Olli
When Kodi’s door thunked closed behind me, something snapped in my brain. She’d flirted with me then rushed me out like I was a stray that snuck in.
I didn’t get it. And the whiplash of her behavior was like a rash on my heart, hot and irritating. I had half a mind to turn around and knock on her door to demand an explanation.
And I probably would have if the elevator didn’t ding down the hall and Brooker stepped out.
“You,” I pointed at him, nearly storming down the hall and he threw his hands up, looking over his shoulder at the elevator door closing.
“Look, man, I really was just trying to help. I thought showing you were a good dude deep down would make it easier for y’all to be friends and then more than friends, ya know?” he yammered.
“Do you …” I trailed off as I stopped in front of him, letting my hands fall to my side. “Do you actually understand women? Or do you just know how to get them to bed?”
“Oh. You’re not mad at me?”
“No, I’m pissed at you. But …” I looked over my shoulder at Kodi’s door, at a complete loss. “I just don’t understand what’s going on through her head.”
“Oh.” Brooker’s shoulders relaxed and his hands tilted palms up as he shrugged. “Have you tried asking her?”
I turned to glare at Brooker and he chuckled nervously.
“Okay, okay. Then do you wanna go ask … maybe Taylor? He has sisters, so he might be able to help.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said softly, turning on my heel to head to Taylor’s room. But when I heard Brooker’s footsteps following, I turned back and asked, “What’re you doing?”
“Going with. I started the problem, I might as well see it through.” He shrugged. “Besides, no one wanted to go out after today’s game, so I’ve got nothing better to do.”
“So you’re using me as your entertainment?” I huffed.
“Well, you fumbling your relationship with Kodi is a helluva lot more entertaining than Food Network reruns.”
I bit my tongue and decided to act like he wasn’t there.
It took Taylor a few seconds before answering the door and when he did, he looked confused as fuck, already in loose basketball shorts and a durag.
“What the hell are you two doing here?” he asked, brow furrowing as he looked between us.
“I’m pretending he’s not here,” I grumbled.
“And he has a question about how women think,” Brooker added.
“And you couldn’t trust him to answer it?” he asked, nodding to the man behind me. I raised an eyebrow at Taylor and he sighed, rolling his eyes. “Right. Stupid question. Come on in.”
He held the door open and we shuffled in, Brooker taking the arm chair while I sat on the desk.
“Okay, I assume this is a Kodi thing,” Taylor said as he shut the room door gently and plodded back onto his bed.
“She …” I chewed on my tongue as I debated how to describe this. Normally, I’d focus on facts, what she said and did. But in this moment,whatshe did didn’t feel all that important in comparison to how the whole incidentfelt. “She’s confusing me.”
“And that’s new?” Brooker asked and I looked around for something to toss at him but found nothing.
“She brought me to her room to talk about ways to suck up to the owners.”
“To her room?” Brooker shouted, jerking to the edge of his seat.
I chose to ignore him.
“And there was some minor … flirting, I guess.”
