Page 141 of Problematic Summer Romance

Conor:Maya.

Maya:I own it. Legally. And I am of age.

Maya:Why? Did you not like it?

Maya:Are you saying that I’m ugly?

Conor:Are you trying to give me an aneurism?

Maya:Listen, use it as you will

Maya:If you don’t want to look at it, you can always delete it.

Conor:I’m not going to fucking delete it.

Maya:But what you’re saying is that I should absolutely not send you more, wearing less?

Conor:Fuck.

Eli and Ruereturn before Conor, tanned and relaxed and loose-limbed, smiling like they’re high on the most magical cocktail of uppersanddowners, not yet ready to start keeping their hands off each other.

“I’m going back to my apartment,” I yell five minutes after Eli deposits his suitcases at the foot of the stairs. I stuff the bag ofloukoumithey brought back under my arm, and sigh when I receive no acknowledgment.

“It’s so lonely at my place,” I tell Conor later, phone wedged between my shoulder and ear as I cut tomatoes. “The AC is about to crap out. I have no plants—no dogs. I should get one. Oooh, should I get acat? Austin Pets Alive! always has the cutest—”

“Where’s Jade?”

“At her parents’ for the next two weeks.” I sigh. “It’s okay. I have plenty to do, I just miss having pets, and—”

“Go to my place.”

I stop midchop. “Do you have a secret ferret I don’t know about?”

“No.”

“Then how would that change anything? Your house is still deserted, and—”

“My AC works. And I have an alarm. It’d be safer. My bed is probably more comfortable than yours, housekeeping comes once a week, I have a large TV—”

“When’s the last time you watched a movie? I know it’s a hard question, so you have ten whole minutes to come up with a reply.”

A groan. “Maya.”

“Yeah?”

“Just go to my damn house.”

I grin. Pop a tomato slice into my mouth. “I’d love to. Should I break in? Window in the back?”

“Eli has a set of spare keys.”

“Hmm.” A beat. “You know that if I go to him and ask, he’ll realize that—”

“Yes,” Conor says.

And that’s that.

Conor arrives homein the middle of the night, the day before he was originally scheduled to.