Page 22 of So I'll Know
Marion downs the rest of her drink and nods, standing as well. We walk through the bar and out the door. I lean in and kiss her cheek. “Say hi to the ball and chain for me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Sure. Have a good night, J.”
I shoulder my bag and turn the other direction, heading back to my apartment. When I get there, I stop, staring at the man on my doorstep.
Marcus sits there, nervously tapping his thigh with his pointer finger. My stomach does a weird flip.
“Marcus?” I say slowly as I approach.
His head snaps up, dark hair falling over his eyes. “Hey,” he rumbles awkwardly, climbing to his feet. I watch as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out my work phone. “You left this.”
I pat my pocket, realizing it’s not there. “Oh, thanks, it’s nice of you to bring it back. I probably didn’t need it over the weekend.” I take the phone from his outstretched hand, and this time when our fingers brush, he doesn’t flinch. I peer up at him, studying his soft brown eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“I, uhm, actually . . .” His face reddens. “You know what? It’s cool. Never mind.” He starts to move past me, but I grab his wrist.
“What’s going on, Marcus?”
He stares at where our skin connects, licks his lips, and looks up. “I have an . . . issue at my condo, and I need to lie low for a few hours.” He shifts from foot to foot. I’m pretty sure he’s lying. “Tristan has his gran and her cribbage buddies over at his place tonight, so I can’t go there, and I didn’t know who else to call. And when I called you, your phone rang in the pub, and I realized you’d left it, so then I wanted to return it to you, and . . . here I am.”
He looks all kinds of uncomfortable, and I hide a smile. “You can come in.” I fiddle with the key in the lock and step out of the way, allowing him to enter the narrow hallway. He pauses in confusion, and I realize that I should have gone first. I squeeze past him, my front brushing his back. He shivers and plasters himself against the wall so I can get by. I smirk and lead the way.
I stop and Marcus runs directly into my back. “Sorry,” he mumbles. He’s so endearingly clumsy. He stays close behind me, eyeing the hot dog mat like it might bite him.
“This place is interesting.” His voice has a snobby undertone.
“Sorry it’s not a fancy condo. Some of us have to live like peasants.”
“That’s not what I meant, Jeremy.” Marcus sighs. “Remember our talk about stereotypes? Can you give it a rest? Please?”
I nod tightly, my shoulders still tense because he totally started it with histone. I walk inside, dropping my bag by the table and my keys in the bowl. Toothless scampers into the room with a sassy meow, and Marcus takes a step back.
“What the fuck is that?”
I raise an eyebrow. “It’s a cat. You do know what a cat is, right?”
“A cat. Right. It’s dark in here. Y-you have a cat?”
“Obviously.”
He drops to one knee and sticks out his hand. T eyes him cautiously before sniffing his fingers and tentatively rubbing his head against Marcus’s outstretched palm.
“Wow, he likes you. T doesn’t like anyone.”
“T?”
“Short for Toothless.”
“He doesn’t have teeth?” Marcus looks up at me in horror, and I burst out laughing.
“You haven’t seenHow to Train Your Dragon?”
He shakes his head, his eyes softening as T starts to purr while Marcus scratches under his chin. “Is that a kids show?”
“Well, it’s a cartoon. A movie. It’s one of my favorites.”
I almost expect a snarky comment about having a favorite cartoon, but he just nods and continues to pet my traitorous cat. “It looks like my sister’s cat. She was all black too. She was named Anakin.”
“I didn’t know you have a sister.”
