Page 10 of Landlord Wars
Max set the paper bag on the counter and ran stiff fingers through his hair, ruffling the silky, dark locks. “We didnotget back together.”
Max had been angry earlier and even a moment ago, but now he just looked stressed.
Jack entered the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. He popped the cap off and handed it to Max. “You look like you could use it.”
Landlord Devil reached for the bottle, took a deep swig, and his shoulders noticeably lowered.
I glanced down the hallway. Should I go to my room? Was this another private conversation I shouldn’t be privy to?
Jack tipped his chin up at me. “You want one, Sophia?”
I glanced at Landlord Devil, unsure of my welcome. But I didn’t need to worry, because Max wasn’t paying attention to Jack’s offer to join them for a drink. He was scanning the living room, shifting his critical eye to something new.
My body froze, and a sense of fight or flight made my heart race. I’d straightened up the boxes in the living room after that first unannounced visit from Max. But that had been a week ago or more. Since then, I might have left one—or several—mugs scattered about the room, as one does.
Landlord Devil’s eyes landed one by one on each of the mugs. “You have a problem putting dishes away, Sophia?”
His low tone caused a frisson of awareness to sweep through me—until my brain registered his words.
Somehow the jackass knew the mugs were mine. Then again, Jack didn’t seem like much of a hot beverage person. “I’m a tea drinker,” I said lamely. “I tend to forget where I put my drinks, or forget I already have one. Haven’t you ever lost your keys?”
His eyebrow rose. “My keys, yes. My coffee, no.”
“It could happen.” Okay, I was a rare case. Even my sister made fun of me.
Max’s grumpy expression didn’t change, and I shifted my jaw in annoyance. He didn’t live here; he had no right to judge me.
My apartment was a gem, it truly was, but Landlord Devil was a plague. Just how often would he stop by?
Ignoring Max and his open hostility, I focused on more pressing matters. “Jack, is this a dressy event? I wasn’t prepared for dressy. But considering Max’s suit…” I looked over and caught Max’s shocked expression.
“She’scoming?” he said.
Jack finished pouring chips into a bowl and shuffled items around on the overloaded tray. “Dude, what is wrong with you today? Sophia’s my roommate. Of course I invited her.” He looked at me and smiled. “Ignore him. He’s a grump, but he means well.”
Max and I snorted at the same time.
Max’s mouth went taut, and the tension in the room grew tenfold.
“And no,” Jack said as he pulled cheese out from the fridge before closing the door with his foot, “you don’t need to change, Sophia. Come as you are.”
Jack was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, so I took him at his word and retreated to the sanctuary of my bedroom. Hopefully Landlord Devil would be gone by the time I returned.
A few minutes later, Jack called out, “Sophia, you coming?”
I grabbed a sweater in case the rooftop grew cold and met him near the door. Thankfully, Max had already left. “Can I help with anything?”
“Do you mind carrying this?” He juggled the tray of food in one arm and handed me a bottle of wine.
“Not at all,” I said.
We exited the apartment and made our way up a set of stairs, passing what had to be Max’s flat, as it was the only door on the entire floor, and headed up one more narrow flight toward the rooftop. “How did you meet Max?” I asked. Jack was so easygoing, while Max was an uptight ass. It made no sense these two had connected, let alone become best friends.
Jack let out a slow breath. “I guess you could call it luck,” he said and shook his head, chagrined. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but me and Max don’t normally run in the same circles. I never would have met him had circumstances been different.”
Luck? I wasn’t sure meeting Max was lucky. “I might have picked up a clue or two.”
He scratched his jaw. “The short answer is I’m a good test taker. I got into a private school on scholarship after I scored high on a test the city gives every seventh grader. Max sat next to me in math at my new school, and while the rest of the students treated me like I was beneath them, Max was friendly. He was nothing like the stuck-up prep-school kids we went there with, and over time, he became my best friend.”
