Page 5 of Cupid
“I rented out your place. For a week. Five hundred bucks a night.” He paused for effect, waiting for me to respond.
It took a second for the words to sink in, but once they did, I sat straight up and felt a minor head rush. “No shit? Five hundred bucks for seven nights?”
“Yep. All you need to do is clean up a little bit, pack your bags, and head over to my place. We’ll make a cousins staycation out of it. Hit some clubs, check out the new winery that everyone’s been talking about… Everything we always say we want to do but never do.”
That sounded great. A miracle, in fact. “Dude, that’s amazing. When are they coming?”
He was quiet, and I knew that was a bad sign.
“Please don’t tell me they’re coming in four days or something crazy like that. The house is not ready. I can’t drive. So, it’s next month or later, right?” Please give me at least a month. Two would be even better. As long as it was before the tax bill was due, I was in no rush.
“You said you need the money soon…”
I sucked in a deep breath and then sighed. “When, Orion?”
I could hear him exhale before he finally had the balls to be honest with me. “His flight is landing in about an hour, so he’ll be there around five.”
An hour from…now? Today? “No. No way.” I hopped up on my feet and started pacing the small living room. “Why are you just telling me now? How long have you known about this?”
“Jude, just chill. I know you get worked up when things change, so I figured telling you at the last minute would give you the least amount of stress time. This way, all you have to do is pack a bag and leave the house. You meet me here, and we’ll have a great time. It’s going to be so much fun.”
Does he listen to me at all? “Did you not hear the part where I said I broke my freaking arm? I can’t drive a stick shift. I’ll literally die if I try to drive through the mountains without my right hand.”
“Oh, yeah.” He clicked his tongue a few times, something he did when he was thinking. “I kinda started to pregame in anticipation of you coming.”
“So you’re drunk?” I wanted to be annoyed with him, but I appreciated that he was so excited to hang out with me. We hadn’t had a cousins’ weekend in years.
“I’m not drunk, but I’ve already had a couple drinks, so I can’t go pick you up. And tomorrow, I’ve got a few client meetings during the day, but I can probably head out there on Sunday morning to get you.”
“What am I supposed to do until then? I’m stuck here. I can’t just hang out with a stranger.” I shook my head even though Orion couldn’t see it. “No. I appreciate the idea, and it would’ve been great money, but no. Tell him it’s not gonna work out.”
“He’s in the air. From Alaska. Maybe Anartica…or the north pole. I’m not exactly sure, but it’s far and there’s no way to cancel. Your guest suite is ready for a guest, right?”
“Well, technically it’s empty, but I don’t think he’s expecting to share a house with me…”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll send him an email and see if he gets it in the air. We’ll work it out. If I have to hire a rideshare to go get you tonight, I’ll do it.”
“It’s a three-hour drive each way, Orion. I’m not gonna Uber to your house. And I’m not leaving my house alone with some stranger in it.”
“Dude, you said you’d do anything to keep the house. This is best-case scenario as far as I’m concerned.”
“Who is this guy, anyway? Just some rando who responded to an ad? What if he’s a serial killer? Did you ever think of that?” I put the phone on speaker and dropped it on the table so I could use my left hand to rub my temple. I felt a headache coming on that usually meant I needed some sleep.
“He’s been vetted by the rental app. All alphas go through a strict screening before they can be placed.”
Was he out of his mind? “An alpha? You want me to stay here with a strange alpha in my house? For reals, are you trying to get me killed?”
My idiot cousin had the nerve to snicker. “Relax, Jude. He works in Santa’s Village. He’s not a murderer. I talked to him myself, and he seems like a really nice guy who just needs a vacation. Apparently, it was a last-minute work thing, and that’s why it happened so quickly. Just…let me talk to him.”
“I can’t believe you…” I hung up the phone and looked around my little house. It was pretty clean, so at least I didn’t have to do a lot of tidying up.
Although my instinct was to absolutely refuse to let the stranger into my home, a part of me really was intrigued. Besides, I needed that money. And with the two separate bedroom suites, I could lock myself in my room and not really see him at all…
But for a whole week? That seemed unrealistic.
Then again, if Orion came to pick me up on Sunday…it could possibly work out.
I went into the guest suite and checked for anything that needed to be done. My robot vacuum had been doing a pretty good job of keeping the floor clean, and since I never used the guest bathroom, it was basically brand-new. That was one of the upgrades I added with Doris’s money.
