AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I grabbed my phone again.
Lala: Is that you?
The three dots moved as he typed.
Holden: What are you talking about?
Then came another knock.
Lala: The knock on my wall!
Holden: What knock?
It happened again.
Lala: Did you hear that?
Holden: Of course, I did. I’m doing it.
Lala: Holden! LOL
Holden: Did you know our bedrooms are back to back?
Lala: I do now.
Holden: LOL
Lala: Oh God. I’m not going to have to listen to you “entertaining” people, am I?
Holden: I’ll try to be extra cognizant of the fact that you’re here.
Lala: Well, thank you in advance for agreeing to keep it down.
Holden: The only time it gets too loud is during sex parties. But those only happen once a month.
Lala: Sex parties?
Holden: Whips. Chains. (Handcuffs.) The whole nine. Dopamine OVERLOAD.
Is he serious?
Holden: LOL I’m just joking. No sex parties.
Lala: I never know with you.
Holden: I sort of wasted that one since I couldn’t see how red your face turned.
Lala: Sigh. I gotta go to sleep.
Holden: Okay. I won’t bother you anymore.
Lala: ’Night, Holden.
Holden: ’Night, Lala.
I forced myself to shut my eyes. I should have been practicing my interview answers as I drifted off. Instead, I imagined myself chained to Holden’s bed at a sex party.
CHAPTER 3
Holden
Sniff. Sniff.
How the hell does a sheet still smell like a person when they’ve been gone for four days?
Whatever. I needed to ignore it because I had to get this apartment ready for the Airbnb renter checking in tomorrow. I walked around the bed, yanked the last corner of the fitted sheet off, and bunched it into a ball.
But as I lifted it into my arms, that smell wafted through the air again.
I looked around the empty apartment, as if someone other than me might be inside, and then brought the sheet to my nose.
Deep inhale in. Big exhale out. Damn it. Did she have to smell as good as she looked these days? Lala freaking Ellison.
The woman was making me nuts. She was all I’d been able to think about since that letter from myself arrived, and I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since the one she’d spent here. As if on cue, I yawned.
I really could use a little nap. I looked at the sheet in my hand. No. Don’t do it.
But why the fuck not? a different part of my conscience asked. It’s just a bed. And this one is so new and comfy—unlike my own, which I’d had to fix twice in the last few months. I just needed to get a few solid hours of decent shut-eye.
Yeah right. Lie to yourself. Go ahead, fuckboy.
But it made sense, didn’t it? I was tired, standing in front of a nice, new bed, and I happened to have had a mostly clean sheet right in my hand. I could just pop it back on. I wouldn’t even need to put on all four corners—two would be enough. Lord knows I’d slept like that before. No one would even know I’d taken a little nap.
Except you, you low-life sheet sniffer.
“Shut the hell up.”
I was now not just thinking to myself, but talking out loud too. Great, just great. I really needed some sleep. So I tamped down my ridiculous thoughts, put the fitted sheet back on, and climbed into bed.
I took a big, deep inhale…
Because that’s what one does when they’re exhausted and trying to fall asleep, and not because it smelled just like Lala freaking Ellison.
For the record, the smile that stayed on my face for my three-and-a-half-hour nap also had nothing to do with Lala freaking Ellison.
***
“What’s up, ladies?” I smiled at the guys as I walked into Owen’s apartment for our monthly card game. They were already seated in their usual spots. I plunked down a twelve-pack of Coors Light and pulled one out for myself.
Owen had the cards in his hands, itching to deal. “You’re freaking late, that’s what’s up.”
“Sorry.” I twisted off the cap and tossed it into the center of the pot as my ante. “I just woke up from a glorious nap. Which means I also didn’t have time to run out and get cash, so I’m going to have to use beer caps for dollars.”
Brayden shook his head. “You got some racket going, dude. You never have any cash on you, and you take afternoon naps.”
I grinned and pointed to my face. “Needed my beauty sleep. Otherwise how am I going to get women to buy me drinks when I don’t have cash?”
Colby chuckled. “Pass me one of those beers, jackass.”
I pulled another bottle out of the case and draped it over one arm like a maître d’ showing a bottle of champagne. “I hope the year is to your liking.”
Owen went around the table, dealing the cards. “You’re in an awfully good mood. I take it you weren’t alone in bed this afternoon?”
