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“Carter said that you were expecting me. Otherwise I would’ve knocked.” He held his hands up in surrender, and I could note the sincerity of his voice.
“He just told me help was on the way. I thought he was sending the building’s maintenance guy.”
Dom laughed. “Iam the building’s maintenance guy.” He kicked the door shut with his foot and stalked toward the tree. He brushed past me—close enough for me to feel his body heat—before he began taking ornaments down. “You’re a little overdressed for transporting dead foliage, no?”
I realized my mouth was hanging open, though I wasn’t sure why. The audacity of him to walk into my apartment like he owned it, maybe. “I was just about to leave for a date. Carter didn’t mention that my help was expected and I have plans.”
His gaze traveled up my body slowly, as if to analyze every inch of my skin. When his eyes met mine he flicked a brow and scoffed, “Good luck with that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
His lips only curled into a cunning smile. “What’s the lucky guy's name?”
Unsure why I was indulging him, I said, “Travis.”
He laughed, turning back toward the tree.
“What.”
“Nothing, Mace. I hope you have a lovely time.” He was unraveling the string of lights from the Christmas tree as he turned his back to me.
“Since you decided to let yourself in, you can go ahead and lock up when you’re done too.” I grabbed my purse off the table by the door and slammed it behind me.
That date was a bust, too.
Travis was painfully dull. The worst part was the end of the date where I went in for a hug and he went in for a kiss and we ended up bumping heads. He was nice enough, but sitting across from him for two hours, I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’d been like that ever since Jeremy. With Jeremy too, actually. Though, I chose to mostly ignore it with him.
I’d tried hooking up with one person a few months after Jeremy and I broke up. I made it to the heavy-petting stage of my date when I realized that there was absolutely no excitement for me. Like I already knew he’d be unable to give me what I needed. I’m smart enough to realize that the way Jeremy shut me down in the bedroom, the way he reacted to the things I like to do, has probably ruined sex for me. I’m also smart enough to realize the things I like aren’t that far out of bounds, and most men would probably get excited about it. But I spent years being shamed for my desires, and it’s hard to look past that now.
And so, the dry spell continues.
I unlocked the door and snuck into my apartment, expecting it to be dark, quiet, and tree-less. As I stepped inside, I found it quiet. But I also found a lamp turned on in the corner of the living room. The brown, dead Christmas tree still propped up in the window, and Dominic-fucking-Evans bundled on the couch reading a book.
I caught a flash of the orange cover as he flipped a page. “I don’t understand why they like this book so much,” he murmured before snapping it shut, looking up at me, and giving me a cool smile. “Date not go well?”
I sighed, leaning over the kitchen counter and dropping my head into my hands. “Why are you still here?”
He stood up. “I couldn’t move the tree by myself.” He stretched his arms over his head. “You didn’t give me the opportunity to tell you that before you left. Plus, Penelope said you forgot to turn your location on. So, she wanted me to ensure you weren’t ax-murdered.”
“Penelope needs to stop listening to so many true crime podcasts,” I muttered.
He shrugged. “She worries about you, Mace. Especially since you’re going out with strange men named Travis.”
He motioned for me to grab the trunk of the tree, while he pulled it down from the top and walked backward out of the apartment. I picked up my end and followed him, if for no other reason than to get him the hell out of my house a bit quicker.
“You really have an issue with the name Travis, huh? Was that the name of your high school bully?” I asked. “Your first love?”
He peeked around the tree, those brown eyes blazing. “If you don’t know by now that I’m straight, Macie, then I haven’t done a good enough job ogling you.”
I smiled. “Oh no, you certainly look desperate enough. I wouldn’t worry about that.”
He only laughed in response, and I tried to ignore how musical it was.
We dumped the tree in the alley behind the building. I chose not to make a comment when he began ascending the stairs after me. I assumed he left his car keys or something inside the house, so I onlykind ofslammed the door in his face when we made it back to my unit. He caught it easily and followed me inside.
He strode across the room and picked up the treestand, folded the skirt, and stacked them on top of the boxes of lights and ornaments, pushing it all into the corner of the room before striding back to the couch and sitting down. “I’m not sure where you want to store those.”
I could only nod as I watched him sit back on the couch and spread his legs as if getting comfortable. As if preparing to stay for a while. “Why are you here?”
