Page 135 of Loved

Rob tried to pull off his shirt, but it got stuck on his sweaty torso. He finally removed it and tossed it on the ground. “Throw some glitter on me, because I’m stripper-hot!”

What the fuck?

Penny laughed. “What on earth did you just say?”

Rob ran his hand down his sixpack. “Throw some glitter on me, because I’m stripper-hot.” He thrust his hips toward her.

I glared at him.

“I heard you,” Penny said. “But what the heck does that mean?”

“It could mean a lot of things. And I meant every single one of them.”

“Like?”

“Well, I’m as hot as a stripper gets on stage under all those light, so you should throw some glitter on me. Or…I’m hot enough to be a stripper, so you should throw some glitter on me. Or… I’m just fucking really overheated because of the heater in this shit apartment and if you threw some glitter on me I’d look like a stripper, because it would definitely stick to my sweaty skin.”

Penny burst out laughing. “Okay, you guys win. I don’t want Rob to be stripper-hot. Let’s go see one of the apartments you picked out before, Evelyn.”

Thank God.

“You’re welcome,” Rob said and patted my back. “The thought of me covered in glitter made Penny want a nice place.” He grabbed his shirt off the ground. “Let’s get out of here, gorgeous,” he said and linked arms with Penny.

She laughed.

“I kind of expected her to yell at you about the cameras,” Ian whispered to me. “Or…do something. She’s usually pretty fiery.”

He would know. “I expected the same.”

“Do you think she’s waiting for the two of you to be alone to freak out?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea.” I watched her laughing with Rob. “I think maybe she’s just…happy.” I found myself smiling too. What was there to be upset about? We were in New York. We were about to start fresh.

“Do you think she’s like…into it?”

I really had no idea. I was kind of hoping she would be. She liked the idea of almost getting caught. A lot. And she really didn’t seem upset. She’d just joked about it. “I guess we’ll find out when we’re alone.”

“I guess we will,” Ian said.

I shook my head and climbed back into the car, making sure to sit next to Penny. I didn’t need her leading Evelyn astray anymore. Yes, Penny and I were a team. But I knew what kind of place I pictured. And it wasn’t anything like what we’d already seen.

Rob vetoed the next place because it was too cold.

Penny agreed.

Although I was pretty sure they were talking about different kinds of cold. Penny thought the atmosphere was cold and lifeless. Rob was just upset he couldn’t take his shirt off and talk about being a hot stripper.

Rob vetoed the next place too because the guest bedroom was too small.

“Rob,” I said. “You can’t just keep vetoing places. This isn’t about you.”

He pretended to look shocked. “I mean…it’s a little about me.”

“It’s really not.”

“Aren’t I going to be living with the two of you?” he asked.

Wait…what?

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