Page 75 of The Write Stuff

It wasn’t going well. We’d spent every night together, in my apartment so far, because I was closer to the action in the downtown area, and neither of us seemed to care that we were probably being intolerable with the overt affection and flirting. Thankfully, Lucy worked nights mostly, so we didn’t have to deal with her disdainful looks. We were safely locked in my room before Lucy got home. That didn’t stop her from making obnoxious sex noises outside the door — apparently that was supposed to be us — but she was easy enough to ignore.

This was her first day off since she’d just let herself into my bedroom with Hayley after that first night. It was going to be a test for all of us.

“We’re not doing anything,” I replied, looking up from where I was tucked in tightly at Huxley’s side. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to keep from throwing up my breakfast because you two are so disgusting,” Lucy replied, her glare sliding toward Huxley.

“You’ll live,” Huxley replied, giving her a smarmy smirk.

Lucy responded by pulling a Kit Kat out of her pocket and slowly opening it. She looked like her six-year-old self as she scowled at him.

Huxley’s lips swished, suggesting he was more amused than bothered. “What are you doing today?” he asked with forced politeness. “Heading out, I’m sure.”

“Oh, you just wish I was heading out,” Lucy fired back. “If I’m here, I’ll ruin your fun. By the way, you guys spend way too much time in bed. If you’re not careful, you’re going to turn into sex fiends.”

I practically choked on the iced tea I’d reached for when the Kit Kat made an appearance. “We’re not sex fiends,” I sputtered.

“How much time have you guys actually spent out of your bedroom in the last four days?” Lucy challenged. “I’ll wait while you add it up.” She bit into one of the Kit Kat pieces and methodically chewed.

I tried to think about where we’d gone the past few days, what we’d done. The instances were shockingly rare, however. We’d gone out for a few meals. We’d walked around the block a few times because we’d needed some fresh air, mostly when my bedding was in the wash. Other than that, there wasn’t much to focus on. We’d even tried writing in my bed, although that hadn’t gone very well. We had agreed that we were going to have to return to the coffee shop if we wanted to get real work done. We’d also agreed that it didn’t have to happen today.

“Um …” I slid my eyes to Huxley, but he didn’t look remotely bothered.

“We’re actually deciding what we want to do with our afternoon,” he said to Lucy as she started in on the second section of the candy bar. She was obviously trying to irritate him, and despite his best efforts, it appeared to be working. “We’re picking an adventure for the afternoon.” He held up one of the brochures.

Rather than leave, which was what I was hoping she would do, Lucy flopped down in the recliner across from the couch we were cuddling on. “And what adventures are you considering?”

She wasn’t really interested — she’d never shown interest in what I was doing — but she’d clearly figured out that her presence irritated Huxley and was going to ride that train to gold country.

“For today, we’re considering one of the dolphin tours,” he replied.

Lucy's expression shifted. “Dolphin tours? I didn’t know they had dolphin tours here.”

“I was actually surprised, too,” I admitted. “I didn’t think dolphins would swim in a river. I had to look it up.”

Huxley gave me a sidelong look. “You looked it up?”

“She looks everything up,” Lucy replied with little sister chagrin. “She’s boring that way.”

“She is not boring.” Huxley snuggled me in tighter at his side. “She’s the exact opposite of boring.”

“Oh, you guys have that sex glow thing everybody gets at the beginning of a relationship.” Lucy wrinkled her nose. “I’m totally going to throw up.”

Huxley didn’t miss a beat when responding. “The bathroom is that way.” He pointed toward the hallway.

“Yeah, speaking of, that’s my bathroom,” Lucy said. “You have your own bathroom in your bedroom, Wylie. You shouldn’t be using my bathroom.”

“This whole apartment is mine, so I’m going to use whatever bathroom I want,” I shot back. “Your bathroom is also the living room bathroom.”

“I’m your roommate,” Lucy argued. “That means I should have my own bathroom. I pay half the rent, right?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I took the dolphin tour brochure from Huxley. “This is the winner. I’ll tell you all about how the bottlenose dolphins like the river because there are a lot of food sources and protected habitat for breeding grounds during our walk over.”

“That sounds fascinating,” he teased.

“Hey, I want to talk about the bathroom situation,” Lucy interjected in her brattiest voice. “This is a serious situation. I pay half the rent. That means I should get my own bathroom.” She paused a beat, and I knew she wasn’t done. “I was also thinking we should switch off on the master bedroom, just to make it fair.”

I froze. She couldn’t be serious. Oh, who was I kidding? She’d been plotting this for weeks, and I just hadn’t realized it. “That’s not going to happen,” I said in a low voice.