Page 108 of The October Arrangement

I turned and stared at her while she stared back.

“Well, you are, aren’t you?” There was no getting out of this one. It was time anyway.

“I don’t know. Am I?”

“Jesus Christ,” I sighed.

“We’ve never talked about it.” She laughed.

“We do sleep in the same bed every night, Bella.”

“That doesn’t automatically make me your girlfriend.”

“You live in my home,” I said.

“Technically, I’m your temporary roommate until I can afford a place of my own.”

“You stopped being my roommate the first time I fucked you.”

“What?” Her eyes widened. “You cannot possibly think that’s how relationships are defined.”

“I don’t know how they’re defined. I’ve avoided them my entire life.”

I walked over to the couch and sat next to her. She placed her laptop on the coffee table.

“Okay. So, I’m your girlfriend?” she asked in a serious tone.

“Do you want to be?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then you’re my girlfriend.”

“You’re such a romantic, Simon Montclair.”

I sensed sarcasm in her voice. “I thought it went well,” I smirked.

“For a first-timer, you’re really good at this.”

“I try.” I winked.

She laughed and wrapped her arms around me.

“Now, can you stop working?” I asked.

“I have one more thing⁠—”

“Okay, sweetheart. Enough. You’re turning into me, and I don’t like it.”

“What?” Her brows furrowed.

“You’re turning into me, and I don’t like it.”

“No. What you said before that,” she said. “What did you just call me?”

“I thought we already established that. You’re my girlfriend.”

“No. Something else. You called me sweetheart.”