Everett Holden had sworn to live the rest of his life a single man, but his plans are disrupted when he finds himself sharing an apartment with his best friend's ex - the one woman he detests with every fiber of his being yet simultaneously desires...
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I'M FUCKING BEAT when I come home after working a double. I wish I could have the weekends off as Everett can, but I have things to pay for and need to get back on my feet.
When I walk through the door, I'm hit with the wafting scent of baked chicken, and after only having a sandwich for lunch, I'm starving. My feet pull me towards the smell to where Everett is wearing oven mitts as he holds a casserole, and my heart does a little skip.
"Hi," I say stupidly, eyeing the baking dish. "That smells amazing."
He shrugs and sets it on the counter. "I figured you'd be hungry. It's not a big deal."
But it is a big deal. Everett doing anything nice is a big deal. I don't want to miss whatever good mood he's oddly been in for the past two days, so I don't speak on it. Instead, I pull out another envelope and slide it over to him. "From my other job," I say. "And don't bother fighting me on it, Everett. If you refuse it, It'll end up in your underwear drawer."
I'm expecting a screaming match or his eyes to grow as dark as the bottom of the ocean, but he takes the envelope without another word and pockets it.
"What have you done with Everett?" I ask suspiciously.
He rolls his eyes as he dishes up our plates. "What are you talking about, Emery?"
I wave my hands up and down his cheery stature. "This. We've been tiptoeing around the situation for days, but it's getting weird. Was sex all we needed to make you less pissy toward me?"
He shrugs. "Can't it be as simple as that?"
"I mean, that would be great if that was the case, but nothing in life is ever that simple. There has to be some plot twist here, or—"
"Aren't you the one who always says to look on the bright side?"
"I am, but there's never been a bright side with us, Everett." The sentence leaves my lips before I can think about it, and as soon as it's out in the open, the energy seems to shift in the room. Everett grows stiff as a board, all of his muscles becoming rigid.
But it's the truth. We both know that even if this is just sex, it can't end well. Not when Liam is in the picture, and he always will be.
Everett and I have known since we were teenagers that if we were to act on our feelings, it wouldn't be long before it was ruined. So, I won't get used to Everett being nice to me. It can't be this easy because if it was... If I stayed with Liam during those final years of high school because I feared how complicated it would be to leave him for Everett... Could it have been this simple the entire time, and I wasted all those years pretending to hate him? I'll never forgive myself.
A shift switches inside of Everett, and in seconds, his shoulders relax, another smile tugging on his lips as he passes me the casserole plate. "You're thinking too much about this and making it more complicated than it needs to be. Can we have a peaceful night where we eat a fantastic meal that I slaved over and watch a movie without it getting awkward?"
