“Go to sleep,” he says.
13
Rhys
The 8:00 a.m. breakfast knock comeswaytoo soon. Because of course Eden was right; the pullout is wretched, and I can’t actually sleep a whole night in it. At some point while Eden is quietly snoring away, I roll myself between two halves of the blanket and sleep the rest of the night on my back on the floor. It’s carpeted, but ouch. And still better than the pullout mattress.
I answer the door, accept the breakfast plates, and tip Snapback Guy—whose name is actually Joe.
“Thank you for saving our asses last night,” I tell him. “We really needed a place to stay, and this was perfect.”
He waves off my thanks. “My aunt’s still on track to be back tonight, and she can look at the car first thing tomorrow.”
“No chance anyone around here might be able to look at it today?”
“Give it a go,” he says. “Call around. But I don’t know of anyone within an hour of here who works Sundays. If you find someone, I’ll tow you there.”
“Thanks, man. That’s awesome.”
He waves that off, too.
“I’ll look into rental-car options, too. Any chance you’d be interested in returning mine once it’s functional?”
He gives me a look I recognize as an inquiry about price. “Depends on how far you have to drive it,” I say, “but I’ll pay twice what you could make doing anything else with your time, for as long as it takes to get there and back. And obviously anything else, like gas, snacks.”
He grins. “Sounds like a sweet gig. You’re on. Just let me know where it needs to get back to.”
When he leaves, I check out the plates he’s left us. Breakfast is hot: pancakes, bacon, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, fruit—plus coffee and OJ. Eden’s still snoring, and I don’t know if I should wake her for hot food or let her sleep, but while I’m trying to decide, she stirs and opens her eyes.
“That smellsamazing,” she says.
“Do you want it in bed?”
Her eyes get huge. “Do you know what’s weird? I don’t think I’ve ever eaten breakfast in bed.”
I frown. That’s not okay. “In case you were still in any doubt, you’ve been with assholes.”
“Not gonna argue withthat,” she says.
“You know my feelings about serious relationships, but if I wereeverto allow myself to be in one—” I pause, because I’m wondering whether to sayagain,to bring up Fay and my one failed long-term attempt at lifelong monogamy. I decide against it. “I’d definitely bring her breakfast in bed.”
“Ah. You do have a romantic bone in your body. I was wondering.”
“Does it count as a romantic bone if it’s purely hypothetical? If I were foolish enough to get myself in a relationship, which I would never do,thenI would do a thing? I don’t think that’s romantic. It’s more just…analytical. The correct course of action in scenario X is Y.”
“Uh-huh,” she says, pressing her lips together like she’s trying not to laugh.
We sit on opposite ends of the couch and eat our breakfasts. It feels like ten years since dinner last night, despite all the junk food we chowed in the car, and I’m ravenous. I plow through the entire plate of food, and then I look over and she’s done the same. She looks at my plate, and then we look at each other and laugh.
“That was really fucking good,” I say, and she says, “God, it so was.”
“At home I eat an egg-white omelet with veggies and a bowl of steel-cut oats with raisins and nuts,” I confess.
“Of course you do.”
“And you eat a bag of Doritos and a bag of peanut butter M&M’s.”
Eden rolls her eyes at me. “I actually have granola with milk—thank you very much.”
