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Kelli would have thought such an existence would bore her by now, but the truth was, she loved it. Loved not eating and sleeping alone. Loved having someone to bitch about her day with. Loved listening to him gripe and groan about his.
“Two more days. Just two more days,” she said, picking up the plate of sesame chicken he’d dished out for her. “And then I’m free for two whole weeks.”
“Yeah. You are.” Colm started eating his Mongolian beef, falling uncharacteristically quiet. Typically, he was talking her ear off about work or his current case or sharing the latest in Caitlyn’s morning sickness saga. The poor woman couldn’t hold anything down until early afternoon. According to Colm, his cousin had discovered a completely new shade of green whenever he described Caitlyn’s complexion just before her mad dash to the office bathroom.
But today…nothing.
“You okay?” she asked, putting her plate down when it became obvious something was bothering him. He wasn’t looking at her, but he wasn’t watching TV either. Instead, he seemed very deep in thought.
Colm sighed. “What are we doing, Kell?”
“Eating Chinese?”
He gave her a “really?” look that confused her even more than his question.
“What do you mean?”
“What is this? Between us?”
Shit. She was suddenly sorry she’d asked. It was easy to just roll with whatever this was as long as they didn’t discuss it, or define it.
She’d sworn off men and dating back in October, and at the time, she’d meant that vow with every fiber of her being. She was tired of trying to find Mr. Right in a sea of Mr. Mehs.
Then Halloween.
Then the blackout.
Then Colm.
Since then, she’d switched onto autopilot, riding this wave as long as she could, even though she knew that eventually it would crash into the shore.
Looked like they’d just faceplanted into the sand.
“Colm…I don’t.” She swallowed heavily, not wanting to say the rest. She cleared her throat and dug deep for them. “I don’t think there can be an us.”
“I beg to differ.”
Colm was a lawyer. Which meant this conversation wasn’t going to end easily. And, of course, he’d hit her with this on a day when she was weary straight to the bone after a freaking exhausting day at work.
“Do we really have to talk about this now?”
“Yeah. We do. Because we’re out of time. Holiday break is here.”
She blinked, trying to figure out why he’d drawn that line in the sand…
And then she realized he hadn’t. She had. Her plans with Robbie had.
Although God only knew if those were still in effect. She didn’t have a clue if things between him and Brooke had stuck. If they had…well, she knew from her point of view, she wouldn’t like the idea of her new boyfriend donating sperm to an ex, no matter how innocent and platonic it was.
“I told you before this started that I was taking myself off the market.”
“We’re dating, Kelli.”
“No, we’re not. We’re having sex.” She was the queen of contrary, and she knew it. She wasn’t proud of it at the moment, but years of bickering with Colm had her working on instinct, used to saying white every single time he said black, right or not.
Colm rolled his eyes. “I’ve spent every night here for the last two weeks. I have two suits hanging in your closet, a toothbrush in your bathroom, at least three pairs of dirty socks strewn around this living room floor, and my beer is in your fridge. We are dating.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You insidious bastard.” There was no heat behind her words. In fact, her tone probably told him she knew exactly what they were doing. She just didn’t want to admit it.
