Page 72 of The Monster and the Masochist

Giving her a warm smile back, I nodded.

“Everything’s perfect,” I hummed, and my heart did a weird flippy thing it had never done before as Theo’s entire face lit up in response.

Alyssa was the most efficient person I’d ever met, so I was packed and moved into the penthouse by four. Which meant I had a whole three hours to kill before Cass came home.

I’d spent that time YouTubing how to make vegan burgers, and I had prepared some black bean patties for us with a can she’d already had in her cupboards.

I remembered from living with her before that she was adamant about following an 80/20 rule when it came to nutrition, so, considering it was a weekday, I forwent air-frying the fries in her freezer and made us a small salad to have on the side instead.

Everything was ready, and the patties just needed to be reheated by the time she arrived.

When I’d shown her what I’d done, the look of absolute astonishment that flitted across her face was something I would cherish until the day I freaking died.

She’d been so stunned, and although she didn’t outwardly gush or shower me with praise… the way she just stared at me like I was a complex puzzle she couldn’t seem to figure out was better than any words of gratitude could ever be.

After we’d eaten together, she’d asked me what game I’d been playing when she came in, and that was when I learned she’d never heard of Super Smash Bros before, which rocked my whole fucking world.

“No frickin’ way. You’ve never played Smash Bros?” I gaped at her as she studied the screen, looking adorably confused.

“Should I know this game? I didn’t exactly have access to game consoles growing up.”

Remembering exactly how Cass had grown up, I forced back the blinding rage that always seemed to overcome me whenever her evil bitch of a mother was brought up in conversation.

“Well, I’m about to blow your mind, princess.” I grinned, changing the topic to something that didn’t make me want to murder the woman Cass had already killed at the tender age of thirteen.

I patted the couch next to me and got my spare set of Joy-Cons set up for her before explaining the mechanics of the game.

“Basically, you just want to beat the crap out of anything that moves and try to die less than everyone else does. It’s pretty simple.”

“Got it.” She nodded firmly, and I chuckled at how seriously she seemed to be taking this.

The way she was frowning at the screen and clutching her controller to her chest was so goddamned endearing.

I just wanted to squeeze her till her little head popped off.

Unsurprisingly, she was terrible at it. Her character was basically a ping-pong ball on the screen for the first hour of play time, and she was so furious about it that I could barely keep it together.

By the time we were ready to call it a night, my abs literally hurt from laughing, and I had tears in my eyes.

“You’ll get better. It just takes practice.”

“You bet your ass I’ll get better,” she snapped, shooting me a glare. “You’d better watch out, Theodora. I’m going to get so good at this game, you’re going to fucking hate playing with me.”

She said it with so much determination and ire.

It was adorable.

I could barely stand how cute she was.

“I have no doubt, princess,” I murmured, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

She tilted her head into my hand, and her gaze met mine.

We stared at each other for a moment, and I marveled at how her lashes fluttered delicately across her flawless cheekbones.

“I guess we should probably get ready for bed. We have an early day tomorrow,” she murmured.

My heart sank slightly, but I nodded, dropping my hand away from her face.