It was a small deck, barely large enough to fit a grill plus another five people comfortably, so she shifted a few inches over trying to get as far away as possible from Newbie-Asshole and the cigarette he lit up.
She kept her face turned forward, refusing to even acknowledge his presence. She wanted the upper hand here. She wanted him to break first. She needed him to be the one to say something. But he didn’t say a word. The silence was absolutely deafening—maddening to the point that Sam felt as if her heart was going to beat out of her chest. She wanted to scream.
She broke.
“You know you’re cutting ten years off your life with those. Lung cancer is a horrible way to go,” she said without looking in his direction.
He gave a snide little laugh.
“Good thing I don’t give a shit, huh?” He blew the smoke out in her direction, causing her to cough and that white-hot anger that had just barely cooled down while counting the stars began bubbling up to the surface once more.
“Could you at least not do it while I’m out here? I’d like to be able to breathe for the duration of my life.”
He fully turned and looked her way for the first time, his face set in a permanent scowl so offensive it would give Mrs. Saunders a run for her money. For just a moment, she fought the urge to spit more venom-laced words in his direction. It took all her restraint to hold them back. She had never been this person. She had never been cruel or mean to anyone, and yet this man somehow provoked the worst out of her. Just his existence seemed to stoke the coals of a fire Sam didn’t even realize she had brewing under the surface.
“This is my porch, not yours. So, if it’s bothering you that much, please feel free to walk back inside. Or better yet, feel free to walk right the fuck out my front door,” he said while giving her the most contemptuousfuck yousmile she had ever seen.
Her shoulders were rapidly rising and falling along with the rollercoaster of emotions running through her. She bit her lips to refrain from spewing out the few choice words and phrases that seemed to be sitting on the tip of her tongue.
Then he licked his lips and her heart rate stumbled as she noticed how full those stupid lips were. And then he smiled slightly, causing them to pull up, and she noted how that stupid dimple on his left cheek seemed to fit in perfectly with the straight line of his stupid jaw.
He cleared his throat.
She startled when she realized he’d caught her admiring him.
Again.
“Fuck you,” she breathed out the words as she stalked the few feet back to the door, hoping he would stay out there for the duration of their time here. But he wasn’t too far behind. She must not have been walking fast enough because, before she had even made it fully into the home, he all but pushed her to the side in order to get to the fridge.
She’d had enough.
Newbie-Asshole was a complete and total dick. It didn’t matter how gorgeous he was, or how much she wanted to run her fingers through his hair, or how she suddenly wondered if his lips would feel as soft as they looked. He was a complete ass. An ass she had to work with. An ass that lived with her best friend's boyfriend. An ass that she would most likely be stuck with for an undetermined, but probably unbearably long time.
Ugh.
She let out a deep breath, willing it all to end.
“What the hell is your problem?” Her words had lost their fire and her resolve was beginning to falter. “I get that we didn’t have the best introduction, but we are probably going to be around each other a good bit between work and then with Micah and Kristin dating. Could you at least not be so rude?” She held her hand out for him to shake, silently asking for a sort of truce. “Can we just start over?”
He stared at her for a second and there was something in the way he looked at her that she couldn't quite place. It caused her breath to hitch and her skin to pebble. She swallowed as she desperately tried not to let him see the mild trembling that had crept into her outstretched hand.
Then he burst out laughing.
He was laughing so hard he had to bend forward and hold his stomach. What was even more annoying was the fact that if it hadn’t been at her expense, she would have been enthralled by how amazing his laughter sounded.
“Fine, then. Continue on being miserable and ruin your lungs in the process.” She yanked her hand back and walked back into the living room only to find Drew flipping through channels and no Micah or Kristin in sight.
She had to hold in her groan of frustration when Callum parked himself opposite her on the couch and then Drew started toward his room upstairs.
She was stuck in this room, in this house, in thisworldwith the one person she despised more than anyone else.
She pulled out her phone and sent Kristin a pleading text to come back up so they could leave immediately. As soon as she hit send, she heard a buzz coming from Callum’s side of the couch. He dug the discarded phone out from between the cushions and read what was displayed on that blasted screen before his eyes cut back to Sam.
“Newbie-Asshole, huh?” he smirked back at her. “That’s a new one. And for the record, I’ve lived here for over a year. This is the first time I’ve seen you here, so I think you are more the ‘newbie’ here, not me.”
Why was he so damn annoying?
“Ugh,” her audible groan seemed to reverberate through the townhouse. “That’s from work, if you must know. We refer to all the new hires as newbies for a few weeks. The asshole part is just a reflection of your general character.”