Miss Pen

Epilogue

“Is something else on your mind, Aubrey?”

Damn him and his ability to read me so well!

“Nope,” I jumped to my feet, rushing the next words out of my mouth. “I was just going to the bathroom.”

Surprisingly, nothing flew to the floor from the speed of me tailing it out of that room. Passing the one in the hallway, I went straight to the master bath in Rhode’s bedroom, needing all the privacy I could get to calm my racing heart. With the lock in place, I slumped against the door, turning my head to look at my reflection. Frazzled was the face that stared back at me, and it desperately needed some cold water to calm the redness of its cheeks.

The towel was soft against my face as I blotted it free of water droplets, hanging it back on the rack I originally took it from. The edge of the sink was gripped in my hands, my knuckles turning white from the hold and mind whirling with thoughts of my near future. Because I took up her offer and made it clear that I would also be going back to school, Tiffany and I formed some sort of bond, which she still swore was not her wanting to be my friend.

I laughed at the way she made it clear the day I told her, repeating herself over and over again for ‘emphasis’ in case I got any ideas of planning lunch dates with her. The only people I knew who did that each day were Monty and Carlita, and I mentally wished her luck when Tiffany wouldn’t be there to calm him. My boss and I had a better understanding of each other, and that was going to be important if we wanted to work well together.

Those thoughts were pushed to the side as I brought myself back to the present, rolling my shoulders out and finding the strength to go back out there and prepare to tell Rhode ‘no’ again if need be. It wasn’t a big deal at first how he’d try to persuade me, and now I had to stop myself from snapping at him.

Before I jumped into living with someone, I wanted to be on my own, and I had enough money to find a little place that I could rent comfortably. If I lived with him, I just knew that he’d be the one paying the bills and call me crazy, but I wanted to experience that by myself, too. Who knew if having my own place would work out, but mistakes were meant to be made, and I didn’t want to rely on a guy just because I was with one.

Rhode’s laptop was open on his bed when I exited the bathroom. I wanted options about my living situation, and it was time I ventured out on my own. The people I called my parents were testing my patience as the days went on, and it was only a matter of time before I’d go crazy from hearing the noises coming from their room in the middle of the night. So, yeah, it was time to get the hell out of there.

The apartments in Rhode’s building and neighborhood were way out of my league, and so was the rest of the area, so I began my search in the city next to ours, instantly finding exactly what I was looking for.

Forget a dog being man’s best friend. Google easily filled that space.

It didn’t take long to pick out a few possible options, none of them being outrageously priced or in not so good areas, and I hurried along with my search before Rhode came looking for me. Knowing him, he’d probably think I got stuck in the toilet and rush to be my knight in shining armor. There’d been a lot of protecting on his end lately, and I didn’t mind. It was nice being treated like a queen, but I also wasn’t a fragile doll like he apparently thought. That was another thing to add to the list of us to talk about, and it made me wonder if he even knew how he came across.

“Crap, what was the first one I looked at?” After picking out at least seven apartments, I muttered to myself, pulling out my phone to save the websites I’d visited in my notes.

In order to retrieve it, that meant going through Rhode’s history, and I was afraid of what I’d see. He claimed to not look at anything along the lines of pornography because he ‘had me for that’, but I was still skeptical about doing it. What guy didn’t sneak a peek here and there? But on the other hand, it was an invasion of privacy and I knew better, thinking back to Boston and how I’d gone through his phone then.