I Slept With My Ex's Best Friend novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Lease

"Very attached," I said.

"Okay."

"It's the only thing in my life with only my name on it."

"Okay," he said again.

He made the turn.

Four blocks left, to my building.

He parked out front and turned off the engine and sat there with the heater ticking.

"That's it?" I said. "You ask a question like that, at the exact red light, and then you take it back?"

"I didn't take it back. I'm negotiating."

"That's not negotiating. That's driving."

"Engineers negotiate by driving."

I stared at him.

Then I got out of the truck and went upstairs, and he followed me, and I could hear him smiling the whole way up.

Gretchen was at the kitchen table in a face mask with a highlighter.

She looked at both of us.

"Oh no," she said. "Somebody's about to ask somebody something."

"He wants to move in," I said.

"I didn't say that," Jace said.

"You said 'How attached are you to your lease.' At the red light."

Gretchen put down the highlighter.

"Sit," she said. "Both of you. This is my apartment too. I have terms."

We sat.

She tore a page out of her pharmacology notebook and clicked a pen.

"Linnea goes first," she said. "It's her lease."

I folded my arms.

"Rent's eighteen hundred," I said. "Three ways is six hundred each. You pay from day one. Not from August. Not when it's convenient. Day one."

"Day one," Jace said.

"You make the bed every morning."

"I already do that."

"My bed."

"Even better."

"Lemon chicken no more than once a week."

He looked wounded.

"It's the only thing I know how to make."

"And grilled cheese. I know your whole menu, Jace."

Gretchen wrote it down. LEMON CHICKEN: WEEKLY CAP.

"No mini fridges," I said. "Ever. Not one. If I see a mini fridge in this apartment I'm calling the police."

"I've never owned a mini fridge."

"Good. Keep it that way."

"Is that all?"

"No." I leaned forward. "Your name goes on the lease. But under mine. In smaller letters."

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