Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“Yeah.” It was a very brief response.
Theo, who was also intent on the game, added a few extra words. “We all did.”
“Good.” I watched them a little while longer. I had the feeling that I could’ve pulled my shirt over my head and stood there in my bra, and they wouldn’t have noticed.
But then Grant looked up from the game and gave me a smile, his eyes sweeping down to my feet and back up again. Okay, maybe he would’ve noticed.
“Bennett was looking for you,” he said.
Somehow, that didn’t surprise me. “Did he forget that I have another job in the morning?”
“Probably.” Grant’s attention returned to the game, but Theo looked up.
“How many jobs do you have?”
“Lots.” That was, if you counted school as a job. It sure took up enough time, even with just one class this summer. There was a lot of reading to do, some papers to write, and I perpetually felt like I was struggling to keep up.
“Hey, can you get me a beer?” Grant asked.
“We can pause the game,” Theo said before I could react.
“But we’ve almost got them.” Grant jerked his chin toward the gigantic screen.
I hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t a big deal, grabbing a beer from the fridge. Then again, as Theo said, he could’ve paused the game to get it himself. I frowned, trying to think quickly. It kind of felt like if I started waiting on them, that might become a regular part of the job, and I already didn’t know how I was going to handle keeping this huge place clean plus cooking for a half dozen men every night.
“Just pause the game,” Ian said, but he made no move to do so himself. He stared at the screen as if trying to memorize it, and the tip of his tongue was between his teeth again.
Grant looked up long enough to give me a quick wink. “If I quit now, these guys will die, because they suck.”
Theo didn’t look over, but he nodded. “We do. It’s almost like there are more important things in life than playing video games.”
“Let’s just finish this level,” Grant urged, and the machine gun noises from the screen intensified. “Before Ian says he has to go study.”
“I do have to go study,” Ian said. “Someday when a patient asks me why I botched his diagnosis, he’s not going to be impressed when I tell him that we unlocked level 42 and gained access to the underground tunnels.”
I laughed, and he took a brief glance up at me. “You’re premed?” I asked him.
“Yep.”
Fetching a drink for a future doctor seemed like a more worthy cause than fetching one so that they could continue to shoot at fake people on the screen. I gave a small sigh of defeat. “Does anyone else want anything to drink?”
I got two head shakes and a fist pump from Grant.
In the kitchen, I grabbed the first bottle I saw in the fridge before remembering that Grant had a special kind he liked. I examined the white label. There were no words in English.
I searched several drawers to find a bottle opener, and then had to laugh when I noticed that there was quite the collection of magnetized ones on the side of the fridge. It figured.
Grant barely noticed when I set the beer down on the coffee table in front of him and then escaped up to my room. I’d barely set my book bag down on the desk before there was a knock on the door.
It wasn’t much of a surprise to find Bennett there.
“I need your number,” he said in lieu of a greeting.
“Why?” I said instantly. On the one hand, it wasn’t surprising for an employer to ask for your phone number, but when a big guy like him loomed over you and demanded anything, it was disconcerting.
“Because I was looking for you this morning and I couldn’t find you.”
“I was working.”
“Unless your other job requires a vow of silence, that wouldn’t preclude me from texting you.” He leveled a look at me. His blue eyes were colder than Grant’s. “Or should I just get a bell to ring every time I have a task for you?”
Nope, I definitely didn’t want that. I gave him my number and he typed it into his phone.
“So, I’m supposed to go to the grocery store today?”
“Yeah, later. But first, you need to clean our rooms.”
“Just the ones where someone’s staying, right?” Otherwise, it would be midnight by the time I was done.
Bennett frowned and then nodded, as if making a great concession. “Yes, start there. Oh, and there’s a study room on this floor. That probably needs to be dusted.”
“So just dusting and vacuuming?” I asked, hoping he didn’t think I’d have time to do a lot more than that.