Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
And now, now I knew.
Sighing, I hit the play button on the remote to make the Are you still there? message disappear. Even though I’d already zoned out on the show.
This was not the kind of apartment building where you could go to sleep without something on in the background. It seemed like half of my neighbors were vampires who liked to stay up late screaming at their video games, playing music too loud, having bed-squeaking, headboard-knocking sex, or arguing with their partners. The other half did what I’d learned to do as well. Turn their TVs or white noise machines up just to be able to sleep through the noise.
Reaching back, I dragged down the blanket from the back of the couch and lowered myself down on the cushions.
It was a lumpy magenta sofa that I’d picked up at a thrift store after inspecting it with a fine-tooth comb for bed bugs, then hired two guys to help me lug it all the way back to my new apartment. It was leaps and bounds more comfortable than the mattress I’d bought online that was about the same thickness and softness of a cardboard box that Evander was no doubt occupying now that he’d finished grooming himself.
And maybe, just maybe, if I slept there for the night instead of the bed, I wouldn’t wake up tangled in my sheets, sweating through my clothes, with my heart racing and my body nearly quaking with need for the only man in the city that I really couldn’t put my hands on.
My damn boss.
CHAPTER THREE
Kick
“Listen, I’m back to work today,” I told Evander as he ate his breakfast and I sipped my coffee. I opted to skip a sad breakfast of freezer burnt off-brand waffles, deciding the free shift meal would be worth the hunger pangs leading up to it. “So you can’t be out on the fire escape shrieking at any hour of the day, okay? I will be back at eight. You can come in then.”
Evander flicked his tail in, I pretended, agreement before I went about gathering my things to head out.
By the time I was ready, Evander was already at the window, watching something on the ground below. A rat, I imagined.
“Careful out there, bud,” I said as I slid open the window. “Some of those rats are twice your size,” I added as he rushed out and down.
It felt odd to be back to a normal schedule after a week of, well, complete and utter sloth. I meant to get to know the area, get some chores done, do all the stuff I didn’t get a chance to when I was working.
I ended up eating junk in front of the TV and sleeping.
I was choosing not to beat myself up too much about it, though, since I’d been through a lot the past year. I deserved a little break.
I’m not proud to admit that anticipation was sizzling across my nerve endings as I rounded the corner of Lombardi Premium Meats. It had very little to do with being excited to get back to work, to spend time with my coworkers, or even to see the renovations. And everything to do with the man who’d been starring in my sweaty dreams. Despite some serious usage of my new vibrator that had only seemed to manage to increase my sex drive, not abate it.
The meat shop had been… kind of dated before the renovations. Lots of cement, old, mismatched display cases and snack shelves.
So walking into work was like stepping into a whole new store.
The walls and ceiling were redone in shiny white tile squares with dark grout that would be so much easier to clean than the previous painted walls. I could probably get a wall mop and make the task just take a couple of minutes.
The floors that had been cement, worn, and stained from generations of feet walking over it was replaced by faux wood tile flooring. Up near the counter, though, the wood tiles were broken up with warm cream tiles, giving it a kind of modern-vintage diamond look.
The display cases that had been those big, unsightly ones with rounded fronts under the glass were all replaced by neat straight black cases with pristine glass.
Even the meat slicers were shiny and new.
The cash register straight out of the nineties with all the writing on the buttons blurry from use was gone, replaced with a 1920’s style brass cash register, but it had a nice touchscreen set in the front to make life for all of us behind the counter easier.
Even the boards for the menu and specials were new. Gone were the blackboards the guys made me write on because they claimed I had the best penmanship. In their place were digital screens that could, I imagine, be much more easily updated.