Andrew
Tessa didn’t get her beauty sleep.
I didn’t get much either, but I got a little. Enough for me. I was up early the next morning, drinking my coffee as the sun rose high and started baking the street outside. I turned on the monitor showing the house across the street just as Tessa came out her front door.
She had on a loose, flowing top, practically a piece of cotton. Peeking from the wide neck I could see the straps of a bikini tied at the back of her neck. She wore shorts and flip-flops, no makeup, her hair messy. She walked slowly out of her front door, opened her car, fished in the front seat for something. Then she walked back to her door.
She looked fucking exhausted. Even on the monitor I could see it, the way her walk didn’t have any bounce to it. She ran a hand through her hair in a tired gesture and disappeared back into the house.
I picked up my phone. Hesitated.
This is a bad idea.
It was creepy, for one thing. It was weird enough that I’d called her last night when I’d seen her light on—I shouldn’t even have been looking. Now I was looking again.
But that wasn’t the only reason. It was just a bad idea. Very, very bad.
This isn’t going to work out.
She isn’t interested in you, even as a friend. No one is.
You’re going to get hurt.
I held the phone in my hand and I closed my eyes.
Do it.
Don’t do it.
Try something. Do it.
No. Don’t.
Jesus, everything was so fucking hard.
Tessa had been friendly to me. Even when I was a dick to her, she’d been friendly. Maybe I could be friendly in return for once in my life. Just… nice. Like a normal person.
You’re not a normal person.
“No, but I can pretend to be one,” I said out loud, my voice a rasp in the quiet. Then I took a breath and dialed her number.
She answered, her voice flat. “Hey, Andrew.”
“Did you get any sleep?” I asked her, as if I didn’t know.
Tessa sighed. “No. The heat is so awful and they say it isn’t going to break soon. It’s hitting me today, you know? The air conditioner has been broken since I got here, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep.”
She’d moved in what, a week ago? No wonder she was so tired. “What time is your audition?” I asked her.
“Four. Then I have an interview for a bartending job at six.”
I glanced at the clock. “It’s only eight right now.”
“I know. It’s early, but I wasn’t sleeping so I thought I might as well get up, and—”
“If you come here, you can get a few hours before you have to go to your audition.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
I closed my eyes. Nice job, fuckface. Here it comes.
Then Tessa’s voice came over the line. “Really? You’d let me do that?”
She sounded like she was about to cry. “I think lack of sleep has made you emotional, but yes. My air conditioning works fine.”
“You have a spare bedroom?”
“No. I have one bedroom, but since it’s morning I’m not using it right now. I have light-blocking shades and it’s cool. I don’t have anyone coming today so it’ll be quiet. I’ll just be working at my computer. You could probably get six, seven hours. It makes no difference to me.”
“Oh my God,” she said. “Please, please don’t change your mind. Give me ten minutes. I’ll be right there.”
“Tessa?”
She hung up.
Ten minutes later she appeared on my front door security camera, a bag over her shoulder. She was waving, tired but excited. I took another breath and pressed the code to let her in.
I heard the front door open and close, and her flip-flops coming down the short hall. Then she came into the living room. In the flesh. Wearing the bikini top, the loose shirt, the shorts. Her legs were slim and perfect. Her bobbed hair was a spiky, sweaty mess. She had no makeup on, and she’d left off the giant sunglasses. Her eyes were soft blue, her lashes dark. Her cheeks were flushed with heat and exhaustion. She was so fucking gorgeous I could hardly breathe.
We stared at each other in silence for a minute. I realized she was looking at me the same way I was looking at her—up and down, taking in every detail. Then she smiled—a real smile, one with actual happiness in it.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” I replied.
Her gaze wandered the room. This used to be a living room once, but I’d transformed it. On one side was my sofa and chair, but on the other I’d put in my workstation, including a small bank of monitors, my drawing tablet and pen, and two keyboards. The whole thing looked high-tech, and her eyes widened a little. Then she looked back at me, sitting in my chair. I was wearing black sweatpants and a gray T-shirt and I hadn’t shaved this morning, though I had showered. I had socks on my feet. I wondered what she saw when she looked at me.
She put her bag down. “I could kiss you,” she said.
“No,” I said.
She sighed. “Can I at least thank you?”
“In a non-physical way, I suppose.” I gestured to myself. “I realize this is spectacular and hard to resist, but I ask that you try.”
Her eyes widened. “It is spectacular,” she said, and I couldn’t tell if she was playing along with the joke or not. She lowered herself and sat on the sofa. “It’s nice in here. I like it.”
“It’s a man cave, and you don’t have to be sociable. You can just go to sleep if you want.”
“It is sort of a man cave.” She looked around and sniffed a little, as if she could smell testosterone. “I’ve spent the last week in my grandma’s old-lady cave, though, so I find it refreshing.”
“Fair enough. Does she have poufy curtains?”
“Yes, flowered. And a china cabinet with china she never used.”
“I feel for you, then. Enjoy my tech gadgets and dirty socks.”
I didn’t have dirty socks, actually. I did my laundry, and I had cleaners who regularly cleaned my house. But still.
Tessa pointed at my workstation. “What do you do there?”
I ticked off on my fingers. “Code things. Draw comics. Hack websites when I’m bored. Monitor my security system. Watch porn.”
She politely raised her eyebrows. “Oh, really? Sounds lovely.”
“It is.”
“I’ve always wanted to meet my dream man.”
“Of course you have. I’ll consider it, but you’ll have to compete with the other women.”
She looked around pointedly. “What other women?”
“If I told you, the competition wouldn’t be fair, would it?”
She grinned at me. A goofy grin, like she was giddy. “Right.”
I let her stare at me for another minute, punchy with exhaustion, and then I raised my eyebrows. “Well? Are you going to go sleep in my bedroom or not?”
Tessa closed her eyes. “I might just nap on this sofa, I’m so tired.”
“Please don’t.” I couldn’t watch her sleep, those long legs and that bikini top. “Go in the bedroom and close the door so I don’t hear you snore.”
“But I feel rude. I’ve barely even said hello.”
“We’ve talked plenty, and I told you not to be sociable. I sure as hell am not.” I paused, then said more sincerely, “Tessa, go sleep. We can talk when you wake up. The bedroom is down the hall.”
She rubbed her face. “Okay.” She stood up and left the room. I heard my bedroom door close softly behind her.
She was probably asleep in minutes. She had no idea I sat there for a long while after she left, smelling the remains of her scent in the air. Thinking about her in my bed. And wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into.