“I’m sure we will.” Mark laughed. “Bye, Lily.” He gave me that cute naughty smile again. Funny how both of them were ladykillers but so different in their approaches. I just nodded and smiled back.
“Come on, let’s get your coat,” Adam said, throwing Mark one last irritable glance.
As we left and walked down the hallway toward the coat check, he placed his hand lightly on my lower back. It was a perfectly innocent gesture, but it sent a bolt of electricity coursing through me, making me jump and breathe in sharply as goose bumps formed on my arms.
“I’m sorry. My back is just sensitive,” I explained sheepishly.
“It’s that sore?” he asked, almost looking concerned.
“Not sensitive bad,” I explained, feeling even more embarrassed. “Sensitive good.” I looked away so that he wouldn’t see me blush. Why in the hell did I always blush so much with him? I wrote dirty books, for crying out loud. Nobody else made me blush.
“I see,” he said, and put his hand on my back again, this time trailing his fingers up and down my spine as we kept walking. I stared straight ahead, doing my best to hide the fact that he was getting me excited. Bastard.
He led me to his car, a nice little Saab convertible, and held the door open for me. I tried not to swallow hard or breathe too quickly as he slid into the driver’s seat next to me. It was completely ridiculous that lately his proximity would affect me so much. We had known each other since we were four! This was Adam! I could smell his cologne again and I was becoming a big fan of Giorgio Armani.
I told him my address, trying to sound calm and cool, and he pulled out into traffic. The engine purred and the dashboard looked like it belonged in a 747. The music came on and I was amused to hear Pitbull singing Mr. Right Now. It occurred to me for the first time that Adam had good taste. He was obviously financially comfortable these days too, driving a nice car and living in the best neighborhood in South Philly. Oh well, I was suffering for my art.
I snuck a few looks at him as we rode in silence for several minutes listening to music. He had grown up from being one of the cutest boys in my class, to being devastatingly handsome. His hair was such a dark brown it was almost black, and even though it was cut short, it had a slight curl to it. He had eyes like warm chocolate and his dark lashes and eyebrows showcased them perfectly. I was especially fascinated with that light stubble he always seemed to have on his chin. I imagined that it appeared five minutes after he shaved. I realized then that I had been subconsciously rubbing my cheek, and I clutched onto my seat. It didn’t make any sense that I could feel such a strong physical desire for someone who aggravated the hell out of me, but I had given up on trying to make sense of it.
“Why didn’t you just move in with Jessica when Gabrielle and Braden got married?” he asked finally, after we had been riding in silence for several minutes.
“Her lease is up at the end of the month and she’s moving in with Cameron.”
“Why don’t you have a boyfriend to move in with? You’re good-looking.” I noted vaguely that he had just complimented me, possibly for the first time ever.
“Thanks, but I’m not going to date somebody just for a place to live. I want to be with someone who makes me feel something,” I glanced over at him. I was just about to ask him why he cared when we pulled on to my block.
“Which building is yours?”
“Up there on the right.” I pointed and reached down to get my purse off the floor.
“Do your parents know you’re living here?” he asked. I realized the question made sense. We had grown up together and he knew that my parents could afford to help me out.
“They figure that if I want to follow some pipe dream of being an author, I should finance it myself.” I tried not to sound too bitter, but I’m not sure I succeeded.
“I see,” he replied, and thankfully let it go. He parked and shut off the engine.
I looked up and down the sidewalk nervously. I knew there had been some robberies in the area recently. I could make it to my building’s outer entrance from here in about five seconds. Getting it open might take five minutes, though, unfortunately. It was an old apartment building and the lock on the front door was sticking lately.
“You can just drop me off,” I said distractedly, preparing to make the door dash.
“Are you nuts?” He was obviously preparing to walk me in, and as images of Adam in my bed floated through my mind, it occurred to me that I probably was.
Chapter Three
I looked around quickly, opened the door, and hopped out. Adam was beside me in a second. I tried to open the front door with my key, but as usual, it stuck and I had to jiggle it while we stood out on the sidewalk like sitting ducks. At that moment, I was grateful he had stayed with me. Finally, the lock clicked and we made it into the entry. I got my key for the inner door lock ready, but before I could insert it, R. Nardo, the guy who lived in the apartment next to me, came bursting through, nearly hitting me in the face with it. He rushed past and out the front door without a backward glance, let alone an “excuse me.”
“You’ll have to tell me what charm school you went to,” I called after him.
“Don’t get mouthy with the locals, Lilith. You’ll wind up getting capped and then who’s going to keep me amused?”
A guy in a ripped green army jacket and knit watch cap came down the stairs. Like most of my neighbors, I knew his initial and last name from his mailbox, M. Kazinski, but I also knew that people called him ‘Scratch’ for some reason. At least I had heard people out on the sidewalk call him that. I was pretty sure that I didn’t want to know why. He looked up, and seeing Adam and me, put his head back down and pushed past us without a word.
The elevator was broken again, as evidenced by the seemingly permanent ‘Out of Order’ sign. At least the four flights of stairs kept me in shape. Unfortunately, a light was burned out in the stairwell, making it pretty creepy. We had just gotten to the second landing when another figure came flying around the corner. This time it was the guy who lived across the hall from me.
My building was filled with weird people, but U. Hu was probably one of the weirdest. He was a short Asian man of indeterminate age. He was always dressed head to toe in black and he was always lurking somewhere or darting around. I often saw him moving large packages and boxes in and out of his apartment late at night. He sailed down the steps past us, nearly knocking me over in the process. Adam grabbed me in the nick of time.