Almost Lucky

CHAPTER 16

Chapter 16

    Gemma woke up abruptly to the screaming noise of the fire alarm. She shot up in bed, still a little delirious, and left her room.

    The second she opened her bedroom door, a wave of heat and the smell of something burning hit her all at once. She quickly walked to the living room where she could hear Gunner's voice cursing.

    "God damn it," he was saying, using a towel to wave the smoke away from the detector. He quickly opened a few windows near him and tried to push it all out through those, too.

    "What's going on?" Gemma asked, startling him. He whipped around so fast that he hit his head on the cabinet, eliciting another string of curses.

    "Oh my god, Gunner..." she sighed, helping him by opening up the rest of the windows. She grabbed another towel and did her best to wave away the rest of the smoke.

    While she was busy doing that, Gunner had gotten out the step ladder and finally snapped off the detector, bringing the apartment back into silence. Gemma stopped waving the towel and went into the kitchen as he stepped down, still rubbing his forehead.

    Grabbing an ice pack from the freezer, she walked up to him and placed the pack on a very red mark. He flinched but didn't move away.

    Now that it was quiet, and Gunner was looking at her in a way that made her stomach flip, she focused her gaze on his head. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

    He didn't smile, but said in all seriousness, "I know."

    She looked at him and caught his gaze. "What were you even doing?"

    Raising his hand, he gestured to the bowls and skillet sitting on the counter that Gemma hadn't noticed. "I was going to make you breakfast. Blueberry pancakes. Obviously, I'm not the most skilled cook out there."

    He looked back down at her expectantly, and something hitched in her chest. "You made me breakfast? I thought we established that we weren't a couple, Gunner."

    He flinched at the comment, fully aware that he deserved that one and feeling all the guilt. "Can we talk about last night?"

    Gemma raised her brows, applying more pressure to his forehead. "Why? You made yourself quite clear."

    "Gemma," he said, wrapping his hand around her wrist gently. "Come on."

    "Sorry," she mumbled, turning her head away. "Look, I know what we're doing is risky, and I understand that we made deals in the beginning about not involving our emotions but-"

    "Screw the deal."

    Gemma's lifted her head and met his eyes that were looking down at her as if nothing else mattered.

    "I'm a piece of shit for talking to you that way last night," he said, bringing his hand to hold her waist. "I don't deserve you if we're being honest, but those things I said about you are true. Everything you do drives me absolutely insane, all the time. You mean more to me than I let myself show, and I'll be damned if I ruin it again. I'll do anything to make it up to you, to show you I'm really sorry."

    Gemma did her best to try and fight back a grin but couldn't help when the corners of her lips tilted up. "Anything?"

    He laughed softly. "Maybe I should've limited your range of options."

    "I was thinking the opposite, actually," she smiled, "in fact, my feet have been so sore like, all the time recently. Also, I just despise doing laundry, you know? And while we're at it, this may be a good time to tell you that I may or may not have lost the TV remote..."