I laughed to myself and stood, making my way over to their table. “Looks like we meet again, ladies,” I started, taking a sip of coffee and looking to Ashton. “I assume you must be A?”
“You’re O?” the blonde asked.
“Yep,” I replied.
“You guys sound like blood types,” the other friend said with a giggle and looked to her friend. “Well, Ashton? Are you going to say anything?”
“This has to be a fucking joke. You can’t seriously think you’re rooming with me,” she muttered. The blonde patted the empty chair next to her.
“Here, sit,” she offered. I turned the chair around and straddled it, putting my coffee on the table. “Again, I’m Ava, that’s Alex over there, and you already know Ashton. I think my uncle said you're Oliver, right?”
“O’Shea,” I mentioned, focusing my attention to Ashton. Her luscious lips were pulled in a frown as she stared at me, her arms folded across her chest. “So I’ve been meaning to apologize about the whole deer killer situation. I’ll admit it was a bit childish and unnecessary, so I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she muttered.
“So can we start over or are you going to keep being grouchy this whole meeting?”
“I don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t think we’d be a good fit—”
“Um, can you give us a second to talk to her really quick?” Alex interrupted. “You don’t have to leave; just turn around in your chair or something.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”
I grabbed my coffee and turned around, leaning against the back of the chair as they spoke in hushed tones.
“What the hell are you doing, Ashton? You literally can’t afford to turn him away!” one of them said.
“Yeah! Do you not remember your situation?” the other one said.
“Of course I remember my situation, but I’d rather move back in with my parents than to be roommates with this cocky asshole!” she spat in a low tone.
“You do know I can still hear you, right?” I said over my shoulder and took a sip of coffee. They were quiet for a split moment before one of them sighed.
“Ugh fine,” she muttered before clearing her throat. “You can turn around now.”
I turned back around to face them. “Man, you have a pretty strong name for me despite the fact that I’ve apologized,” I said with a smirk. She rolled her eyes.
“Your apology doesn’t make you any less of an asshole. I mean you were a self proclaimed one at the repair shop, weren’t you?”
“I didn’t say those exact words, but I’ll let you have that,” I said. “So about this roommate situation. What’s the deal with that?”
“Exactly what it said in the ad,” she answered. “I obviously know you have a job, so I guess I just need to look over your background check.”
“Right,” I said, pulling it out of my back pocket and handing it to her. “I can guarantee I meet your ‘not a creeper’ requirement.”
She scoffed as she unfolded the paper. “I knew you were a creep the moment I met you,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Whoa,” I stated, holding my hands up. “I can take you calling me an asshole, but miss me with the creep shit.” A sexy smirk pulled at her lips before she looked down at my background check, her friends leaning over to look with her.
After a few moments, Alex shrugged. “Looks good to me. I think you should let him move in,” she said. Ashton looked at her in disbelief.
“But you said I shouldn’t take the first offer, especially if it’s a guy,” she objected.
“Well, I didn’t expect O to be the sexy mechanic, so why the hell not?” she said. I winked at her, watching her blush before I looked to Ashton.
“So what’s it going to be, A? I’m already prepared to pay two months in advance if that’ll help your decision,” I said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so eager to pay me?”
“Why are you so adamant on giving me a hard time?” I asked with a smirk. She rolled her eyes. “I’m just ready to get out of a hotel room and eat real food instead of fast food. So if I need to pay more in advance to do that, then that’s what I’ll do. What do you say?”
“Two months in advance would be $1,030. Are you sure that’s what you want to pay?”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “I know how much two months in advance would be, Captain Obvious. I wouldn’t have offered it if I wasn’t prepared to pay that.”
She scowled at me until her friend cleared her throat. I almost laughed at her attempt to smile, which looked extremely uncomfortable for her.
“Fine,” she said. “But if you’re too much to deal with, this situation will be over as soon as your two months are up.”
“Deal,” I said with a grin, holding out my hand. She just looked at it and looked back at me, still frowning. “Right. Baby steps.”
“Exactly,” she said.
I looked down at my watch. “I have to get back to work. When will I be able to move in?”
“When I have the money in my hand,” she answered.
“So after work then?” I grinned when her eyes widened. “I mean you said when the money is in your hand.”
She looked to her friends, who only shrugged in response. “Um, sure, whatever,” she finally said.
“Cool,” I said, standing to my feet. “See later then, roomie.” I grinned when she slightly cringed at her new nickname. This arrangement would be an interesting one.
∞∞∞
Back at the repair shop, I continued working on Ashton’s car. Chris approached me and stood to the side of the car, wiping his hands on a greasy towel.
“Dad always gives you the big jobs,” he complained. I looked up from under the hood.
“Probably because you come in on your own time instead of when he tells you to,” I responded. He thought for a moment before nodding.
“You’re probably right. Plus, that’s too much work anyway. I’ll stick with the oil changes and the other simple stuff.”
“Yeah, you do that,” I answered idly, working on removing the damaged radiator.
“Anyway, I came over here to ask about your meeting. Is your roommate hot at least?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s this car’s owner,” I mentioned, loosening a screw.
“Holy fuck,” Chris exclaimed. “Ashton’s your roommate? You lucky son of a bitch!”
“I wouldn’t say lucky. She still hates me.”
“Fuck that! You get to see her walking around in cute little nightgowns and panties and all that. You could even ‘accidentally’ walk in on her in the shower,” he said and chuckled. I looked up at him with a raised brow.
“Yeah…you’d be one of those creepers she mentioned in her ad,” I said flatly.
“Hey, I’m just saying. You’d be a fool not to try to get a peek,” he said.
“Chris! God dammit, I told you to rotate the tires on this car and to do the oil change! The owner will be back to pick it up in almost an hour!” Rocky barked from the lobby door.
“I was getting to it!” Chris said in a huff and walked away. I shook my head and focused on my own task. Sometimes I wondered how in the hell they survived before I got here. With Chris’s work ethic, I had no idea how anything managed to get done around here.
As soon as I finally got the radiator out of the car, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Irritation filled me when I fished my phone out of my pocket and saw Kayla’s name on my screen again. I sighed. She’d just keep calling until I eventually answer. May as well get this over with.
“Yeah,” I said upon answering, leaning against the side of the car.
“O’Shea! Hey! I’ve been calling you forever,” she rushed out. “I’ve been worried sick about you—”
“What do you need, Kayla?” I asked.
She released a soft sigh. “Shea…I think we really need to talk about what happened. I thought we would’ve been able to talk about it when I got home, but you we
re already gone and—”
“What more is there to talk about? You said we were over.”
“I know, but…I’ve had a lot of time to think about things and maybe I was a bit irrational.”
“A bit irrational,” I repeated, letting out an airy chuckle. “You have an answer for everything, huh?”
“Shea, I’m serious,” she said.
“Kayla, it’s one thing to not be ready for marriage. But you claimed that we were just fooling ourselves to think that we could work since we came from two different income classes. That didn’t sound irrational; it sounded like something you’d given a lot of thought to,” I reminded her, suddenly feeling bitter as our last conversation filled my mind.
She was silent for a moment before she sighed again. “Look, maybe we should meet up and talk about this face to face instead of over the phone. Maybe we can do lunch sometime?”
“I’m not in Virginia anymore, Kayla. I haven’t been since that night.”
“Then where are you? I can come to you—”
“That’s not necessary. I have no interest in talking about this anymore. I’ve accepted the fact that we’re not together, so I’d rather keep it that way.”
“O’Shea—”
“I gotta get back to work. Later,” I said and hung up before she could utter another word. I tried to focus back on the work before me, but now I was too distracted. My heart was conflicted with my mind in regard to anything that had to do with her. My heart still wanted to love her and attempt to give her another chance. I loved that woman with everything in me and a part of me wanted to think this whole thing was a mistake. On the other hand, my mind still wanted to be angry at her, constantly reminding me of the embarrassment and rejection she’d dished to me. Sometimes the mind always knew what was best in the long run, but it still didn’t stop the heart from asking why not.
“Maybe I was a bit irrational,” she’d said. Gotta love how rich people loved to downplay their actions. Even though I thought she was being quite ridiculous that day, she seemed that she was making a rational decision for herself at the time. Now she’d know what life was like without me, and as far as I was concerned, it would remain that way.
∞∞∞
Around closing time, a Jeep rolled down the gravel driveway, coming to a stop at the opening of the garage. Ashton and her friends hopped out, walking over to her car.
“Have you found anything else since the last time we talked?” she asked, looking under the hood. I wiped my hands on a towel and shook my head.
“Nope.”
“Good,” she said before meeting my gaze. “Well, I figured I’d come here so you could follow me back to my place if you’re moving in or whatever.”
I placed my hand over my heart. “Oh, that’s so nice of you! Maybe you’re not a demon spawn after all!” I exclaimed in faux shock.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t push your luck,” she said. “But first, do you have the money?”
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the banking enveloped I’d gotten this morning before meeting with her. “I do.” When she reached for it, I pulled it out of reach. “Not so fast. How do I know you won’t run off with it?”
She smirked and folded her arms across her chest. “How far can I get when you have my car? It’s not like I can avoid you,” she said.
“Hmm,” I pondered. “You make a fine point.” I handed her the envelope, watching her as she took the money out and counted it.
“Thank you kindly,” she said, tucking the cash into the back pocket of her jeans. “So how much longer are you going to be here?”
“I just need a few minutes to clean up and I should be ready,” I said.
“Do you need to go back to your hotel to get your things?”
“I already have them in my truck.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
I smirked at her. “Don’t even look at me like that. I always bring my stuff with me when I leave. You can’t trust anyone with a master key to your hotel room to just leave your stuff there all day,” I stated. She simply nodded and walked out of the garage and back to her friend’s truck.
“So that’s the roommate, huh?” Rocky asked as he came to stand beside me.
“Looks like it,” I answered.
He nodded. “She’s a good girl. A little rough around the edges, but a good girl.”
I looked over at her to see her joking around with her friends, her beautiful smile illuminating her face. When she noticed me watching her, she cleared her throat and turned her back to me.
“I take it that she’s still pissed?” Rocky asked.
“Yeah,” I answered idly before looking at him. “Wait, how’d you know about that?”
He let out a light laugh and put his hands in his pockets. “She told me when she came in to do her paperwork. She thought your behavior was a fireable offense. You're lucky I like you,” he said, giving me a light jab in the ribs with his elbow.
“I was just messing with her.”
“I know, kid. Just…take it easy on her. She’s had a rough few months lately,” he said, patting me on the shoulder before finally walking away. I sighed and cleaned my workspace. Between what Chris had mentioned and Rocky’s last statement, I was more and more curious about this woman’s story.
∞∞∞
After work, I followed her and her friends to her apartment. The complex was only ten minutes from work, tucked down a small side street off the highway. It looked fairly nice, seeming as if it was a recently built community.
“Do you need us to come up with you?” Ava asked her when Ashton hopped out.
“Nah, I think I’m good. If he tries anything, he’ll meet the end of my baseball bat,” she said, looking at me as I got out my truck. I grabbed my bag from the bed of my truck and walked around to meet her.
“I feel like I already need to call the police,” I joked. She smirked at me before turning back to her friends.
“I’ll call you guys later,” she said.
“Have fuuuuun!” Alex called from the passenger seat in a sing-song tone.
“Whatever!” Ashton replied in the same tone before waving me along. “I guess I should show you to your new home.”
“You make it sound like I’m a pet you just adopted,” I mentioned.
“I’m trying to be nice,” she said over her shoulder. We walked up to her building and climbed up the stairs to the second level. I fought to keep my eyes from settling on her ass. The last thing I needed was for her to catch me staring and throw me into the creep category.
“Here we are.” She unlocked the door and pushed it opened, gesturing me to go inside. Everything looked as it did in the pictures. A plush black sofa and love seat sat in her living room with a glass coffee table in the center of the floor. A flat screen TV sat on top of an entertainment center across from the couch, pictures of her friends and family decorating the wall.
“Nice place,” I finally said. “You only pay $730 for this?”
“Yep.”
“Hmm.” I stroked my chin. “Maybe I can just get my own apartment and not have a roommate.” When she looked at me in slight panic, I smiled and shook my head. “I’m kidding. I’d rather split bills than try to juggle all this by myself right now.”
“Oh.” She relaxed a bit. “Well, now it’s time to lay down some rules,” she said.
“Rules?”
“Um, yeah, rules,” she repeated as she rolled her eyes. “So don’t touch anything in the fridge that has an A on it. I bought that specifically for myself.”
“Nothing with an A; got it.”
“And don’t bother me while I’m working.”
“You work from home?” I asked. “What do you do?”
She frowned. “Very important work that requires me not to be disturbed,” she clipped. I held my hands up.
“Okay, no bothering you while you’re doing your important work. What else?”
“No touching my strawber
ries and cream body wash. I’ll know if you do.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, because I’d love to smell like a pink Starburst,” I mentioned sarcastically. “Woman, please.”
“And of course, clean after yourself. I’m no one’s maid and I don’t want bugs.”
“Of course,” I said. “Anything else, your highness?”
“I guess that’s all. I’ll show you to your room then,” she said. I followed her down the hall, almost bumping into her when she stopped abruptly.
“My bad,” I said, taking a step back when she turned around.
“There’s your room,” she said, pointing to the closed door, “and there’s the bathroom.” She pointed to the opened door beside it.
“And I’m guessing that’s your room?” I asked, pointing to the door at the end of the hall. She looked over her shoulder as if she didn’t know what I was talking about.
“Yes, which is off limits,” she said.
“Of course it is,” I said. She shook her head and walked around me, leaving me alone in the hallway. I entered the bedroom and saw that the room was already made up for me. The bed was covered with a black comforter with white sheets underneath. A smaller flat screen sat on top of a tall black dresser near the foot of the bed and a small desk sat on the other side of the room.
“Not bad,” I mused to myself, placing my single suitcase on the bed. Unzipping it, I pulled out a change of clothes and walked back into the living room to find Ashton sitting on the couch.
“Where can I find the towels? Need to take a shower,” I said.
“In the cabinet over the toilet,” she replied without looking up from her magazine. I made my way to the bathroom and found what I needed, stepping into the shower and turning the water on.
Just as I was finishing up, I spotted her body wash in a metal rack mounted to the wall. A devilish grin formed on my lips as I picked up the bottle. I doubt she’d notice, I thought, as I put a tiny dab of it in the palm of my hand. It wasn’t even enough to lather up my hands, but it definitely smelled a bit stronger than I’d expected. I rinsed the body wash off and then rubbed some of my own in my hands, hoping to mask some of the smell. I’d better chill out; I didn’t want to be kicked out before even being here for an hour.
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