COHABITATION

5

Within the next month or so, Val and Rio settled into their own routines, ones that didn't cross often enough. So far, Val was perfectly fine with this, or at least she attempted to convince herself that she was. She didn't need any distractions at this point of life. Val had enough to worry about with her full time course load and job, he wasn't her responsibility.

Since their "heart-to-heart" about Eddie, they haven't really communicated other than nice pleasantries, and when Val gave him a sling for his arm. Whatever wall he had taken down to confess Eddie's death to her was put back up after that day.

And Rio stayed busy mostly, she assumed, with him being in charge of a very real gang. He holed himself up outside on the patio or in the extra room she had turned into an office—one that she never used, Val reluctantly thought. She wasn't sure exactly what he did to occupy the endless amount of time he spent trapped in her apartment while she was at work or out with friends.

Val asked him to make a grocery list one day of food he liked and all he wrote on it was waffle mix. He was a conundrum to her, yet every time she asked him a personal question, he responded with his own question about her weird behavior.

Yesterday, Val had walked by the office and heard a call, she could hear mumbling, so naturally she pressed an ear to the door.

"Nah, y'know things are too heavy right now—yeah, miss you too," He murmured the last bit into the phone, and had Val not been eavesdropping so intently she would have missed it.

For a moment it was quiet and she wondered if he had ended the call and then she was stumbling forward due to the door opening. Rio caught her elbows and stabilized her. He bemusedly looked at her with pursed lips and his classic single raised eyebrow. Why wasn't he wearing his sling?

"I was just—um—what do you want for dinner?" She never asked him this, usually she just cooked and made extra for him. He raised his other eyebrow to join the first before opening his mouth to respond.

"M'okay with whatev—" He started, before she essentially cut him off.

"Was that your girlfriend on the phone?" She asked incredibly fast, and then inwardly sighed when the gleam in his eyes returned.

"Why you steal cars in High School?" He shot back, and the signature single eyebrow raise made a comeback. Val squinted her eyes at him, and remembered that she accidentally spilled that tidbit when he broke into her apartment. The first time they met.

He returned the strong stare she gave him, his brown eyes sharply dug into her skin. Seconds pass and neither can look away from each other, Rio took a miniscule step forward. Val remained in the doorway, a foot away from him.

His arm stretched to take a strand of her long brown hair in his grasp and he twirled it around his finger. Val sucked in a breath and made no sudden movements, not sure why he was this close to her, yet equally sure that she wanted him this close.

"Not nice t'eavesdrop," He said with bored brown eyes as he dropped the twisted up strands of hair.

"Where's your sling?" She asked, dazedly staring into his eyes. Rio wordlessly took a step back and slowly closed the door, subsequently pushing her out of the threshold. She leaned back against the wall and sighed, he is a gang lord, he can handle himself.

The times their schedules did mesh, though, was dinner time. Val had always harbored a special corner of her heart just for cooking and baking, and she noticed that her and Rio were similar in this way. Today he offered to cook dinner for them again, it had been weeks since they honestly talked, and only one day since she psychotically asked about his girlfriend.