“You’re funny.”
“Thanks, I guess. Though I’m not exactly signing up for a position as your personal comedian and you already made it very clear that you don’t like me, so I don’t know why it matters.”
“Maybe I was wrong about you.”
“You probably weren’t.” I started walking again.
“Why are you so serious all the time?” At his question, I lifted my gaze to his briefly. “Your brothers are all so—”
“Outgoing? Fun? Athletic?”
“Yeah.”
“I guess we were raised differently.”
“How’s that?”
“I don’t know you well enough to talk to you about that.”
“I guess you’re not so different after all.” He squinted at me momentarily before looking straight ahead.
“What do you mean?”
“You all act like you have more skeletons in your closet than anyone else.”
“Excuse me, but I have exactly zero skeletons in my closet. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m kind of going through a lot right now.” I raised an eyebrow at him. “Besides, I don’t like talking to people I don’t know about my life.”
“Why?”
“Do you tell everyone you know about your life?”
“If they ask nicely.” He winked.
My face heated. “Stop winking at me.”
He chuckled again. I bit my lip and looked away. Why did he have to be so damn handsome?
“Why are you suddenly so interested in me anyway?”
“Suddenly?” His eyes twinkled. “I was talking to you at the bar the other night.”
“Right. Before you went and got into that fight.” I looked down at his hands. His knuckles were no longer wrapped in anything, but they still looked chaffed. “This is me.” I pointed at the front door and froze, panicking when Logan walked to the door and held it open for me. “I’m not inviting you in.”
“You’re not?”
“No. Did you walk me home because you thought I was going to sleep with you?”
“I already told you, I’m not walking you home.” He shot me a look. “Did you think I would think you were going to sleep with me? Even after declaring to yourself and the world a hundred times that I don’t like you?”
“Well, you were the one who said you didn’t like me.”
“And you were the one who repeated it the entire walk over.”
“Whatever.” I crossed my arms against the cool air of the lobby and hoped the bellman wouldn’t be alerted by our argument. The last thing I needed was my parents getting a full report on what was happening in their building. “I’m not inviting you in.”
“Can’t you just thank me for opening the door for you?”
“Oh.” I stepped forward, brushing past him, blushing furiously again because what the heck was wrong with me when I was around this guy? “Thanks for opening the door for me.”
“And for walking you home.”
“You just said you weren’t walking me home.”
“Thank me anyway.”
I huffed out a breath, rolling my eyes. “You’re seriously confusing me with your boring harem.”
“Boring harem.” He was clearly trying not to smile. “I definitely don’t think you can be part of that harem.”
“You know, if you’re just going to insult me all night, I think this conversation needs to be over.” I lifted my chin up to him. He walked inside and let the door close behind him. “What are you doing? Why aren’t you leaving?”
“I’ve decided to walk you home after all.”
“Well, I’m home.” I waved a hand around the lobby.
He exhaled. “To your door, Amelia.”
My heart skipped. Stupid, idiotic instrument. Nobody ever called me Amelia. As soon as they heard my name, everyone tried to shorten it, which was why I made it easy for them by introducing myself as Amelia, but you can call me Mae, most of the time. I thought about it for a moment. What could really go wrong if he walked me to my door? I reminded myself: black belt, some self-defense, my father owned the building, and Gary the security guard would most certainly be watching the cameras. Fuck it.
“Fine.” I turned toward the elevator. Logan followed.
We rode up to my floor in silence. Awkward silence.
“You’re not much of a talker,” he said.
“Depends on who you ask. My ex said I never shut the fuck up.”
His face darkened. “Why would he say that?”
“Because I never shut the fuck up.” I cracked a smile.
“You should smile more often.”
“Why? You’d like me if I smiled?”
His mouth twitched. “You’re really stuck on that.”
“Want me to be honest? I think I feel a little offended by it.”
“Because normally men throw themselves all over you.”
“Not all of them.” I held his gaze. “Obviously.”
Neither of us spoke, but the amusement in his eyes was gone, replaced by something darker, something that tugged me and spread heat inside me. He was looking at me like someone who wanted to kiss me, and against my better judgment, I would totally let him. When the elevator doors opened and chimed, neither one of us moved. I felt like he was rooting me in place with some spell cast from his eyes. The elevator doors started to close, and Logan put out his arm to stop it. He was still looking at me, having this never-ending staring contest that only had one ending, an animalistic make-out session followed by hours of fucking.
My core clenched at the possibility of the second option. I hadn’t kissed a guy that wasn’t Travis in well over two years. I wouldn’t even know how to do it, but I wanted to so badly right now. The elevator started alarming us to either get out or stay in, I broke away from his gaze and walked out. He followed.
“Where do you live anyway?” I asked, licking my lips as I searched for my keys in my crossbody.
“Down the hall.”
“Down this hall?” I stopped walking. My gaze followed as he pointed to the apartment opposite of mine, way down the hall. I looked at him. “I haven’t seen you here before.”
“That just means that you don’t pay attention to your surroundings nearly as much as you should.”
“Have you seen me?”
“It feels like I see you everywhere.”
“I’m not sure what to make of that statement,” I said absentmindedly as something caught my eye. “What is that?”
There was something on the floor in front of my door. It looked like a flower. I swung the key ring around my finger as we walked in that direction, my eyes on the white flower—a gardenia? My mother was obsessed with them and always had them planted in our house. Beneath it, a white envelope with my name written in script on it. Before I could bend down to pick it up, Logan did it for me.
“Secret admirer?”
Nobody knew I lived here, only Celia. Logan handed me the flower and envelope. It was really thin, so thin that it could very well be empty. I stared at my name on it a moment longer and looked up at Logan.
“It’s probably from my parents.” I frowned. “Nobody knows I live here.”