A couple hours later, Tommy was still at my house.
We’d gone grocery shopping, then to the hardware store, then he’d helped me put away all the food and put a wooden dowel on the track of my sliding glass door so it wouldn’t open, then I’d made us dinner and he’d helped me clean up afterward… and he was still there. Sitting on my bed. Talking about some condemned house he’d bought.
I was willing to admit that he wasn’t quite the asshole I’d thought he was, but I still didn’t understand what he was doing in my apartment. We’d never been friends. Sure, we’d almost gotten down and it had been great, but hadn’t that just been a proximity thing? You’re here, I’m here, we’re both going a little stir crazy…
“You’re not listenin’ to a word I’m sayin’,” Tommy said, laughing. “What the fuck?”
“I’m listening!” I protested. “Your house doesn’t have electricity or toilets.”
“Right. And when was it built?” he asked doubtfully.
“In the…” I paused waiting for him to fill in the blank. He didn’t. “I don’t know!”
“Jesus.”
“Well!” I threw up my arms. “I’m trying to figure out what you’re doing here! I haven’t seen you in years, and then all of a sudden you’re all up in my business, sitting on my bed and taking me grocery shopping and shit.”
“You don’t want me here?” he asked, rising to his feet.
“I didn’t say that. But this whole thing is whack!”
“Whack?”
“That’s what I said!”
He chuckled.
“What?” I grumbled.
“So last night you slept in my bed, this morning you were grindin’ your ass against my dick, and tonight you don’t want anythin’ to do with me?”
“You’re here for sex?” I asked.
“I’m here gettin’ to know ya,” he explained in exasperation. “What about this are you not understandin’?”
“I mean,” my words trailed off as I glanced around the room for something to save me. “You barely talked to me when we were younger! Hell, you barely talked to me during the lockdown and now all of a sudden you want to get to know me?”
“Isn’t that how it happens?” he asked. “You see someone you think is hot, you talk to ’em, get to know ’em, see if they’re as hot in bed as they are outside it?”
“That’s a stunningly accurate description of dating, yes,” I grimaced. “But we already knew each other.”
“Not in any way that mattered,” he retorted, rubbing at the back of his head.
“You were a complete asshole to me less than a week ago,” I pointed out.
“You hit me in the balls!”
“And you deserved it!” I jabbed a finger at his chest.
“If I deserved it, why’d you file off those vampire nails you had?”
“Because they were growing out and I couldn’t get them fixed,” I mumbled in embarrassment. We both knew that was a lie. I’d been too mortified to keep them after all the comments about them on the night of the fire. A couple of guys had mentioned them when we were outside, but even more of them had been making jokes once I’d gone inside. Usually, I’d ignore shit like that, but since I’d been stuck behind the gates with those idiots, I’d filed the points down that night even though I freaking loved them.
“Thought you were hot in high school,” Tommy said. My eyes widened. “You’re hotter now.”
“I thought you wouldn’t have let me anywhere near your dick in high school,” I replied, echoing his words as I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I wouldn’t have,” he said, letting out a dark chuckle. “You were too busy moonin’ over my baby brother.”
“We were friends.”
“Yeah, I been tellin’ that same shit to everyone who asks,” he growled, shaking his head.
“Okay, so?”
“So, you mighta been friends but that ain’t what you wanted.”
“Yes, it was,” I argued.
“Yeah, okay,” Tommy said, looking away. “I’m gonna head out. Thanks for dinner.”
He walked toward the door and I wanted to scream in frustration.
“What the hell is wrong now?” I asked, throwing my arms up. “You’re leaving?”
“Nothin’s wrong,” he assured me as I reached him. He slid his feet into his boots then lifted his hand and placed it on the back of my head. “Been a long day. I’m gonna head back and get some shut eye.” He kissed me on the forehead and then he was out the door.
The man was going to give me whiplash! First he was all flirty and then he was bossy and then flirty again and then sort of lost in his own world and then flirty yet again. He couldn’t seem to keep one mood or conversation for more than a few minutes, and then he was off on some tangent.
I shook my head as I locked the door. I didn’t really have time to try and figure out Tommy Hawthorne’s moods. I liked him and he was probably fantastic in bed, but I had other shit to keep me occupied. If he showed up again, then he showed up again. If not? Well, I’d lived without him for the first nineteen years of my life and I seemed to be doing just fine.