Page 65 of Full Service

We trudge through the mess, and I manage a small squeak when I see the state of my room I shared with Murphy. It’s terrible. Our beds are wrecked, wet the entire way through, there’s no ceiling, and I’m pretty sure that someone rummaged through my dresser drawer. The cash I had stashed there is completely gone.

I rub at my tired eyes, and for the first time since arriving, I realize how bad this really is.

This is so damn bad.

“Get what you can, Everly,” Silas says softly, his hand moving to my lower back and pushing me forward gently. “And then let me take you home.”

I do as he says, gathering some of my school books and a few clothes that aren’t completely useless. And then I follow Silas out, my heart sinking slightly.

I know that I joked about it before, but I really don’t know what I’m going to do. I got this apartment on a whim, a last-minute Hail Mary. Murphy was a little stinky and Meena was loud, but the rent was cheap, and despite our landlord most likely stuffing dead bodies in the wall, it was a place to lay my head at night.

And now I have to figure out what to do. Because even though Silas said I could stay with him, I can’t do it forever.

I need to get back on my own two feet alone.

“I can stay with you for a little while,” I tell him when he pulls back up into his garage. He turns the car off and then faces me, his eyebrows drawn down.

“You can stay as long as you need.”

“Thank you, Dr. Sinclair…Silas, but honestly this could get you into trouble, right?”

“What could get me into trouble is me licking your asshole in my office. You staying with me can just be…kept between us.”

I manage a small, wobbly smile.

Why is he being so nice to me? I mean, yeah, he wants to fuck me, but that doesn’t mean he needs to offer his spare room to me. He’s going above and beyond, and I don’t quite understand it.

“Are you sure? I can get a motel…”

“Forget it. Get your ass out of the car and we’ll do a load of laundry. I can smell the dirty roof water on your clothes and it’s not appealing.”

He leads me inside, and I throw my clothes into the washer before sinking down onto the couch and setting my books out on the coffee table to dry.

“At least I had my laptop on me,” I say, more to myself than anything.

“Yes, that’s a good thing. That would be harder to replace. Everything else can be bought.”

He sinks down next to me and our legs brush.

To be honest, right in this moment, besides wanting to laugh at the absurdity of it all, I also kind of want to cry into his shoulder. I want him to hold me close and let me fall asleep in his arms.

“What a fucking day,” he murmurs as his fingers flex into a fist. It sits on his thigh and I want it to reach out and hold on to me, like he did back at my apartment.

But it doesn’t move, just twitches on his leg.

I press the palm of my hand into my eye and let out a puff of air. “I mean, you did have a pretty hot date.”

He turns to look at me. “And so did you. Although, they did seem more interested in each other.”

I huff a laugh. “That they did. In fact, as we left, I think LoveJoy was sitting on Garrett’s lap.”

“Yeah, he probably tied him down with all those ribbons.” A very unseemly snort escapes Silas’s nose, and I can’t help but grin.

Fuck, he’s funny in a weird, unhinged way. I like it. I like it a lot.

“Yeah, I can see Garrett liking all that. He’s really into shiny things.”

Silas lets out another small laugh and then sighs. “Hell,” he mutters as his hand unfurls from his thigh and slides across my shoulders.

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