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She put a fist to her hip. “They are bug bombing his apartment. He needs to be out of there for a few days. Why are you so crabby?”

“Because I don’t want to live like this!”

She looked at me like I was a toddler having a tantrum. “Hon, if you don’t like to share space with people, then get your own place. I had my own place at your age.”

I sucked in a slow breath, trying to calm myself down. “I have no credit, Mom. Dad took care of that, remember? Nobody is going to rent to me. I don’t make enough to live on my own—”

“With you working all those jobs?”

I threw up my hands. “I have thirty thousand dollars of debt that doesn’t even belong to me! My car breaks down once a month, and I paid all the bills while you recovered—how am I supposed to save? Or get ahead? And then I come home and you have Phil here? We’re already sharing seven hundred square feet of space and one bathroom.”

She sighed. “Maybe you should go stay with Mike this week.”

I blinked at her.

“Why not?” she said. “He’s got a nice place.”

“I just got back from spending the weekend with him.”

“And you think he’s sick of you?” She laughed huskily. “Hon, if he’s sick of you this early, you’re doing something wrong in the bedroom.”

“No, he’s not sick of me…”

The truth was, I was sick of him. A little.

Not sick of him… that was too harsh. I just needed room.

I turned and sat on the end of her bed and put my face into my hands.

I felt Mom sit next to me. “What happened this weekend?” she asked, softer.

“Nothing.”

Something.

“I don’t know. I’d never spent that many days with him before. It was just… overstimulating.”

“How’s that?”

I took in a breath. “It’s like everything has to be a party,” I said.

“Weren’t you at a party?”

“I mean yes, but… it’s hard to explain. It’s like, it’s breakfast, we just woke up, and he wants to make Bloody Marys.”

“Sounds like my kind of guy…”

“And then it’s beers in the lake, and then he starts getting a little loud and he wants to throw me in and I’m just trying to read and he’s splashing me and grabbing my ass. I don’t know.”

“It sounds like you need to learn how to relax.”

I scoffed.

The funny thing is, this should have been a great weekend. And it was. Parts of it. Like when Mike was grilling steaks and Journey was blasting from the speakers or when we were all playing cornhole on the lawn or watching the fireworks while we floated on the pontoon.

The car ride with Chris. That was fun. Actually all the parts with Chris were fun.

I just didn’t love all the parts with Mike.