Page 37 of Our Broken Pieces
She yawns. “Good morning.”
I keep my eyes on my laptop. “It’s afternoon now.”
“I hate sleeping this late on my day off.” She grabs the coffee from the pantry. “I’m making coffee. Do you want any?”
“I’ll take a cup.”
She starts the coffee and comes to sit beside me at the counter. I can’t look at her, I can barely focus enough to say words. In my peripheral, I can tell she’s staring at me for a moment before speaking. “What are you working on?”
“Finishing up a couple things for work, so I don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the weekend.”
“It’s not healthy the amount that you’re attached to that computer outside of work.” She points at my laptop.
I straighten my back. “It keeps me busy.”
The coffee maker starts to gurgle, signaling that it’s almost done brewing. She gets up from her seat and grabs two mugs and the almond milk from the fridge. “Well, now that I’m here, I can keep you busy.”
“It will be an adjustment living with someone again.”
“Just think of me like one of the guys.” She hands me my coffee then reaches up to retie her hair, causing her shirt to lift, revealing her toned stomach. I quickly look down at my beverage. Before this morning, she would have been just one of the guys. Now it’s as if I can see her as a woman for the first time. This is so unfair and frustrating.
“What time is dinner?” She takes a long sip of her coffee and lets out a happy sigh.
I focus on appearing normal, like I’m not having an internal crisis. “Audrey said we can come over anytime after four. I was thinking we could head over around five.”
“Perfect, gives me plenty of time to run to the grocery store before I have to get ready. I’ll be back.”
She gets up from her seat, coffee in hand, and I have a full view of her ass as she walks away. Her hips sway just the slightest; I don’t think she knows she does it. It’s hard to take my eyes off of her as she disappears into her room.
God fucking damn it. I can’t allow myself to think these thoughts. Not just because she’s one of my closest friends, but we’re about to enter into a marriage that isn’t real. We’re going to spend a lot of time together. I made a promise to Linc.
I may have set myself up for failure.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gigi
The afternoon went by too fast. Groceries, cleaning my room and bathroom. I like to get all of my weekly prep done on my first day off so I can just be a vegetable on the day before I have to go back to work.
I’m diffusing my curls when I hear a knock on the bathroom door.
“G, you about ready?”
I turn off my blow dryer, peering at my waves. With some serum, they’ll be good enough for dinner and watching the game.
“Yup! Just need to get dressed.”
I put everything away and spritz some perfume. Wrapping a towel around my body, I open the door. The air leaves my lungswhen I run straight into Marcus. My hands raise to his arms to steady myself and in the process, my towel loosens.
No, no, no.
“I’m sorry, G.” Marcus’ voice sounds strained as he starts to back away.
“Don’t move,” I blurt out.
“Why?” He looks confused until he looks down, and I’m sure he sees one side of the towel swinging away from my body. His eyes shoot up to the ceiling, then squeeze shut. We stand there, bodies pressed together. His chest starts moving with quick breaths and I swear I can feel his heart pounding against my chest.
“Let me fix my towel.”
