Page 44 of Sweet & Salty
The acting like my hobbies are stupidthing.
The making sure I’m being safe doing those hobbiesthing.
The making sure I’m fed even when I don’t want to bething.
The buying me all of my favorite hair products and making sure the ones that can be cute are, even buying me cute bonnetsbeforethe apology basketthing.
The… the…
I groan.
“You’re making an awful lot of noise for someone who’s supposed to be hiding,” Chris remarks.
“Shut up, Chris. I just realized I don’t hate Roman.” Can’t he see I’m in crisis?
Chris doesn’t respond as I bang my head on the door, praying for a concussion to knock some sense into me. Then, around my twentieth hit, he says, “I thought you guys were dating. Don’t you live together?”
Ew. Ewww.
“We’re not dating,” I snip, glaring at the man who is my boss and I should probably not be getting an attitude with. “Why would you think that?”
He blinks. “Because he’s changed his entire schedule to work around yours? Because he makes you lunches and dinners and puts them in the fridge then growls at anyone who looks like theymighttry to eat them? Because any time you leave the building he starts stress scrubbing everything down like a man who doesn’t know how to handle being away from the person he loves, so he takes up whatever manual labor he can find?” He taps his desk, which Roman built to replace the old plastic one that used to be in here. “When you left for that wedding in June, he spent the time you were awaybuildingfurniture, Elodie. What was I supposed to think?”
Well. How should I know? I sniff. “Roman likes cleaning,” I reply. “And building stuff. He’s a real go-getter type of guy.”
“Before you got here, Roman cleaned only what he had to clean,” he counters. “And he definitely neverbuiltanything. He told me he had to go out to his parents’ to use their tools to be able to do it.”
I throw my hands up. “I don’t know, man! But we’re definitely not dating. The very idea…” I shiver. “No. Absolutely not. I’ve barely decided I don’t hate him.”
“Okaaay,” he drawls. “If you say so.”
“I do,” I affirm. Me and Roman? Ludicrous. I clear my throat. “Also, since I have you here, the two of us are going to be needing next weekend off. We’re going on a road trip.”
Chris’ eyebrows shoot to the moon, and he presses his lips together before agreeing to the time off, assuring me that he can cover our shifts easily enough by pulling from Sweet & Salty downtown.
Perfect. Wonderful. That’s settled then.
I am going on a road trip. With Roman.
How… fun.
Chapter Twenty
Did I mention that Jove is hot?
Elodie
“In five days?” Lyra asks. “You’re not pranking me, are you? You’ll really be here in five days?”
“Five days,” I affirm, grinning at my laptop where Lyra’s adorable face grins back. “We’re leaving early Saturday morning. I was hoping we could stay with you when we get there?”
“Of course!” she squeals. Her hands enter the screen and land on her smiling cheeks, squishing all the joy. “This is the best news! And we just renovated Mars’ old room, so you’ll be the first ones to try out the guest room.” She gasps. “Maybe one night we can set up a fort in the living room like when we were kids! Sleepover!”
Beside her, Jove’s—hot—shoulder shifts, then his—seriously,hot—face slides onto the screen. “No sleepovers,” he rumbles. “She’s sleeping with me.”
I fan myself, nodding. “Of course,” I agree. “With you, big guy. Where you can—”
“Okay!” Lyra yells, her face flaming as she pushes Jove back out of view. “No sleepover.” She coughs. “But we can still have so much fun! Are you andRomangoing to be only one bed-ing this? Or should I make up the trundle?”
