Knowing he could be hours, I eat my share and watch TV but end up going to bed when eleven p.m. hits.
“Maddy?”
I startle awake at Damon’s voice.
“Did Cheri have to stay longer?”
With a yawn and a stretch, I sit up in bed and rub my eyes. “Nope. I just … wanted to be here. What time is it?”
Damon doesn’t answer me—his wide smile probably won’t let him talk.
“Time?” I ask again.
“Two.”
My brow furrows. “Why are you home so late?”
He’s never been this late.
“I didn’t want to come home to an empty apartment.”
I reach for him and pull him down on top of me. “I’m still not ready to live together, but I don’t want you to think I don’t want to be with you.”
“I don’t think that.”
“I only had a few hours at home on my own, and I didn’t like it. I want to stay here even if I’m not living here. I want you to stay at mine too—after you graduate. Getting to Columbia from the East Village is a pain in the ass.”
Damon smirks. “I thought you didn’t compromise.”
“I do when I like the compromise.”
“It’s a really good compromise.” He leans in and kisses me, and it’s the type of kiss that lets me know I won’t be going back to sleep anytime soon. His tongue dominates mine, controlling and strong.
I groan. “If you’re going to fuck me, you better hurry up and take your clothes off.”
I’ve never seen anyone move faster, but when he joins me, he takes his time as his mouth moves over me. His hands are gentle, his kisses tender, and I realize it’s more than sex tonight. I’m not here because someone’s in my apartment, and Damon isn’t letting me stay because I have nowhere else to go. It’s just us.
***
Stacy appears over my shoulder when I’m packing up my desk to leave the office for the weekend. “Here are the listings Damon wanted me to look at.” She thrusts a stack of papers in front of my face.
“Listings?”
“Stacy,” Greyson, our boss, barks.
“Shit. Gotta go. I’ve circled the ones I love.”
“What ones you love?”
But she’s gone, already entering our boss’s office, and I’m left staring at apartment listings.
Three grand in Midtown, three and a half thousand in South Central, three thousand two hundred in SoHo, all two-bedrooms, all out of Damon’s price range. Available now, available next month, available in a few weeks.
I try to make sense of it, but I can’t.
I know Damon’s getting a raise with his promotion, but it's not that much, and the only way he'd be able to afford these apartments is if …
He’s looking at apartments for us even though I told him I wasn’t ready?
What. The. Fuck.
Yes, I’ve stayed with him every night this week since Cheri left, but I told him—repeatedly—that it didn’t mean I wanted to move in.
I gave an inch and he took a mile. This is why compromising never works. This is why relationships are total bullshit.
He’s making plans for me? After he knew what Chastity put me through?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DAMON
When I get an urgent message from Maddox telling me I’m needed at home ASAP, I hope it’s a sex emergency, but knowing Maddox, he would’ve at least added an eggplant emoji if that were the case. Which makes me wonder what have I done wrong and what am I walking into when I get home?
Please let Stacy be pulling one of her over-the-top pranks.
Only, when I walk through the door, I know this is not a prank. Maddox is pissed as hell, pacing my apartment.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“Umm, I literally have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“We’re not moving in together. It’s too soon.”
My forehead scrunches in confusion. “I know.”
“Don’t make plans for me without talking to me first. Chastity used to do that, and it fucking pissed me off.”
“I wasn’t making plans,” I say.
“Seems that way to me.”
“You know I’ve thought about us living together—I’ve spoken to you about it—but you said you weren’t ready. I backed off.”
“Then why is Stacy giving me apartment listings?”
“I don’t know why she’s giving you listings.” I asked her to check out a few apartments for me, but I didn’t mention anything about Maddox joining me.
“Now you’re lying?”
“Back it up here a sec. Stacy gave you listings and said?”
“Give these to Damon.”
“And that means I’m making plans for us how?”
“I can’t … I can’t be here. I have to go.”
“Don’t leave. If you’d let me explain—” If I even knew what was going on.
“I don’t think … I’m not cut out for this like I originally thought,” he says. “I’m not good at relationships and people making plans for me that I don’t want—”
“That’s not what’s happening. Maddy. Seriously stop for a second.”
He doesn’t listen. He’s too riled up. “I let Chastity do it for way too long. You’re the one who told me I need to stand up for myself, so this is me doing it. I won’t let anyone interfere with my life again.”