Perfection (Neighbor from Hell 2)

"Can you order some food for us?" He sighed, gesturing towards his apartment. "And make sure you double the amount, because-"

"Triple it! I'm starving," Jason piped in from the apartment.

"I already ordered the food," she said and rushed to add, "and Haley already called me to let me know Jason was coming over so I tripled the order," before Jason could bitch.

"That's because my wife adores me," Jason said, sounding smug.

"No, that's because you're a pig," Brad pointed out.

"Shut up, you bastard!"

"The order should be here soon," Zoe said, ignoring Jason's rant. "So, if there's nothing else I'm going to-" she started only to be cut by a loud crash in her apartment.

"What the hell was that?" Trevor asked, moving to check it out only to have Zoe jump in front of him.

"Nothing?" she said quickly.

"Nothing?"

"Well, um," she said, nibbling her bottom lip as she shot her closed door a nervous look. "That is, you see, um, I um, have company," she said, wringing her hands together.

He threw her a disbelieving look as he looked pointedly at her light teal baby top that showed an incredible amount of cle**age that his eyes may have lingered on for a second or two before moving down to her dark blue plaid pajama pants that he knew from prior experience would give him a really good view of her ass if she turned around.

"Company?" he asked in clear disbelief as his eyes returned to her face to find her blushing rather adorably.

"Yes?"

His lips twitched. "You're not sure if you have company or not?"

"No, I mean yes. I, um, that is I-"

"She probably has a date," Jason suggested from the living room, cutting Zoe off.

"Yes, that's it. I have a date?" she quickly agreed, but really didn't sound all that sure.

"A date?" Trevor asked hesitantly, wondering if she mentioned it this morning and he simply forgot. Then he frowned, wondering what kind of ass**le couldn't fork over a few dollars to take his date out. He didn't like the idea of anyone taking advantage of Zoe, well, besides him of course.

"Yeah, so I should probably return to him," she said, moving towards her apartment door only to come to a halt when the doorbell rang. With an exasperated sigh she reached around him and snagged his wallet out of his back pocket and promptly shoved him into his apartment and closed the door in his face, leaving him stunned.

"I like her," Brad said, chuckling.

"For a Red Sox tee shirt wearing woman I guess she's okay," Jason grumbled.

"Does no one care that she just manhandled me?" Trevor demanded, facing the men who should be properly outraged on his behalf.

Jason snorted. "As long as she brings me food she can bitch slap you and call you spanky."

Trevor narrowed his eyes on the men who dared laugh at his pain.

Betraying bastards.

"All set!" Zoe yelled.

After throwing one last menacing glare at the bastards who either laughed at him or ignored him, Trevor opened his door just as Zoe's was practically slammed shut. Seconds later he heard the telltale sounds of the lock clicking.

He quickly moved out of the way as Jason shoved past him to get to the large piles of takeout bags and boxes Zoe left on the floor and couldn't help but wonder what Zoe was hiding.

Chapter 10

"Wouldn't you rather have this old tennis ball?" Zoe asked, holding up the ball and nearly crying in frustration as Toby licked Mr. Cuddles' face and laid his muzzle across her poor defenseless bear's stomach.

"This is so much more fun," she said, tossing the tennis ball in the air and catching it. "See?" she said, giving him a hopeful look that he simply ignored.

"Hey! Don't lick that!" she pleaded as he licked poor Mr. Cuddle's eyes.

"Zoe?" Trevor said through the wall. "Is everything okay?"

Damn it.

"Um, yeah, Everything is fine?" she said loudly, shifting nervously as she wondered not for the first time what the hell she was going to do with a dog.

Sooner or later Trevor was going to find out about Toby and send them both packing since there was no way she was going to be able to keep a dog a secret for very long. She thought she was going to have a heart attack a few hours ago when Toby knocked over her stack of books while she was talking to Trevor in the hallway. Her quick thinking certainly hadn't saved her ass, she thought dryly.

Toby chose that moment to bark while his tail thumped happily against her bed.

"Shhhh," Zoe hissed quietly. Oh god, the dog was about to sell her ass down the river.

"What the hell was that?" Trevor demanded.

"Um, my date?" she said, feeling like an idiot.

"Your date?"

"Yeah, we're um, you know, um having sex?" she said, wondering when this hell would end as she dropped her face into her hands, feeling like a moron.

"If you're ha**ng s*x then why are you talking to me?" Trevor demanded, sounding oddly suspicious. She could have sex if she damn well wanted to. Okay, granted she did want to, but she lacked a willing partner since she really didn't know any available guys. Something she planned on fixing soon, but not the problem at the moment.

"Intermission?" she said, wondering why the hell everything out of her mouth was coming out as a question. Oh that's right, because she just plain sucked at lying.

"Well," she heard him clear his throat, "I'll just leave you to it then." A minute later she heard his bedroom door shut and she dropped back on the bed in relief. If Trevor didn't kill her when he found out what she was hiding then all this stress damn well would.

"I hate this," she grumbled.

Toby let out a little whimper.

With a little sigh she looked over to find Toby pouting with his muzzle once again resting on Mr. Cuddle's stomach. "Not you, buddy. None of this is your fault," she said, reaching over to give him a little scratch behind his ears.

"Oh that's good to know," Trevor drawled from her doorway, scaring the living hell out of her.

************

"This isn't what it looks like!" Zoe managed to say as she gasped for air and tried to hide the large puppy on her bed by stepping in front of it.

"It's not?" he asked in a bored tone and nearly rolled his eyes when she tried to discretely toss a throw blanket over the poor dog.

"No?"

She was such a horrible little liar, he thought, but appreciated it all the more since it meant that she would never be able to pull anything over his head.