Page 37 of Take My Love

By the time I finish with the next goat, Emily returns with a faux remorse expression.

“Silas, I want to sincerely apologize for the sexualimplication of your large arms. I promise it’ll never happen again and hope you can forgive me.”

Her words come out genuine, but there’s a glimmer in her eyes that tells me she knows what she’s saying is absolute bullshit.

My gaze flicks to Posey standing ten feet behind her watching us with her jaw locked in place.

“I accept your apology, and of course, forgive you. No hard feelings.”

“Great.” She smiles wide, holding out her hand.

I look at Posey again, wondering if this is a test, and if I’m allowed to touch her.

Not wanting to leave Emily hanging, I shake it.

“Since that’s over…” She steps closer, pulling her lower lip in between her teeth. “Maybe we could go out this weekend? Asfriendlyemployees?”

I don’t have to look at Posey again to know she’s shooting daggers at the back of Emily’s head.

The third night at Posey’s house, she finally listed off her house rules, which were mostly me doing all the chores and lawncare, but she never said anything about bringing home company. Plus, Emily’s the only one who’s been nice to me all week.

“Sure, I’d love that. But do you think until I get my first paycheck, you’d mind stayin’ in and watchin’ a movie? Then I promise we’ll go out another weekend.”

“I’m not payin’ y’all to stand ’round and make weekend plans,” Posey scolds.

“I’ll give you my number later,” Emily whispers beforewalking past me and leaving me with a red-faced roommate who looks ready to kill me.

Or fire me.

Maybe both.

chapter seven

Posey

“So…”Amaya prompts, nudging me when I don’t react.

“What?” I ask, cutting through soap I removed from the molds earlier. Dealing with Emily slowed me down and now I’m trying to catch up.

“Don’t act dumb with me, Posey. You totally jumped down Emily’s throat for flirtin’ with Silas.”

“That’s not true,” I argue, slamming the cutter down harder than necessary. “She touched him inappropriately and made a suggestive comment. I would’ve called anyone out for that.”

“Mm-hmm…” Her tone tells me she doesn’t believe me but the policy is clear. I’m just following it. “Surprised you didn’t fire her.”

“I gave her two options. Get written up and apologize or get fired—same thing I would’ve done for anyone who crossed the line.”

“I’ve touched way more than your arm and you neverfired me.”

Freezing mid-cut, I glare. “Maybe I should reconsider. You have smacked my ass before and that’s definitely grounds for sexual harassment.”

“Only ’cause you smacked mine first!”

I bark out a laugh. “Yes, but I did it after work hours. And we were drunk. See the difference?”

“Oh, so Emily can hit on him outside of work and you won’t care?”

“Nope.” I stack the slices of soap to one side before cutting some more.