He laughed, shaking his head. “Dad and I literally live two streets over. How the hell didn’t I know this?”
No. No, no, no. I needed him to actually be an asshole. “What.”
He pushed his sunglasses up on top of his head. The lines around his eyes were pronounced as he smiled brightly at me. “Seriously. Our house is only a couple of minutes away from here. We’re over on Copper. You know where the church is?”
I nodded stupidly. On Sundays we could hear the bells ringing.
“We live right behind it. Hell, I jog by your house almost every morning before work.”
There it was. The absolute worst thing I could find in a person. A flaw unparalleled by any other. I latched on to it. It would help me despise him. “You jog?” I exclaimed. “That’s awful. Why would you do that to yourself?”
He laughed. It wasn’t supposed to be funny! “It keeps me in shape. We all can’t be twenty-three and have a metabolism that lets us eat whatever we want with no repercussions.”
“But… but jogging. You literally go outside and run. On purpose. What the hell is—”
And then my porn brain remembered something from that very morning.
What was it Sandy had said?
You missed Hot Jogger Guy again this morning.
“Oh no,” I whispered.
Jeremy Olsen was possibly Hot Jogger Guy.
This knowledge meant my doom.
His smile faded. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” I said hastily, trying to get the image of him in tiny shorts out of my head. “Absolutely fine. Nothing is wrong. Oh, look. We’re here. I should go.” I struggled to open the door. The handle pulled, but it didn’t work. Stupid fucking sorority girl vehicle.
“It’s locked,” Jeremy said.
“Why?” I demanded. “Why would you lock the doors—oh. Safety. Right. That’s good. Keep on… keeping on with safety.”
He pushed a button on his door, and the locks clicked. I threw open the door and started to climb out, only to have the seat belt I’d forgotten to unfasten pull me right back in. It pulled hard against my chest, and I said, “Urk.”
He was staring at me. “Have you ever gotten out of a car before?”
“Ha-ha!” I said wildly. “So funny! Look at you with the jokes! Good one, neighbor who lives near me!”
“That’s generally what the definition of a neighbor is, yes,” he said slowly. “I can’t believe we didn’t know that.” He snapped his fingers. “You know what? This makes things so much easier.”
I dreaded what he was going to say next but couldn’t stop myself from asking. “This makes what easier?”
“For you,” he said cheerfully. “You don’t have a car, right? And since we’re going to the same place, we might as well go together. I can pick you up and take you home. Better than taking the bus. You can save some money, and I can have someone to talk to on the ride there and back. Especially if we need to make plans for Phoenix House.”
He beamed at me as if he had just discovered the answer to all of life’s problems. He had no idea that I was going to fap so hard to that expression later on. I felt guilty about it, but not enough to reconsider. I had decided a long time ago that I was most likely firmly planted in the morally gray area. I had Sandy and Paul to thank for that.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said weakly as I unfastened the seat belt like a normal person.
He reached out and squeezed my arm. There was that vein again, mocking me. “I want to. And it’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better. If you’re under me, I’d like to know as much about you as I can.”
He had to know how that sounded. He had to. “Right,” I choked out. “Makes sense.”
“Good,” he said, pulling his hand back. “This is great. I can’t believe I didn’t know you lived here. Charlie never said anything when he came to pick up Dad. I’m going to have some words with him on that.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be here tomorrow at seven thirty, if that’s good with you.”
“Yeah,” I said as my brain refused to come back online. Just how tiny were those shorts? Was I going to cross that line and wake up bright and early tomorrow morning to see him running by the house?