Well, while she slept. She wasn’t certain that he was getting all that much sleep.
She didn’t know what was going on. But she could only guess it had something to do with the job he’d just finished.
Maybe it’s you.
Maybe he’s finally tired of you.
Maybe he realized that you’re not worth his time.
She shook the negative thoughts from her head. It wasn’t her or he wouldn’t want to be around her, right? But there had to be something she could do. She had this overwhelming urge to help him.
To fix him.
But how? He was barely talking.
Unfortunately, he somehow managed to get up and dressed every morning before she was even awake. She had never realized what a deep sleeper she was.
It was a shame, because starting each morning with an eyeful of abs really sounded like a cure for the morning blues.
They spent their days sitting on the couch with him on his phone and her reading or watching television. In a way, it was kind of nice and if Zander had been acting at all normal, then she might have been enjoying herself.
Now they were sitting on her couch and she was flicking through shows, trying to find something that might distract them both.
Damn it. She wished she was better at this. But she’d never been in a relationship where people actually talked to each other. And she had no idea how to make this better.
“Oh my God!”
He turned his head, raising an eyebrow. He was doing something on his phone as he sat down at the other end of the couch. Several feet away from her.
“There’s aPinky and the Brainmarathon coming on soon.”
“That’s nice.”
“Nice! Nice? It’s awesome, Da . . . ahh, umm.”
Wait. What had she nearly just called him?
Damn it! You idiot. What were you thinking?
Well, she hadn’t been thinking, obviously. But then she noticed the way he looked at her. That he was actually looking at her properly for the first time in days. She knew she was bright red. Why did she have to have such pale skin? Why couldn’t she be a redhead who tanned?
“Um, well, I . . .”
“You want to watch it?” he asked.
“Uh-huh. But you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’m guessing you have other things to do.”
“No, I don’t.”
Right then.
He went back to his phone, but an idea occurred to her. Would it work? If it didn’t, if he gave her a dismissive look or he turned her down, then it would hurt. A lot.
Doing this meant trusting him not to harm her. It meant being vulnerable and giving him power over her.
But it also might get through to him. There was something so broken about him. And she felt this urge to fix him.
She guessed it was worth a try. If she got hurt . . . well it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to that.