I twist my lip and think of how to describe it. “Her stories are like…totally bonkers but also juicy and dark.”
Ozzie grins. “Maybe you should major in literature.”
I reply, “Pretty sure that would involve writing a bunch of papers about books, which seems incredibly boring. No thanks, I’ll stick to general studies.”
I move over to the next shelf and examine his DVD collection. Abysmal. Almost all sci-fi. Sigh.
But the game cards? That’s a different story. I pick one up. “I love the Sims. Can we play?”
Ozzie scoffs. “What. Now?”
I bite my lip and sit down on the edge of the bed. “I have to tell you the truth. I am not going to be able to sleep tonight.”
“Why? Do you think I’m going to murder you in your sleep?”
My stomach rolls over, and I try to hide my reaction, but he sees it.
“Yikes. Sorry, that was wildly inappropriate,” he says.
I give Ozzie a smile and sigh. “It’s okay. So…Sims?”
It’s too easy how cocking my head and batting my eyes work on him.
Ozzie laughs and fires up the game, shaking his head. “I haven’t played in months; it’s time to see which of my characters have burned their houses down.”
To my extreme delight, there’s a family of goths all named afterTwilightcharacters in one house and another house full of Sims named for characters fromGossip Girl. Oh my god. How soon can I marry this man? Ha. That would be never, I think, with a slight twinge of regret.
Because Ozzie is a gentleman, he lets me go first, and I immediately search my memory banks for the cheat codes. Loading up my chosen household with about ten million dollars, I buy all the cool furniture, replace all the cheap shit, and fix up the poorly designed rooms.
“How…how?”
“Dude, do you not look up cheat codes?”
“What’s the fun in cheat codes?” Ozzie asks.
I snort. “Literally everything unless you want the game to go agonizingly slowly.”
“That’s how the game is supposed to go.”
“Uh, for suckers, maybe.”
Ozzie laughs so loud that someone sleeping in the room below us can be heard grumbling, “Will y’all shut up, please?”
I cover my mouth, my eyes wide. “Oops,” I whisper. “Oh no, I went from the favorite to bad houseguest in one night.”
“That’s what you get for shit talking during the freaking Sims.”
“It’s too easy to do with you; you’re such an innocent!” I joke, keeping my voice quiet.
In reality, watching Ozzie play the non-cheating way is oddly soothing. So much so that I’m ready to sleep by the time he’s saving and closing the game.
“So…how are we doing this?” I ask.
Ozzie walks to the bedroom closet and pulls out a sleeping bag.
“I’ll take the floor.”
I was hoping he would suggest that. So far, in the short time I’ve known Ozzie, he’s made me feel safe at every turn, and this chivalry makes me feel that even more.