows on the counter. “You’re not any trouble.”

Owen looked me over carefully, and something in his expression made my heart hurt. I thought about him growing up and being shuffled among relatives. I wondered if he’d been made to feel like he was a burden. My guess was he had. Maybe not overtly or vocally, but it showed in the effort he made to keep all of his stuff neatly contained and tucked away within that single laundry basket in my house.

The thought turned me sour, and he gave me a withering stare. “You’re doing that sympathetic frown thing again.”

I chuckled. “You’re still a pain in my ass, don’t worry. But you’re not hard to have around, so get that idea out of your mind if it’s there. You’ve got other shit to worry about. Like inventory when you get in tomorrow.”

Owen groaned and rolled his eyes back in his head, letting his shoulders slump and hanging his tongue out of the side of his mouth like a zombie.

“Goddamn you’re a terrible employee. Remind me why I hired you again?”