“I’m going to ignore that because now it’s your turn. Ask me whatever you want.”
She let out a long breath and tucked her hands back under her thighs again. “I don’t have a question right now.”
“Come on. It could be something as simple as my favorite movie.”
She shot me an exasperated look, and her expression said everything that needed to be said. I wasn’t giving up though—not yet.
“What’s your favorite movie, then?”
I leaned back in my seat and got comfortable. “Oh, I can’t answer that. I have too many to choose just one. My turn.”
She raised her brows and her lips parted in disbelief. “You just told me to ask you—”
I cut her off before she could finish her sentence. “No, you’re gonna have to wait for your turn. Don’t be a bad sport. Do you still have that boyfriend of yours?”
Her response came out as a squeak. “What?”
“You know, the boyfriend who prevented us from kissing that last time. Still seeing him?”
Her brows drew together and she turned her body toward me, finally pulling her hands out from under her thighs in the process. It was exactly what I wanted her to do—forget about being shy and just be herself around me. If we were going to live together for however long, it would make things easier for both of us. Getting her to actually look into my eyes when we were speaking would be a nice bonus too. If making her angry was necessary to achieve my goal, I was fine with that.
“I don’t think that’s something you need to know to sleep safe in your bed.”
“I think it is, actually. I know we decided you’re not an exhibitionist, but I could still come to your room to ask for a cup of sugar and end up walking in on you two and have it scar me for the rest of my life. If I know he’ll be around, I’ll make sure to not come knocking for sugar.”
Her lips were twitching when she gave me an answer. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to walk in on anyone. Your delicate feelings are safe. Mark doesn’t want me to have friends over, so you won’t be seeing anyone around at all.”
That perked me up, so I scooted forward and focused all my attention on her. “Mark?”
Looking away, she reached for a colorful pillow and started to strangle it. “Your coach…Mark. He’s not my coach, so I can call him by his name.”
“Sure you can. So you didn’t really answer my question—do you have a boyfriend or not?”
“No.”
I was in the process of trying to decide if that was a good or bad thing for me and was heavily leaning toward bad when she grunted and sighed.
“Okay, I lied. Let’s say I have a boyfriend and it’s complicated.”
“You lied?” Was she telling the truth now? I couldn’t tell, but if she was, I was guessing she wasn’t good at keeping secrets and I’d end up learning everything about her complicated relationship either way. “That’s actually okay, I think. It’ll make things easier.” I leaned back again. “I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment, but I can behave.”
She gave me a questioning look, eyes narrowing, head slightly tilting to the side. “I got you—I know that’s a lie. Maybe you were right and this getting to know each other thing isn’t a bad idea.”
“I’m the liar?” I asked, pointing at myself as my brows drew together. “I believe you’re the one who admitted to lying—twice, so far. What makes you think I’m lying to you? And about what?”
Copying my move, she scooted forward in her seat. “Because I happen to know you actually do have a girlfriend, and before you accuse me of stalking you, I’m not—I didn’t. I saw your Snap on Campus Stories. After I saw the way you were kissing her, I’d say she is the definition of a girlfriend, but I guess with so many girls throwing themselves at you, you can’t bother to label someone as your girlfriend and bind yourself to only one person. Why stay with one when you can sample so many more, right?”
“I don’t use social media.”
“Then it was her account, I guess.”
“Huh.” She was still looking at me expectantly, so sure she had me cornered. “Is this how you are to all people, or is it just me that brings out this side of you? First the desk comment and now this—do you have something against athletes?”
Her expression faltered. “What?”
I rubbed my neck and sighed. I was the one who had insisted we do an impromptu Q&A, but I hadn’t thought she’d start with all the hard questions. “It’s true, I did have a girlfriend a week ago, or maybe it’s been longer…I haven’t really kept track, but it doesn’t matter. I walked in on her getting fucked by two of my teammates, so that was pretty much the end of our relationship, which is also why I need a new place to stay. By the way, not all athletes do what they do just so they can have their fill of girls. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t put everyone in the same box. Some of us choose to stay away from distractions at all costs, and some of us like the attention. You can’t decide which category I fall into before you make an effort to know me. I’m not a liar, and I have a very hard time dealing with them. Me being an athlete doesn’t make me any less than some guy you’d fall for.” Why did I have to put it like that? Fuck me… Nobody was going to do any kind of falling. “Again, I’m a little disappointed. I didn’t figure you to be judgmental. My bad.”
Maybe this getting to know each other thing wasn’t one of my best ideas. Maybe I should’ve kept my head down and just co-existed.
I stood up. “This wasn’t a good idea. Good night, Zoe—”
“No,” she burst out, jumping up. “No. Please, don’t go. I’m sorry, Dylan. You’re right. I’m not like this. I’m being a judgmental bitch, and I’m not like that, trust me. I have no idea what’s wrong with me tonight. I think after what happened earlier, thinking I was about to be killed by a clown and then the shock of realizing you were the intruder…anyway, the reason doesn’t matter anyway. Sometimes when I’m nervous I talk too much and it’s just a bad case of word vomit.” She gestured at herself with her hand. “See, I’m still talking, aren’t I? I should stop, I know I should, yet I can still hear myself talking, but you know what? You’re right—if we’re going to share an apartment, we should at least know a few things about each other.” She came to stand in front of me, rose up on her tiptoes to reach my shoulders, and pushed me back down on the couch.
Then she was off walking toward the kitchen area that overlooked the living room. “I’m gonna make us coffee and we’re going to talk until you’re sure you’re in a safe place and not living with a bitchy lunatic who will attack you in your sleep.” She looked at me over her shoulder. “Though, I have to point out, you did scare the living shit out of me by walking in unannounced and all creepy like, so I’m just putting it out there that the rolling pin thing shouldn’t be on me. That one was all you.”
Standing behind the island that separated the small kitchen area from the living room, she stopped speaking. When I just kept staring at her instead of answering, she tucked her hair behind her ear and waited expectantly.