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“With pleasure,” he mimicked with a curl of his lip.
Fuck him. Finishing up my toast as quickly as I could, I stood, gripping my mug of coffee. Anywhere was better than sitting in the kitchen with the guy who seemed determined to punish me for one mistake that, in my opinion, was just as much his fault as mine. “Thanks for the bread and milk, by the way.”
Then I got out of there as quickly as I could before he registered what I was saying.
* * *
The small supermarket close to the Mansions seemed to be full of students, all with the same idea as me. Picking up a basket, I grabbed the basics—bread, ramen noodles, pasta, and some cheap jars of pasta sauce. I added eggs, cheese, and bacon and a couple of other bits before the barcode scanner told me I’d hit my money limit.
I joined the queue for the self-service checkout. Too busy checking out my phone, I missed the line of people moving forwards until someone bumped into my back with a muttered apology.
“Shit, sorry.” I turned around. “My fault. I wasn’t paying attention.”
The guy who’d bumped into me gave me an easy grin. “No problem.” He cocked his head, his wavy, light brown hair falling across his eyes. “Wait, I know you. You were at the student union last night, but you left before I could introduce myself. You live at number 3, right?”
“Yeah.” I glanced towards at the front of the queue and shuffled forwards before I turned back to him. “I’m Noah.”
“Elliot. I live at number 1.”
I smiled. “Hi. I’ve met two of your housemates already. Ander and Levi.”
We both moved to checkouts next to each other and began to scan our items. He shot me a sideways glance. “You met the two footballers, then. I take it you’re a footballer too?”
I shook my head, too violently, given the sudden humour in his eyes. “Nope. Definitely not. There was a mix-up with the housing, apparently. Levi was supposed to be moving into my house, and I was supposed to be in your house.”
Elliot paused in scanning his items, letting his gaze rake over me. “Hmm. Shame.”
Was he…fuck. If I had a gaydar, it was broken. I couldn’t tell if I was imagining his interest in me.
“You’ve met three of us now, then.” He was still studying me intently, and I could feel my cheeks flushing. Unbidden, an image of Liam flashed up in my mind. I pushed it away. Liam didn’t deserve a second of my time, and even if he had a total personality transplant, it didn’t change the fact that he was straight. “Why don’t you come over sometime? You can meet my other housemates, JJ and Charlie, and we could have a beer or something?”
I cleared my suddenly dry throat. Fishing my debit card from my pocket, I held it over the card reader and held my breath until it beeped to say the payment had been successful. When I picked up my bags of food, relief coursing through me, I realised that Elliot was still standing there, waiting for a reply. “Yeah, okay. Sounds good.”
“Looking forward to it.”
“Uh. Yeah. Me too.” A thought suddenly occurred to me. “Hey. Do you know where the closest gym is? Preferably one that’s cheap.”
He thought for a minute. “The uni has a gym, or there’s a boxing gym nearby if you want something a bit quieter. Are you planning on joining any of the sports clubs? They subsidise your membership.”
“No. Me and sports don’t mix. I work out, and I run. But other sports are a no for me.”
“You’re in luck.” He shot me another easy grin. “I’m in the running club. Want me to get you the details?”
“Yeah, that would be great, thanks.”
Shifting his bags to one hand, he pulled out his phone. “Here. Put your number in my contacts, and I’ll send you all the info.”
When we were done, I headed out of the shop with a smile on my face. Things were looking up.
