Clean Break by Erin McLellan

Author:Erin McLellan [McLellan, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Erin McLellan

I’d considered asking Connor to keep me company as I checked out apartments in Oklahoma City on Saturday afternoon, but that seemed too couple-y. I had to start sticking to the boundaries we desperately needed.

Instead, Joel came along for the ride. He’d found our current rental house for us, which was cheap and perfect for two messy college guys. I assumed he’d be helpful.

He wasn’t.

We were touring the fourth apartment complex of the day, and he was nose deep in texts to Paulie, which was odd because Joel hated texting. Normally, he acted like texting me back was as awful as getting teeth pulled.

Our tour guide was explaining that I could choose one of five predetermined colors for an accent wall in the living room—dandelion, purple haze, blood red, sea breeze, or spruce tips—when Joel glanced up and said, “Why not beige like the rest of the walls?”

The poor guide jumped when Joel spoke, as if he’d forgotten Joel was there. Which was easy to do, since Joel had literally not said a word or paid attention for the last ten minutes.

“Beige?” the guide repeated, evidently confounded. “Why would you choose beige when you could choose purple haze?”

“I think blood red might match my current aesthetic better,” I said, “but I like having options.”

Joel laughed, which always felt like a victory, not because he was serious like Connor, but because he hid his emotions.

And I really needed to stop thinking about Connor.

I glanced down at my spreadsheet—which Connor had made, because he was sexily good at spreadsheets—to see what else I needed to ask. Wall color wasn’t exactly a priority.

“Washer/dryer hookups?”

“We have a communal laundry room. It takes quarters, but half the machines eat your money.”

Not exactly selling this place, kid.

I scribbled an angry face in that cell of the spreadsheet.

“Do you enjoy living here?” I asked the guide. He looked young, so I figured he was a college student.

“It’s all right,” he said with a shrug. “No one throws loud parties, which is nice, and there’s a pool.”

I perked up at that. Even Connor hadn’t thought of aquatic recreation.

Joel and I finished up our tour of that apartment, and went to one more, which had a dumpster full of mattresses with the words “Bed Bugs” scrolled over them in permanent marker, so it was a hard no.

Afterward, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in an area near campus. I ordered vegetarian tacos after seeing them on someone else’s plate, and Joel got chicken enchiladas. After a few bites, I said, “This settles it. Moving to Oklahoma City for law school was a brilliant idea.”

Joel smiled. I’d yet to find an adequate Tex-Mex restaurant in Elkville—another point against the town.

“Which apartment did you like best?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I’ll probably go with the one where I can paint a wall dandelion yellow and be done with it.” It was a straight shot to the library on campus and didn’t seem like it’d be creepy at night.

We ate in silence for a couple of minutes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.