Page 37 of Revelry
I put it in my calendar and set a daily alert to remind me. A heavy sensation rested in the pit of my gut, but I tried to ignore it. I didn’t want to have to go out to a party, it was the worst thing I could think of, but I needed to at least try. And of all the things my anxiety thought Gertrude would conjure up for us, a Halloween party was pretty tame.
I needed to get better, or at least to a manageable degree where my OCD didn’t impact my quality of life. If going out and having fun was the way to do it, then I would give it a try. Hell, there were worse ways to try and fix myself. I refused medication for a specific reason. I would never touch that stuff and if this was one of the only other options then fine.
But I drew the line at BYO costume.
Chapter Nine
Gertie
I knocked on Tate’s door, noticing the pristine condition it was in compared to our dusty, dirt-lined entrance.
“How is his door so clean?” I muttered. Anything to distract myself from wondering what he would think of my costume. Would he think I looked good? Would he be put off? Why did I care what he thought? It’s not like I wanted anything to happen, did I? No, men were still a no-go for me. But for some reason, whenever I thought about Tate, I completely forgot about that and got this little quivery sensation low in my stomach.
The door opened and as I took in Tate, I wondered why I hadn’t anticipated this.
“Where’s your costume?”
He glanced down at his denim shirt and black jeans before his steely stare met mine, little shivers dancing along my bare arms. “I’m wearing it.”
I cocked my head to one side and raised a brow. “But you’re dressed normally.”
His serious expression remained. “No, I’m dressed as something very scary.”
I folded my arms and tapped my foot.
“I’m dressed as someone who socializes. That’s scary.”
“Funny. I should have known you would be difficult about this,” I huffed and pushed past him into the house. He protested but I ignored him, heading for the stairs and noticing the strongdisinfectant smell coming from the kitchen. He must have cleaned recently.
The heels of my red pumps clomped up the wooden staircase and it wasn’t long before I heard him coming up behind me. Which suddenly alerted me to the fact that he would be getting an eyeful.
“Jesus Christ, Gertrude. I can practically see your ass,” he growled, his voice deeper than normal.
I tugged the edges of my dress down to give me some dignity back but by then we were almost at the landing, so it felt kinda pointless. I assessed which of the two rooms to venture into first and picked the room at the front of the house. It turned out to be a very stylish home gym full of equipment that was clearly responsible for the mouth-watering muscles struggling to be contained by Tate’s denim shirt.
“What are you doing?” he asked, an edge of panic had crept into his voice. He probably wasn’t used to people in his space and for a moment I felt a twinge of empathy until I remembered this is what he needed.
I ducked around him, getting a whiff of his pulse-pounding smoke and sandalwood scent and went to the back bedroom, the layout mirrored mine.
“Oh cute, our bedrooms share a wall!”
He leaned against the door frame, crossing his arms over his chest, his grumpy scowl turned up to eleven. “I know. I can hear you singing. And snoring.”
My heart pounded in my chest thinking about what else I’d been doing in there recently. “Is that a—all you can hear?”
He grunted which didn’t really confirm anything, but I figured if he had heard me having someme timethen he probably would have mentioned it.
“Well, if I ever snore too loud then just knock on the wall. I’ll hear it, they’re pretty thin. I always hear the classical music you’re playing.”
Another grunt and his eyes darted away. “Don’t we need to get going? What time does it start? I don’t want to be late.”
“What’s the matter?” A teasing smirk lifted my lips. “Don’t like having me in your room, Tate?”
“I don’t like having anyone in my anything,” he rumbled, his nose scrunching adorably.
“This won’t take long.” I marched over to the wardrobe and threw the double doors open, assessing the racks of his clothes. I sifted through the various shirts until I saw exactly what I was looking for. A forest green plaid shirt that I couldn’t wait to see him in.
I tossed the shirt to him. “Put this on.”
