Page 15 of The Change Up
Brynn: No? Why is Cody there?
Me: He brought a generator and a space heater. Then the weather got too bad, and now he’s stuck here.
Brynn: Ooooo, sounds like something out of one of your romance novels. Don’t be afraid to use each other to stay warm.
Me: Yeah, that’s NEVER going to happen.
The couch moves next to me, and I glance up, cheeks heating, as Cody is now sitting right next to me. I hit the close button on my phone before he has a chance to see the screen.
“Why are some of these lines highlighted?”
“Oh, those are from me. They’re lines that I enjoyed and wanted to remember.”
He nods his hand in understanding. “I’m going to get a glimpse inside Chloe Mariano’s head.”
“Believe me, it’s not all that interesting.”
His body presses into mine as Cody tries to grab my Kindle from where it’s resting on my lap. I’m at a particularly spicy scene, and I don’t need him seeing the things that I have highlighted on this page. Both of us shuffle trying to grab the device. In what seems like slow motion, Cody slips, and when I look up, both of our faces are within inches of each other.
My cheeks flame as I watch his eyes bounce from my eyes to my lips. We’re too close. Is Cody about to kiss me?
“Cody,” I rasp out as he continues his descent toward my mouth. A small part of me is giddy while the other is questioning everything that’s going on today. It’s like we got stranded together and all of our common sense just disappeared.
What if we just let things happen? What if for one night we forget who we are?
But Cody forgot about me a long time ago.
My hand shoots out and pushes against his chest, shoving him away.
“Shit,” he breathes out as he runs his hands through his hair.
I stand from the couch and start backing out of the room. “Look, you can sleep on the couch. There are plenty of blankets in the storage baskets. I’m going to bed.”
“Chloe…” Cody starts, but I put my hand up stopping him.
“Don’t, Cody. You don’t get to come in here and act like a knight in shining armor. Don’t you dare come into my house and make this any more awkward than it has to be.”
I don’t give him a chance to respond, I turn and hightail it to my room.
After the day I’ve had, all I wanted to do was mope alone with my book. Instead I’ve been forced to spend an uncomfortable evening alone with Cody. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to tell him I’ll be covering his baseball season, but instead I chose to be petty. He can be the one who is surprised and uncomfortable.
Am I being childish? Yes.
Do I care? Nope.
Screw this day. Screw this storm. Screw this night.
I’m standing at the counter Monday morning chopping up fresh vegetables for the egg bites I prep for the week. While the school provides breakfast for the team after practice, there are some days when I need a little extra protein, which is why I keep a batch in the fridge. Typically I do all my meal prepping on Sundays, but the weather had different plans this week.
Sometime Thursday night, our bathroom pipe froze and busted. Thank God Ty was up and heard the clanking of metal and burst of water. He was able to get to the shut-off valve before there was too much damage. Our landlord has had crews in all weekend getting the repairs made before the team leaves for our first road trip of the regular season on Wednesday.
I can’t believe it’s been three days since I snuck out of Chloe’s house.
After our almost kiss—what the hell was I thinking—I waited a couple of hours before I went upstairs to check on her. I felt horrible that she went upstairs while I slept on her couch in the only room that had heat. If I wasn’t such a self-absorbed douche,I would’ve fought her harder on sleeping in the living room. Instead, I sat there with my hands in my hair and watched her storm out of the room to her bedroom.
When I finally got the balls to man up, I went up to her room to make sure she was warm enough. I had never been in Chloe’s room, but let’s just say it’s everything that I would’ve imagined Chloe’s room to look like. When I peeked my head in, I found her curled up with a mountain of blankets surrounding her body. Warm blond hair was spread across her pillows. I should’ve stopped when I noticed that she had plenty of blankets to keep her warm.
But curiosity is a motherfucker.
