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On the way home, I looked up different hotel rates and had my thumb hovering over theBOOK NOWbutton for a Holiday Inn when we pulled up in front of my building. Two utility trucks were parked out front, a few men having a discussion on the sidewalk.
“Thanks for…everything,” I said, stepping out of the car, but Dean shut off the ignition and opened his door as well. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you pack up your stuff.”
I nearly choked on my next breath. “Why? For what?”
He glared at me like I couldn’t pass a first-grade spelling test. “I figure you’ll have multiple bags.” He gestured to the door of the building. “Come on. I’d rather not stand out here and argue with you in thirty-degree weather.”
“You’re the one starting it,” I grumbled and pulled out my keys.
Inside my apartment, he trailed me to my room, where he shook his head at the way I folded my clothes. “What now?”
“Didn’t you watch Marie Kondo? You could fit in so much more if you folded them like this.” He demonstrated how to fold up my pants into a tiny ball. “See?”
“Okay, I can take it from here. You can leave now.”
“Novak, stop being such a rock right now.”
“You stop being such a paper!” I tossed my balled-up underwear at him.
He caught it with a smirk and held it between his fingers. “Do you own anything that’s not black?”
“You’ll never find out.”
He clucked his tongue at me but stuck the underwear in my bag and then added in everything else I tossed to him.
“Can you grab that pillow in the silk case from the bed?” I asked as I packed up even more of my toiletries than I had for my overnight with him. Going from one hotel to another was not what I had planned, and I really would have liked to do a load or two of laundry today. Yet here I was, about to unload my life into a Holiday Inn for at least a week.
Dean stuck my pillow under his arm and looped my backpack and duffel bag around his other arm. With a crossbody bag, my purse, and a garment bag with my work clothes in hand, I locked up once more. “This really fucking sucks. All I want to do is take a long shower, nap, and watchParent Trap.”
“It’s a good thing you can do all those things.”
I huffed, trudging back out into the cold toward my car. “Not in a hotel room. I’ll be—”
“You’re not going to a hotel room.”
I unlocked my car and tossed my stuff in. “What are you talking about?” I swiveled my head back to my empty apartment building, while the guys started to work. “Where else would I go?”
“My house.”
I barked out a laugh. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You can follow me.” Dean motherfucking Hargrove pivoted on his heel and marched right to his car, where he putmypillow,myduffel bag of clothes, andmybackpack with my computer and charger in the back seat.
“I—no!” I reached around him for the back door, but he blocked my arm.
“Novak, stop arguing.” He pushed on my shoulder. “Get in your car. You’re coming with me to my house, where you can take a long shower, nap, and watch your stupidParent Trapmovie.”
“First of all,Parent Trapis classic cinema, and secondly, I don’t want to go to your house.”
“So, you want to stay at a hotel? And since when is anything starring Lindsay Lohan classic cinema?”
I stepped up into his space, digging my car key into the middle of his chest until he winced. “Don’t think you can white knight me just because you got me off this morning. I didn’t ask you to do this, nor do I want you to.”
