Page 33 of Puck with Karma
“Ha,” the guy snorts. “Easy peasy, right? Except for the fact I don’t live at your level, and my apartment is only a one bedroom, one bath. I’ve been wanting to move, but I like that I’m across the arena,” he shrugs.
“He can’t stay in his apartment,” the building super interrupts. “It’s dangerous, and we need room to work.”
“See?” the teammate turns to look at us both. “Told you!”
The laughter dies on my lips. This is a truly serious situation, one that I helped create. While it was unintentional from both our parts, we were reckless and just didn’t care. Now, we ruined two apartments and we have no solution to any of the problems.
“Fuck.”
Xander drops his head back and stares at his very dry ceiling as he comes to the same conclusion I just did.
“You can take my apartment,” I blurt out without thinking. I am saying this to the neighbor downstairs, and the second the words are out of my mouth, I feel stupid. They all stare at me.
“With you in it?” the neighbor in question asks, hope clear in his voice.
“I…”
“You’re not giving him your fucking apartment,” Xander growls under his breath.
“I can stay in a hotel,” I assure him nervously. I have my own money after all. As soon as I turned twenty-one, I got access tothe trust fund my grandfather set up in my name. I haven’t had any reason to spend much of it since I still lived at home.
I remember how excited I was to walk into my own apartment yesterday when I moved in. My very first place where I could do whatever I wanted, and be responsible for everything.
“Noah can stay in a hotel,” Xander snaps at me.
I turn my head to look at his teammate. Now that I know his first name, I remember meeting him yesterday during orientation. He had a helmet on and was in full hockey gear, so I didn’t really get a chance to see his face properly. Noah Carter is a third line forward for the Minnesota Cats.
“What?” Noah’s smile falls off his face. “I don’t wanna stay in a hotel. I wanna stay with the hot intern,” he points at me, making me blush.
“Stop looking at her,” Xander growls at him. “Don’t make me rearrange your face. You’ll have bigger problems then.”
“Oh, so now I can’t even look?” Noah rolls his eyes. “Figures that first line gets it all,” he mumbles. “The bigger and nicer apartment, the girl…”
“What did you just say?” Xander steps in front of me, ready for battle.
I grab his arm just as he is about to bring it back to possibly punch Noah in the face.
“Xander,” I say softly. “I’m cold. I need to go get into something warmer.” My wet clothes are starting to feel cooler by the minute against my naked skin. Hard to believe I was sweating only minutes ago.
Xander’s shoulders relax a bit at hearing my words. He turns to look at me before hooking an arm around my shoulders to bring me closer to his body.
“I’ll walk you to your apartment,” he declares. “What floor are you on?”
“Wait,” Noah calls out. “You don’t even know where she lives? This is great.”
Xander is about to go after him again. “I hope you saved some money for the dental work you’ll need after I bust out all your teeth.”
Noah rolls his eyes. “Not as much money as you obviously have.” He opens his arms wide. “But do your worst. Whatever.”
Just as I brace myself to pull Xander back, his entire body relaxes into me.
“You can stay in my apartment,” he tells Noah. “I have a spare bedroom, and a guest bathroom.”
Noah’s eyes squint in suspicion.
“You better not tell me you wanna share a bed with me.”
“No,” Xander snorts. “That’s ridiculous.” He turns his head to look at me. “I’m going to share a bed with Abigail.”
