Page 97 of Rival Season
“Make thattwohot new tenants,” Hazel says, waggling her eyebrows at me.
“Please don’t put yourself in the same category of hotness as a tarantula, Bubbles.” I try not to gag as I look at Fluffy, sitting in her terrarium on the kitchen counter and staring right at me with her multiple creepy black eyes. “I still can’t believe you’re bringing that thing with you.”
“She had nowhere else to go, what was I meant to do, surrender her to an animal shelter?”
“Or you could have just, like, flushed her down the toilet or something,” I reply, but I’m laughing.
As it turns out, Chadwick’s aunt and uncle decided a while back that they wanted to relocate to Tokyo permanently, but hadn’t put their place on the market yet because they didn’t want to leave Hazel stranded…and they didn’t know what they’d do with Fluffy. So, Hazel came to the rescue and adopted the disgusting thing. Said she’d grown fond of it. That’s Hazel—she’s able to look past appearances and see the best in others.
Even spiders, apparently.
“Knock, knock!” The door to 2B opens and Fisher strides in wearing a sleeveless muscle shirt and a huge grin. Noah and Ally are both behind him. “The big guns have finally arrived.”
Ally rolls her eyes with a laugh as she steps around Fisher and moves to Hazel, pulling her into a side hug with one arm and holding up a huge paper grocery bag with the other. “Noah and Fishy are the extra muscle, I’m on moral support duty. I made a great Spotify moving day playlist and brought lots of snacks to fuel us.”
Hazel glances into the bag and laughs. “Do twenty bags of Nerds Gummy Clusters really count as fuel?”
“Yes,” me, Fisher, and Ally all say in unison. Noah shakes his head like he can’t believe he’s friends with us and Hazel laughs, her cheeks pink and glowing.
“Seriously, you guys, thank you all for taking up your Saturday to help me,” she says with a big grin.
Noah frowns, looking almost confused. “What else would we do today? Sit on our asses at home and let you and Penn do all this alone?”
“Downsby’s right,” Fisher adds. “You might be dating Matthews, Hazel…but you get all of us as part of the package deal.”
Hazel flushes. “You guys are the best.”
Ally bumps her hip against Hazel’s. “That’s what friends are for.”
Ally connects her phone to a portable speaker and cranks some feel-good pop music, and the five of us get to work. Us guys lug the heavy boxes out into the elevator while Hazel works on packing up the bathroom and Ally starts cleaning.
As I work up a sweat—and an appetite—I constantly sneak glances at Hazel. Something else also builds inside of me: a feeling of complete and total contentment. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than in this moment, with these people.
Five sweaty hours later, everything is moved into Hazel’s new apartment across the street.
“We did it!” Hazel cheers when I carry the last box into her new place. The apartment is shoebox-sized—which is made all the more obvious with three hockey players currently crammed into the tiny kitchen—but it’s cozy and Hazel looks so damn happy, a beaming smile on her face as she spins in a circle to take in her new surroundings. “Thanks again, everyone. Pizza is on me tonight.”
Noah sinks down onto a moving box, using it as a makeshift chair and sliding his phone out of his pocket. Ally sits on his lap with a sigh.
“Perfect. Let’s order, I’m starving,” Noah says.
Ally grabs for Noah’s phone. “Noooo, let me do it! I need to know the pizza will arrive loaded with pepperoni and sausage…not just veggies.”
Fisher chuckles at her comment as he opens the fridge. “I think this occasion calls for a housewarming toast!”
I’m expecting him to produce a bottle of champagne, but he smirks as he pulls out a bottle of Patron and a couple of limes instead. He raises his brows at Hazel. “You want Matthews to christen your new apartment with another body shot?”
Hazel nods to the spider in the corner. “Not in front of Fluffy, we don’t want to ruin her innocence.”
I grin deviously as I reach out and pull Hazel into my arms, snaking them around her stomach before lowering my mouth to her neck. I press a kiss to her pulse point, reveling in her resulting shiver. “How about we just do regular shots for now and christen the apartment later?” I ask, my voice coming out like gravel.
The warmth of Hazel’s smile radiates through me. “I like the sound of that.”
Fisher starts rummaging through the first box he sees. “Hazel, where did you pack your shot glasses?”
“Um, I don’t own shot glasses.”
Fisher stares at her like she just spoke in Klingon or something and I crack up laughing as he looks in the box again. He shrugs, removing five coffee mugs then lining them up on the counter to fill with tequila.
