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She went back out through his room and stepped into the hallway, shutting the door behind her. She listened for the sound of the treadmill and didn’t hear it, but she did hear something else. Parker’s voice, muffled.
She tiptoed down the hallway, thinking maybe she could scare him, but when she got near the master bedroom, she realized his voice was raised. He was almost shouting. Normally Paige wasn’t an eavesdropper, but she was so shocked – she'd only ever seen Parker really shout at the punk concert in Oklahoma, and it had kinda been deserved then. She couldn’t quite picture him shouting at someone during a phone conversation. She froze in front of the doors, listening.
“Pen -, Pen -, Pen -, I just -, ...Penny!” he shouted the last part. Obviously he was talking to his sister. Paige actually pressed her ear to the seam between the double doors. She wished she could hear the other side of the conversation.
“No ... I don’t care ... No, Pen ... This has nothing to do with her ... This has nothing to do with her, she doesn’t even know,” he said. Paige’s breath caught in her throat – was he talking about her? What didn’t she know? Her mind ran wild.
“You know why I can’t ... Stop, please, stop crying ... No crying. You know I love you.”
Paige’s eyes got wide. How did she know for sure Penelope was actually his sister? What if he had a girlfriend?What if he had a wife?She really didn’t know much about him. Sure, they hadn’t done anything, their relationship wasn’t a romantic one, but still. The idea of him hiding a relationship made her feel upset. The idea of him having a girlfriend or wife – secret or otherwise – made her want to throw up.
“Enough, Pen! She has nothing to do with this, this is my decision. She’s good for me right now, she’s what I need right now ... What!? ... No! We’re not like that, she doesn’t think of me that way,” he suddenly said quickly. Paige let out a deep breath.
Okay, sounded like he was back to talking about her, and most people wouldn’t speak that way to their wife about a girl they'd just met. She smiled softly; he'd said that he needed her. Said she was good for him. She didn’t know why he needed her, but it was nice to know he felt that way.
But what did he mean when he said she didn't think of him "that way"? LikeTHAT-that way, like romantically? If so, shouldn't he have said it the other way around, thathedidn't think of her that way? She was so confused.
“No, Ido notwant to speak to Mom ... Look, I have to go ...I have to go... Don’t call again if this is how it’s going to be ... I’ll call you when I make a decision, okay? ...Okay?” he started to wrap up the phone call.
“What? ... Why? ... Why, Penelope? ... Alright, alright, it’s Paige ... Nope, you’re not getting a last name, no online stalker bullshit ... Pen! I swear to Christ, if I have to listen to this again, I’m gonna throw away my phone.Do not call again,” he ended in an angry voice, and then Paige heard what distinctly sounded like a cell phone being hurled across a room into a sofa.
She backed away from the door slowly, then turned and flew down the hall, keeping her footsteps light. She didn’t want to get caught eavesdropping. She rushed into her room and slowly shut the door. Just as it latched shut, she heard the master bedroom doors swing open. She ran in a tiptoed rush to her bed and jumped on it, scurrying under the covers. She listened to him pad down the hallway. Heard him pause outside his own door for a long while, then he opened it and she couldn’t hear anything else.
She sat completely still, listening as hard as she could. She turned and stared at her own door, half expecting him to knock at any moment. Minutes passed and she began to think that maybe he'd gotten into his shower
From behind her suddenly, “When did you -”
“SHIT!” Paige shrieked, jumping about a mile high and falling onto her back. She scrambled into a sitting position. Parker laughed and stepped through the open sliding glass door. Rain began pelting the terrace behind him.
“Sorry. I thought you'd still be asleep,” he said as he came to a stop in front of the settee at the foot of her bed. She pressed a hand to her chest.
“Jesus, you just aged me ten years. You just barged in! What if I'd been naked!?”
His smile broadened.
“Paige, if you wanna sleep naked, don’t ever let my presence stop you,” he joked. She crossed her eyes at him.
“Very funny. So what’s up? I woke up and you were gone,” she asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible. She was desperate to know what his phone call had been about.
“You sleep with me once and already miss me. Typical woman,” he joked again and it suddenly hit Paige that he was deflecting with humor. And Parker wasalwaysjoking with her. She suddenly wondered if all his phone calls were like the one she'd just overhead.
She wondered what exactly was going on in his life.
“Parker,” she started slowly, toying with the edge of her blanket. He raised his eyebrows and sat on the settee. “Are you sure you don’t have somewhere you need to be? I mean, I’m basically a homeless person, just by choice. I don’t have a job, I don’t have an apartment, I don’t go to school, I really don’t have anywhere I need to be, and I know that’s not normal. Don’t you have stuff you have to do, like to prep for school next year? A job, or an internship somewhere? Or family you need to get to?” she asked slowly, watching his reaction. His smile had dropped off his face and he stared at her intently.
“Why?” he asked. She blinked.
“Why, what?” she countered.
“Why are you asking me this now. You've asked me lots of times if I had something else I needed to do, but you've never once asked me specifically where or what. You've never once really questioned my plans. Why now?”
Paige swallowed thickly and looked at her lap.
“I don’t know. It’s just, we’ve been together three weeks now. That’s a long time, Parker. I don’t wanna be the reason you get fired from somewhere or miss out on school,” she tried to explain.
“Wait, do you want this to end? You’re free to go whenever you want, Paige, don’t use me as an excuse if you want to go. I don’t exactly have you locked in the trunk of my car – you could hitchhike out whenever you feel like it, as you've pointed out on numerous occasions,” he told her. She glared at him.
“I know that, and of course I will leave whenever I want to, but I didn’t say I wanted to go – I just don’t want to be the reason you might do something you regret. You just met me, I’m nobody, I’m nothing. I don’t want to find out you were just entertaining me when you had something else more important you should've been doing,” she told him angrily. He smiled again and slowly stood up.
