Page 12 of Tempted By Her

I’m absolutely fine about it. You’re totally welcome to move inI replied and sent her the cost for half the rent and utilities.

I can swing that. It’s actually cheaper than the chicken house wasshe sent.

We negotiated a little more back and forth and I said she could come by this week and make sure she wanted to move in.

The two of us agreed on Wednesday night and I said I’d reach out to the landlord and put Lark in touch.

I went to Joy’s former room and looked in, imagining Lark sitting on the bed and filling the bookshelves and putting her clothes in the closet. We’d be sharing a bathroom, which was quite a way to get to know someone. I tested the mattress and it was a little old. Joy had been talking about getting a new one for months.

Chewing my lip, I pulled up a few mattress sites and just went ahead and bought one without thinking about it, putting the charge on my credit card. Now I just had to dispose of the old one, so I sent an email to the local junk guy that everyone used asking if he could come this week and deal with a mattress.

Lark had lost everything. She deserved a new mattress.

* * *

For the next two days,I couldn’t stop thinking about Lark, no matter how hard I tried. I wondered what she was doing, how she was doing with the loss. Normally I wasn’t one to ruminate on people I’d slept with, and I didn’t like this feeling, this stress.

Business was slow at the shop, but our online orders were doing well, even after the November and December holidays, so that kept me busy. Packing the boxes was kind of meditative, but I didn’t want meditative right now. All my thoughts seemed to lead back to Lark.

On Wednesday evening before she arrived, I went through the apartment again. The new mattress wasn’t here yet, but the old one was gone. I lit a candle to make the place smell nice and used the lint roller on the couch to get rid of the extra cat hair. Hopefully Lark wouldn’t mind cat hair everywhere.

“You ready to have a new roommate?” I asked Clementine. He’d been fine with Lark the last time she’d been here and had even climbed into bed with us.

Memories from that night and the following morning wouldn’t stop bubbling up.

It was easy. I’d just have to get over it. Living with Lark day-to-day would desensitize me to her presence in no time.

I jumped at a knock on the door and Clementine followed me as I opened it.

“Hey,” I said as she stood on the landing in her winter coat and hat.

“Hey,” she said, looking a little nervous.

“Come in,” I said, holding Clementine back with one foot as I opened the door to let her in.

“Thanks,” she said, stamping off her boots and then coming inside.

“Hello again,” she said to Clementine, letting him rub up against her hand after she took off her gloves. He seemed to recognize her and started purring immediately.

She stood up and I didn’t know what to say for a second.

“Uh, so this is the room,” I said, walking toward Joy’s old room and opening the door. “There’s a new mattress coming. The old one needed to go.” That wasn’t precisely true, but I didn’t want to make a bigger deal out of the new mattress than it was.

I stepped aside so she could walk around. The space wasn’t huge, but it was enough, and there was a nice window onto the street.

“You probably remember the rest of the place,” I said, and she met my eyes.

“I do,” she said, running a finger along the bookshelf.

“How are you doing?” I asked, telling myself it was only polite to ask.

Lark sighed. “On one hand, I don’t have to live in a house full of chickens everywhere anymore. On the other, my favorite pair of jeans that exactly conformed to my butt is gone,” she said. It took all of my willpower not to look at her butt when she mentioned it. Having seen it myself, I could vouch for it being an excellent one.

This was not the time to be thinking about Lark’s butt.

I cleared my throat. “That fucking sucks.”

Lark nodded. “It does.”

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