Page 44 of Fall for Him

If I have a concussion, I won’t be able to work. You know they won’t pay me for those days. I’ll kiss my differentials goodbye. I need the overtime.

OLIVE

I get it, but if you need help, can you just fucking ask? I like your brain and don’t want it to explode.

DEREK

You need to listen to your neuro lecture again if you think a minor head injury is going to make my brain explode.

OLIVE

Just please text me if you start having weird symptoms so I can make Joni check on you.

DEREK

I do not need anyone fussing over me.

The three little dots appeared and disappeared. Olive was probably trying to decide how much to yell at him.

OLIVE

I miss you.

Derek smiled sadly at the phone.

DEREK

Same. Tell Stella I say hi.

OLIVE

I will

DEREK

And I’m fine.

OLIVE

Okay.

Sliding his phone into his pocket, Derek walked over to the end table. When Olive first cooked for Stella, she spent six hours ensuring everything was perfect. Given Dylan left a plastic bag of fish tank–meat cooking for an extra few hours and put scoops of two side dishes on a microwaveable plate, Derek didn’t think the two situations were… wait. Why the hell should Derek even be thinking… Olive was Inceptioning him. This was not foreplay. This was just steak, potatoes, and vegetables. Nothing was sexy about cauliflower.

Dylan and Derek were just reluctant roommates who crashed into each other’s lives and barely spoke. No wonder Dylan didn’t give a shit about him. Why should he?

As if Dylan had followed the train of Derek’s thoughts, he sprang up from the couch and tried to pace in an area much too narrow for pacing. “I know we’re not friends, and we aren’t really even roommates except right now.” Dylan growled at the window. “But I thought you’d be home like two hours and forty minutes ago, and I just think you could at least have texted to tell me you were going to be late.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t text.”

“I know I don’t have a right to ask—oh, wait, what did you say?” Dylan stopped moving and blinked at the blank wall.

“I said I’m sorry I didn’t text. I didn’t know if you’d still be—”

“Oh my god.” Dylan bounded across the room. “What the fuck happened to you?” He stood in front of Derek with his hands held tightly to his sides, horrorstruck at Derek’s face.

Oh, right…

Derek’s right eye probably looked worse now than it had the last time he’d seen it in the ER bathroom mirror. He’d had to change into his extra clothes, which probably meant Dylan could see all the angry scratches on his neck too. He was usually quicker at getting out of the way, but that first blow had caught him off guard.

Source: www.kdbookonline.com