I guess my new trick would have to wait. “What’s wrong, Marie?”
“The house owner just called me this morning.”
“And?” They routinely checked on the house so that wasn’t surprising.
“Apparently, they’re redoing the carpets and putting in hardwood floors.”
“Great!” I’ve always wanted to have hardwood floors in the house. It made everything look more elegant.
“No, that’s not great.” Marie put one hand on her hip. “That means we have to live somewhere else for a whole week.”
“Oh…” I hadn’t foreseen that problem.
“Stacy doesn’t have room because her mom is coming to visit, and I don’t want to infringe on anyone else. So I think I’m going to stay with Anthony.”
“But I thought you were going to dump him?”
“Well, I need somewhere to live for another week,” she snapped.
“That’s fair…”
“Hey, he’ll get laid for another week. I doubt he minds. Where are you going to go?”
“Uh…” I hadn’t thought about that. I searched my mind for someone who wouldn’t have a problem loaning me their couch for a week.
“Am I interrupting anything?” Hawke’s deep voice came from behind the counter.
“Oh, hi.” I clutched my chest in surprise. I didn’t even hear the bell ring overhead.
“Oh, hi, to you too,” he said sarcastically. There was a smirk on his lips so I knew he was teasing me.
Marie eyed both of us before she rolled her eyes. She made it abundantly clear how she felt about Hawke. She didn’t understand how we could go from lovers to friends so easily. It was really difficult to explain so I stopped trying. “I need to clock in.” She walked through the curtain and disappeared.
I turned to Hawke. “The usual?”
“You know me so well.”
I filled the coffee cup then handed it to him.
“So…everything okay?” He sipped his coffee.
“Oh yeah. Everything is fine.” Hawke slept in my bed the other night, but it wasn’t weird at all, surprisingly. Now that I knew he would only be a friend, I stopped hoping for something more. But it did frighten me how natural it felt. It didn’t feel uncomfortable to sleep beside him. I didn’t have a single guy friend I could do that with. “Our landlord is kicking us out for a week because they are redoing the floors. Now Marie and I need to crash somewhere.”
“Where are you staying?”
“Not sure. I need to figure that out.” I rubbed my chin as I brainstormed.
“Axel?”
“No.” I released an uncontrollable laugh. “God, no. I’d only go there if I didn’t have any other choice.”
“A girlfriend?”
“I have a few, but they’re already pretty crowded with their other roommates…” There was a solution to my problem but I just had to find it.
“Who’s Marie staying with?”
“A guy she’s seeing.”
He took another drink of his coffee.
“I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I always do.”
“Why don’t you stay with me?”
Did he just invite me to crash at his place? “Seriously?”
“Why not?” he asked. “I’m hardly there anyway because I work all the time. It only has one bedroom but you can have it. I can sleep on the couch.”
“Uh…” That was nice of him to offer but I wasn’t expecting it. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Let me know.” He left cash on the counter then walked away with his coffee. He sat down in a booth then began to work on his laptop.
Marie came out a moment later. “Anthony just texted me and said I could stay with him. He said you can have the couch if you want.”
Crashing at Marie’s soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend’s house didn’t sound fine. “Hawke just offered to let me stay with him. I think I’ll do that.”
“Stay with Hawke?” she asked incredulously. “For a week?”
“What’s the big deal?”
“Uh…you almost slept with him.” She snapped her fingers in my face like I needed to wake up. “That’s a pretty big deal.”
“That was almost two months ago. Now we’re just friends.”
She rubbed her temple like she had a headache. “How can two people go from practically ripping each other’s clothes off to being just friends?”
It didn’t make sense to me either. But it just worked with Hawke and I. “I can’t explain…”
“Well, try.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“You wouldn’t understand.” I couldn’t believe I was about to say any of this out loud.
“You’re going to tell me anyway.”
“Hawke and I…I told you we had a connection the moment we met.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Well, that connection is still there. It’s like…whether he’s a boyfriend or a friend, he needs to be in my life. I can’t explain it better than that. I just…need him. And I’m pretty sure he needs me too. I feel like he’s meant to be a part of me in some capacity.”
Marie looked even more confused.
“I know it sounds crazy but…I feel like our paths were meant to cross.”
“Because…?”
“It’s one of those things that you just know. Trust me on this.”
“You think this guy is your soul mate or something?”
“No, that’s not what I said.”