Page 15 of The Plus One
Then the stairs started creaking and groaning with Indira’s descent.
Jude launched himself onto the couch, scrambling to situate his limbs into what he hoped was a casual position that also hid his aggravating (and confusing) half-hard cock… Jesus, what was happening? He wasn’t supposed to get an… anerectionfrom Indira. This was madness.
Jude grabbed the remote and hit about forty buttons to get something—anything, dammit—to play on the TV, hoping the noise would somehow drown out the thoughts Jude should definitely not be having about Indira fucking Papadakis.
Indira finally entered the room. From the corner of his eye, he could make out that she was fully clothed, in a dark and bulky mass of a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms. Which was good. Great.
But they didn’t do much to replace the images Jude was still working to throw out of his clogged brain.
“Seems like pretty advanced stuff for you,” Indira said coolly, nodding at the TV that was playing a children’s show at full volume. A cartoon pig sprouted wings and started to fly while counting stars.
“I like to push myself,” Jude responded, eyes glued to the screen and palms sweaty as he grabbed the remote and clicked to Netflix’s homepage.
Indira moved to stand in front of the TV, crossing her arms over her chest—which Jude hadtotallyforgotten the naked image of—and looked at him expectantly.
Jude swallowed once.
Twice.
Cleared his throat.
Coughed for good measure.
“Good weather today, huh?” he mumbled, eyes looking somewhere in the vicinity of her shoulder.
“Excuse me?” Indira spat out, moving her hands to her hips. Also areas Jude no longer had naked images of.
“Think it might rain on Tuesday,” he said, cracking his knuckles and switching his gaze to her other shoulder.
“Don’t you dare attempt small-talk after walking in on me naked,” Indira said, pointing at him. “What the fuck was that?”
“It was an accident,” Jude said, dropping his head to the back of the couch.
“Anaccident,” Indira repeated, disbelief dripping off every word. “Youaccidentallyopened a closed door with a light on inside andaccidentallyshut it behind you while someone else was in there?”
“You didn’t have the door locked!” Jude pointed out, then cowered at the fury on her face.
“The lock is broken,” she hissed. “So try another excuse, creep.”
Jude’s gaze snapped to hers, his own frustration rising in his chest. “You act like Iwantedto see you naked!” Jude said, pushing to stand. “Trust me, Dira, you are the last person on this planet I would want to see naked.”
Indira’s mouth dropped open, a deep red spreading across her cheeks like ink on paper as silence filled the room.
“Choke on your toenails,” she said at last, whipping around and heading to the kitchen. “Accidentallywalk in on me again, and I’ll castrate you,” she added from the other room, the sound of the fridge opening and closing echoing after her words.
The house fell into an agitated hush, and Jude collapsed back down on the couch, reeling. The soft hum of running water and dishes being put away traveled from the other room, and Jude’s heart seemed dead set on slamming itself out of his chest, a fresh spark of memory lighting across his mind with every beat.
Out of nowhere the sound of shattering glass erupted from the kitchen, followed by a sharp “Ow.Fuck!”from Indira and the scrape of Grammy’s claws on the floors as she sprinted from the room.
Jude jumped up and stalked to the kitchen, where he found Indira crouched on the floor, clutching her hand as rivulets of blood dripped to the tiles.
“Are you okay?” Jude asked, darting to her side.
“Fine,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut and digging her teeth into her lip.
“Let me see,” Jude murmured, reaching for her hand.
“Think you’ve seen enough of me tonight, thanks,” Indira mumbled, little beads of sweat popping up on her forehead.
