“I was thinking I would apply for it,” she said. I felt her shoulders rise into a shrug. “It seems to pay all right, and if I can get enough hours, I wouldn’t be in your hair anymore.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked.
“If I can get enough hours, I can get my own apartment again, and I wouldn’t have to keep mooching off of you.”
“You aren’t,” I told her again. “You do all kinds of shit around here to earn your keep.”
I snickered a little.
“I cost you money,” she stated.
“Not much.” I shrugged. “And you do a lot for me.”
“It’s not money, though.”
“I don’t need it,” I lied. “It’s all good.”
“I can’t be in your way forever!” She was insistent.
“You aren’t in the way,” I insisted right back at her.
“I have to be able to support myself,” she said.
“Says who?” I asked. “I bet if you checked some stats on it, you would find most college students are not living on their own.”
“Most college students have Mom and Dad paying for the dorm.”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, “but those who aren’t on campus are living with roommates, and even those in the dorms are usually sharing a room.”
My logic appeared to be working.
“I don’t want to be a burden,” she said softly.
“You aren’t,” I told her.
“You said you had always lived on your own though,” she reminded me. “I have to be…cramping your style.”
I laughed.
“Using that phrase is so unstylish, it can’t cramp anything.”
“That made no sense at all!” Tria laughed. “Maybe you need to do a little studying with me. At least read some of my English books.”
“Nah,” I said. “I rarely have to rely on loquaciousness in the cage.”
Tria lifted her head to look me in the eye with raised brows.
“You dropped out of high school?” she asked for clarification.
“Being a dropout doesn’t mean I’m stupid,” I said.
“Obviously.”
She put her head back down on my chest, and I pulled her in a little closer before speaking again.
“Get the job if you want,” I said, “but you don’t have to move out. It will be easier for both of us if you stay, with or without a job. Besides, I…”
My voice trailed off. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say that wasn’t going to equate to wanting to get between her legs, even though that wasn’t the real reason. Well, not all of it anyway.