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“Do you honestly think that I’d be comfortable with you staying here if I had a girlfriend?” Before I could say anything, he added, “Even if it is just platonic, I’d never put any woman in an uncomfortable position like that. Though my reasons for you staying here are still valid, I would have found another solution to your predicament.” He shrugged. “Or I would just stay with my girlfriend while you stayed here, if that were the case.”
The more we spoke, the more layers to Cutter Moore I got to see. It was rumored that his brother had a steady friends-with-benefits, but I’d never heard anything about Cutter and his love life. Whenever he attended any work functions or had any social engagements, he went alone, and I’d never been brave enough to question him about that.
“So, no girlfriend,” I said, just trying to fill the silence.
“Nope,” he remarked. “No girlfriend.”
Thirty minutes later, Cutter was serving me the most unhealthiest hamburger that I’d ever seen, and I didn’t say anything as I noticed how he’d only put my favorite condiments on it. He’d also made some fries, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think that he used to work in a restaurant or something. Dinner looked like one of those huge meals that you saw at Chili’s or Applebee’s.
“I’m not going to be able to eat all of this, Cutter,” I warned him.
“That’s fine,” he said as he began making his plate. “We can reheat whatever’s left over tomorrow for lunch.”
My blue eyes slid his way, surprised once again. “You eat leftovers?”
“Sheridan hadn’t fucked around when she’d taken it upon herself to try to turn us into decent human beings,” he chuckled. “So, yeah, I eat leftovers.”
Not knowing what to say to that, I said, “You know, I’m going to do the dishes, right?”
“Over my dead body.”
“Cutter-”
“You’ve got a lot on your plate right now, no pun intended,” he said, interrupting me as he walked around with his plate to sit next to me. “Just enjoy it, Merritt. Life will get hard again soon enough.”
“Well, when you put it that way…”
Cutter laughed, and then we ate our dinner in silence, and it was scary how comfortable I felt with this version of Cutter Moore. A girl could get used to this, but then again, if he was so damn great, why was he still single when he shouldn’t be?
Chapter 7
Cutter~
Sitting through dinner with Merritt had been absolute torture, but doing the dishes with her had been a special kind of agony. Even though I’d done my best to keep her from helping, she had insisted, and I’d decided to pick my battles since holding her hostage had been taken off the table.
For now, at least.
At any rate, after dinner, Merritt had immediately gotten on her laptop to search for apartments. As promised, I’d done the same, searching Moore properties for anything that might be available. While we did have a few available apartments and a couple of condos, they’d been quite a distance from the offices, and the commute would be too much for the hours that Merritt worked. Yeah, I could always lighten her workload, but if I did that, then Merritt would know that I was going easy on her, and she wasn’t the type of woman to appreciate that. A break, yes. A pity-party, no.
“You know, I know that it’s supposed to be a sign of trust and love when couples combine their money, but I’m so glad that Steven and I hadn’t done that,” she announced out of nowhere. “If we’d gone all in, then I’d be stuck trying to separate our money, trying to figure out what I can realistically afford.”
“Not all couples merge their finances,” I pointed out. “With women finally making decent money for themselves these days, lots of couples split the finances evenly.”
“That’s what Steven and I did,” she said as she looked up from her laptop. “He paid the mortgage on the condo, which made sense since it was his to begin with, and I paid all the utilities.”
I tried not to wince at that. Seeing as how I was her boss, I knew exactly what Merritt made a year, plus what she could afford in the way of living expenses, and I still wouldn’t allow her to contribute to the bills if we lived together. While I was all about female independence, that had nothing to do with the fact that my brother had raised us to believe that the men paid for everything if they could, period. Sheridan’s money was her own, and as far as I knew, it was just collecting interest in her bank accounts.
“Well, since I’ve never lived with a woman before, I can’t really speak on that, except to say that whenever I do end up living with someone, she can do whatever she wants with her money, but she won’t be paying any bills with it.”
Merritt regarded me sternly. “That’s a very chauvinistic point of view, Cutter.”
“There’s nothing wrong with a man wanting to take care of the woman that he loves,” I countered. “Women should be taken care of.”
“I guess it depends on the couple,” she said, giving a little.
“It depends on the woman,” I corrected.
“Meaning?”
