I guessed that was the fine line people always talked about…
Well, if you asked me, it was a stupid line.
A stupid like that someone had probably drawn in Sharpie just to piss everyone off.
“How do you work this thing?” Ethan stepped up beside me, his chest brushing against my shoulder.
I jerked away from him, my heart skipping inside my chest. “By using the buttons.”
He eyed me as I cradled my mug and moved to the other side of the kitchen. “I’m not gonna steal yours, Ava.”
“I didn’t say you were,” I muttered, gripping the handle a little tighter. Seriously. Any harder and I was going to snap it right off.
“Are you all right?” His look became questioning as he hit the right button on the machine to make it go. “You look like you want to strangle something.”
I did.
Him.
The words I wanted to say got stuck in my throat. Instead of telling him he had to move out already, I made some kind of weird squeaking noise I was sure I’d heard Halley’s raccoons make at some point.
Ethan’s eyebrows slowly raised.
I shook my head and quickly made my way through the apartment to my bedroom. The door slammed behind me after one kick, and I leaned back against it, making it thump against the frame even though it was already closed.
The hinges were loose.
A bit like my emotions today.
Of all the weeks Ethan could move in, it had to the be the week I was on my period. Seriously. I wasn’t capable of making a rational decision about what I wanted for dinner, never mind anything else.
I’d had cookie dough ice-cream last night. It wasn’t exactly a balanced deal.
There was every chance that my frustration about my unexpected prickly roommate was solely down to Mother Nature’s monthly ‘you’re not pregnant!’ postcard.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to figure that out for at least another three days.
Goddamn it.
CHAPTER THREE – AVA
God Bless Cocktails
I slid a beer across the bar to my brother and took the five-dollar bill he handed me. I rang his order up on the register then tossed the change into my tip jar.
Leo cleared his throat. “I wasn’t tipping you.”
“I didn’t intend to live with a hedgehog, but here I am, living with one.” I grabbed a cloth and wiped down a wet spot, grabbing an empty glass someone had just slid across the surface.
I’d only worked at Lucky’s for three weeks. It was honestly a miracle I’d been hired at all after the little debacle of me dancing on the table that time. According to my boss, I was so popular after that with the regulars that hiring me was a no-brainer.
I wasn’t allowed to dance on the tables anymore, though.
I couldn’t say I was mad about that.
I think I still had a bruise on my hip from when I fell into Noah and Preston.
“Didn’t he apologize already?” Leo asked, wiping his mouth. “I admit, I should have warned you.”
“You should have. You know how I feel about tiny animals. If they aren’t a puppy or kitten and can fit in a purse, I don’t want to live with them.”
“You don’t mind fish.”
“No, because fish live in a tank and aren’t going to eat my face in the night.”
“It’s a pretty irrational fear you’ve got there, sis.”
“Okay, you’ve clearly never watched horror movies.” I raised my eyebrows at him and moved to serve someone at the other end of the bar. After delivering six beers and ringing a food order through to the kitchen, I went back to my brother. “Rodents eat people, Leo. It’s a fact.”
“Horror movies are not non-fictional. If they were, we’d all be fucked.”
I pursed my lips. I knew that, but I also knew that rats did eat human flesh, so… “I’m not going to debate horror movies with you. You’re my brother. I have a shit roommate because I was doing you a favor. You owe me like ten for this.”
“The hedgehog isn’t going to eat your face while you sleep.”
“How do you know that? It might.”
“Hedgehogs don’t eat people, Ava. That’s how I know.”
“They eat meat.”
“Yes, but it’s not going to eat your eyeballs.”
I shuddered, grabbing an empty bowl that had once held nuts to refill it. “Thanks for that imagery. Now I’m not going to sleep until I’ve installed a bolt on my bedroom door.”
“Why are you putting a bolt on your bedroom door?” Noah stepped up beside my brother with Preston.
Oh, good, the cavalry had arrived.
“Because Ethan’s hedgehog is going to eat her eyeballs,” Leo answered before I could.
I grabbed a peanut from the newly filled bowl and threw it at his face. “I don’t like hedgehogs,” I replied.
Preston raised his eyebrows. “What’s wrong with hedgehogs?”
“Don’t,” Leo said quickly. “Just… don’t go there.”
I hated having a sibling. “I just don’t like small animals. That’s all. Do you want your usual?”