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Killian comes back with the charger. He comes to the kitchen and plugs my phone in, then puts it down on the counter. “Since it’s a burner, I’m guessing you didn’t download anything you’re attached to?”
I shake my head. “I just used it to text you and call Hex.”
“Well, we’re in the same apartment and you certainly don’t need to be talking to him, so we’ll let this charge over here for the night.”
I crack a smile, putting my strawberries in the fridge and then returning to the counter. “Sounds good to me.”
“Are you still hungry?”
I nod, my gaze drifting to the food on the counter. “Do you think this is still good? I should have probably told you I eat mostly a vegetarian diet. I’ll usually eat meat once a week, but… I also feel terrible at the idea of the chicken dying so we can eat it, and then it just gets thrown in the trash. The meat is already here, so I’d rather we eat it.”
He glances at the assorted ingredients. “Yeah, it hasn’t been out that long. I’m sure it’s still okay.”
“Since it’s been sitting out, can you rinse it off before we cook it? I hate handling meat.”
He smirks, and belatedly I hear it.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” I mutter.
“Uh-huh.” He turns the sink on and washes his hands, then he grabs the raw meat, unbothered by its grossness.
“What do you want me to do?” I ask, eager to help.
“I got dinner. You finish unpacking.”
“Are you sure?”
He nods, reaching for the cutting board and the head of broccoli he must have been handling before he dropped it and ran to save me—again.
“I don’t usually get in this much trouble,” I tell him, feeling the need to explain myself.
He glances over at me before returning his attention to the veggies. “No? You’ve certainly stepped in your fair share of it these past couple of days.”
“I know. It’s uncharacteristic of me, truly. I lead a quiet life. I participate in maybe two virgin sacrifices a year—three max.”
He cracks a smile. “Don’t want to overdo it.”
“You can only escape so many virgin sacrifices and remain a virgin.”
“What’s up with that, anyway?” he asks. “You super religious or something?”
I shake my head, looking for some place to put the cat food. “No, just romantic, I guess. I know plenty of people do casual hookups and seem to enjoy it, but I dated someone I loved and didn’t even sleep with him, so I guess… I just held onto it for so long, it felt like it needed to be something truly special to give it up. You know?”
Nodding faintly, he says, “I guess I can see that. Why didn’t you sleep with him?”
“Hm?”
“The guy you loved.”
“Oh. Well, it was high school, and he was stupid.”
Killian laughs, taken off guard by my honesty. “That checks out.”
I crack a smile. It’s nice being able to smile over something that had me gutted as recently as last year. “At first, I didn’t want to move too fast. I wanted to wait until I was ready. But I guess I made him wait too long, and he… did something stupid.”
“Something or someone?” he asks knowingly.
I sigh. “There was this wretched girl. I don’t want to talk about it because I hated her independent of her hooking up with my boyfriend, but when mentioning that both things happened, people jump to the conclusion that I blamed her for all of it. I didn’t, he was an even bigger asshole in my eyes because he knew how much I disliked her, but he was drunk at a party, and we got into a fight. It was idiotic. The entire relationship was just… a major lapse in judgment. He treated me like shit, he had no self-control. It was a bad relationship, but it was the first time I’d ever fallen in love, and like an idiot, I let that tie me to him for longer than I should have. But once he hooked up with the other girl, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep with him. I should have known then it was too late, the relationship was over, but I hung on and let him keep stringing me along. I guess I kept hoping he would… find a way to make me get over it.” I shake my head. “I don’t know how to explain it, but obviously, that didn’t happen. He wasn’t willing to put effort into our relationship prior to cheating on me; what made me think he would after?”
