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“I have plastic stuff, and plan to buy new things tomorrow.”
I gave her a stern look. “What happened to finding a safer place to live? What about those apartments that you were going to look at? All of them were locked buildings, and would be much safer than here.”
“Zack,” she sighed. “If you must know, I can’t afford to get out of his lease and then put down two months' rent on another place. Besides, all of those were above my budget.”
“I told you that I would give you a raise, and I could pay for your lease to be broken and give you the two months' rent.”
She glared at me. “Do you do that for all your employees or just the ones you want to sleep with?”
“Hey, that’s not nice.”
“It’s the truth. If Tina came to you and said she needed over five thousand dollars to get a new place, would you just dish it out? Would you give her a raise?”
“Yes. I would do anything for Tina. She’s been with me since I started the company.”
“Okay, maybe that was the wrong person to choose. What about Paul? Or Donna in accounting? Would you do it for them?”
It took me longer to respond to that, but I finally did. “Yes, if they needed help for a good reason, I would do that for them.”
“Bullshit, Zack. Your hesitation gave you away. You are only willing to do this because you want to sleep with me again.”
“That’s not true, Lillian. I told you I care about you. You barely know anyone here. Who else are you going to ask for help?”
“I don’t need help, Zack. I told you that. I am fine. This apartment might not be up to your standards, but I am fine with it. I don’t need a locked building or a doorman to be safe.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t!” She growled my way. I studied her for a moment and realized that this spunky woman in front of me had more balls than I initially gave her credit for. She sighed wearily and rubbed her hands over her face. “Can we discuss this later, like after I get a good night's sleep?”
I came to stand in front of her and took her by the shoulders, pulling her into my chest. “I’m worried about you being here alone, Lilly.”
“Then sleep on the couch. I don’t care, but I’m going back to bed.” She huffed and pushed away from me.
“The couch?”
She spun and looked at me. “Yes, the couch, Zack. I didn’t invite you over, and if you think you need to be my knight in shining armor, then you can sleep on the couch and guard the door. Goodnight.” She slapped her hand against the wall and hit the light switch, leaving me in the dark as she disappeared.
Well, that didn’t go how I had expected it. My hands landed on my hips, and I sighed. Fine, if I couldn’t talk reason into Lilly tonight, I would do it in the morning. I made my way into the living room, using my cell phone for light, and tried to find a light switch, but there weren’t any lamps in the room. Then I remembered that they had been broken, and I sighed as I sank onto her sofa.
It was new, but it wasn’t all that comfortable. I stretched out the best I could, glancing around to see if there was at least a blanket to cover myself, but found nothing.
I had just closed my eyes when I heard her door open, and I sat up hoping that she had changed her mind, but instead, I got hit in the face with a pillow, and then a blanket landed on my legs.
“Goodnight,” she muttered, and disappeared back into her room. I found myself grinning and kicking off my shoes before I got more comfortable on her couch.
More comfortable was about the best I could do. The sofa wasn’t long enough for my frame, and my feet hung off the other end. I sighed as I tried to shift more but then gave up when I found a halfway decent position and closed my eyes.
I tried to sleep, but I could only think about Lillian being in the room only fifteen feet away. Was she already asleep? Had she curled right back up and drifted off in seconds?
It had to be about twenty minutes later when I finally felt my body relaxing, that I heard the door to her room open again. I lifted my head and could make out the outline of her body as she walked into the room.
“The sofa is too small for you. You can sleep in my room, and I’ll take the couch.”
“I’m fine here,” I replied, not liking that she wanted to sleep out here. The purpose of my staying here was to protect her. I couldn’t do that if she were in the living room and I was in her bedroom.
“Zack, go sleep in my room.”
“No.”
