I licked my finger, tasting the Alfredo sauce. It was still thin. It needed more parmesan.
“Is it gonna be the same as last time?” I called back smarmily, “where the two of you bent me over the couch and pulled my panties to the side?”
“No,” Cole called back. “But come to think of it, that’s not entirely out of the question.”
I sprinkled more cheese into the mixture, remembering fondly. “Good,” I chuckled into the empty kitchen. “Because I really liked that.”
Turning the burner to simmer, I made my way to them. The guys weren’t in the living room, their voices were coming from somewhere down the hallway.
“Where are you?”
“In here.”
I wandered into the last room on the left, empty except for a few small boxes of my things. The walls were still lime green. Unblemished. Unscratched.
“First things first,” said Jacob, his hands on his hips. “The gas company turned off your service today.”
My eyebrows narrowed in confusion. “Then how am I still using the stove?”
“Because I turned it back on,” said Cole, “right after they left. I cut through that shitty wire lock they slapped on. Same as the one on the electrical meter.”
“You can do that?”
“You’re not supposed to do that,” said Cole, “but yes, you can. What you’re supposed to do is pay the bill.”
I nodded, a little bit embarrassed, a little bit aggravated they’d called me in here just to tell me that. But they weren’t done.
“The cable’s out too,” said Jacob. “I checked, and they cut it off at the street.”
“Then we’ll watch movies,” I countered quickly. “Eric left a collection of DVDs behind, and I think there’s a player somewh—”
“Or you could just listen to us,” said Cole calmly. He countered my frustration with a friendly, non-placating smile. “Please.”
I sighed and nodded, realizing I was being a little too hard. I
t wasn’t their fault I couldn’t pay the bills. If I was frustrated at anyone, it should be myself.
“We’ve got a proposition for you,” said Jacob. “Before we tell you what it is, know that you can totally say no. We’ll both understand. Neither one of us will be offended.”
The cryptic way they were talking had me suddenly nervous. I started looking for somewhere to sit, but there was nothing. Tate would be home soon. And dinner wasn’t ready.
“Guys, I was just—”
“What if we moved in here,” interrupted Cole, matter-of-factly. He jerked his thumb back and forth between himself and his friend. “The two of us.”
I looked back at Cole uncertainly. “But you already live here,” I pointed out.
“I live in the basement yes,” Cole went on. “But I’m up here most of the time, and the basement’s really nice now. Nice enough that you could rent it for a pretty big chunk of money.”
My eyes narrowed. Jacob cleared his throat.
“You already know my living situation,” said Jacob. “Sharing the off-campus apartment sucks, and I’m out of there by the end of the semester anyway. I thought I could come here,” he said, pointing at the floor. “I could rent this room from you, and Cole could rent the one next door.”
“You mean David’s old room?”
Cole shrugged. “Whatever.”
I was at a loss for words. “You’d really want that?”