Free The Tenant by Sotia Lazu Page B

pepperoni.”
    “Okay. See you at two. Love you.”
    “Love you too.” She said it under her breath, feeling too vulnerable saying the words in front of someone she barely knew and mostly hated.
    Derek handed over her coffee when she ended the call. She took it without a word and offered him a bagel.
    “So, I’m Alice now?”
    Damn! Just when she’d convinced herself he’d let the matter go. “Shut up.”
    “I guess my junk isn’t working for the moment, but I have a long way to go before you call me sister.”
    She should have known he’d be on her case about it. “I haven’t—”
    “Haven’t told your beau you’re living under the same roof with a hot male specimen?”
    She felt like laughing and crying at the same time. Derek was all playful about the matter, but something told her he’d use their current situation against her if she confirmed Mason knew nothing about it. “He knows,” she finally said. “He just doesn’t know we’re this civil.”
    Derek nodded. “And you wanna tell him when you see him, rather than over the phone.”
    Yeah, sure, why not? “That’s the idea,” she said, and stuffed her face with more bagel before he could draw the conversation on.
     
     
     

Chapter Ten
    Derek groaned in annoyance.
    Amanda Murphy was a slob.
    Today she hadn’t been a bitch, but that didn’t mean Derek had started liking her. Nope. She was still in his way, something to be dealt with. And she was a slob.
    There was a bin on the kitchen balcony, clearly marked as “Paper for Recycling,” but not only hadn’t Amanda used it, she’d also left the paper wrappings of their breakfast right there, on the table. Next to her coffee mug, which she hadn’t even bothered to rinse. He grabbed the wrappings and tossed them in the bin, then wiped some kernels of confectioner’s sugar off the table.
    He shouldn’t judge; his room was usually a mess. Still, he took care of common areas. Like, he’d never leave hair in the shower, for example. Not that she had, but if she left unrinsed mugs all over the apartment, who was to say that wouldn’t come next?
    Derek had a vague sense he was blowing things out of proportion, but he had no reason not to. This was his house, he had an intruder, and the intruder was a slob.
    He put her mug in the sink and glanced at the sugar bowl as he refilled his cup with steaming java. The sugar substitution idea had been a good one. He was sure he’d acted properly innocent, trying to warn her about the salt but unfortunately being too late. She seemed to have bought it.
    He grinned. He couldn’t wait until she tried the orange juice. There was more cumin than orange in it. He grimaced at the thought.
    In the middle of the living room, arms folded behind his head, he took a good look around. He needed to figure out his next move. He’d decided to avoid major attacks. He was better off going with little things, which would offer him plausible deniability and still manage to slowly work at bringing down Amanda’s morale.
    Little things, like changing the first five channels on his television program to satellite porn. Following the on-screen action, he tilted his head to the side, then shook it. He had to focus. He could indulge himself later. With a sigh of regret, he muted the sound and averted his gaze from the screen just as two female nurses were giving each other a physical while their male patient watched and pulled on his cock.
    Derek had more pressing business to attend to—for the time being, anyway. What to do next? He remembered the “Princess and the Pea” story. Nah. A frozen pea under her mattress would not get Princess Amanda running back to her parents’ house.
    Replacing her mild chili powder for an extra-spicy one would make her gasp, though, and that might be interesting. He’d love hearing her gasp. Making her gasp. He hadn’t made a woman gasp in a while, and he believed Amanda would be loud.
    “Dude. Snap out of it,” he said