“If you could be any animal, which would you be?” Blake asked as she leaned against the counter at The Coffee Bean.

Her question had come out of nowhere, and it took Gavin a minute to process it as he scrubbed down the counter with a rag. “Which would I want to be, or which would suit me best?”

Though she rolled her eyes at him, the grin on her face belied any real exasperation. “Why do you always make everything so complicated?”

It was a good question. Gavin’s life had always seemed more complicated than it should’ve been, but he didn’t think she’d want to hear about all that—and he wasn’t sure he wanted to share it with her—so he said, “Because I like annoying you. And I genuinely don’t know which you meant.”

“Which fits you best,” she clarified.

Pursing his lips, Gavin thought about it for a few seconds before he resumed his scrubbing, mostly just so he’d have something to do with his hands. “I have no idea,” he said finally.

Stomping her foot in clear agitation, Blake glared at him. “I’m bored, and you’re not making it any better.”

“And identifying my spirit animal would make you less bored how exactly?”

“It won’t. But it’ll help prevent me from picturing you naked.”

Gavin turned his head so he could look at her. “Why would I want to help prevent that? Our best moments have involved us being naked,” he replied with a small smile he hoped came across like the sexy smirk he intended it to be. Ever since the retirement party the previous week, Gavin and Blake had spent the majority of their free time naked together.

“Because if I picture it, I’ll want it to happen, and since it’s my lifelong dream to serve heaps of caffeine to ungrateful corporate robots, I refuse to do anything that could get me fired from this fine establishment.” She wagged a finger at him. “I will not allow you to lead me astray, young man.”

“Gotcha,” he replied. “Can I lead you astray at home later?”

“Depends.”

“On?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She leaned toward him, pushing her boobs together to make her cleavage pop out of her shirt. Since it was almost closing, the place was empty, and Gavin was grateful for it. For reasons he didn’t let himself examine, he didn’t want anyone else catching a glimpse of Blake’s chest.

The scent of her fruity body wash filled his nostrils as she closed in on him. Her fingers grazed his shirt as they drifted from his bicep to his chest and back again. Giving him a sultry look, she whispered, “What animal, Gavin?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he said, which caused her to step back as she laughed. “I honestly don’t know. Which one would you be?”

“A koala,” she said without hesitation.

Gavin pondered that for a second before asking, “Why a koala?”

“They’re small and cute and look cuddly, but if they don’t want you in their space, they’ll claw your face off.”

“That’s…violent.”

“Sometimes ya gotta show a bitch who’s boss,” Blake explained.

Gavin chuckled. “You’ve had to show a lotta bitches who’s in charge, huh?” he asked as he turned to straighten the coffee cups. Expecting her to laugh, Gavin turned toward her when he didn’t hear a sound.

She was looking at him, but she definitely wasn’t laughing. “What if I said yes? Would you think less of me?”

Her question made a thought pop into his mind, and his brain latched onto it until he couldn’t help but ask about it, even though it wouldn’t tell her what she wanted to know. “Does it matter what I think?” The question came out with a sincerity he wholeheartedly meant.

She was quiet so long, he wasn’t sure she was going to answer. When she finally spoke, it was nearly a whisper. “Yeah. It does.”

He turned to face her fully and slumped back against the counter. This question was clearly something she wanted a serious answer to, and Gavin wanted to make sure she knew he was being straight with her. “No. It wouldn’t make me think less of you.”

“Really? You seemed kind of scandalized when you thought Belson helped me beat a murder rap.”

A rumble of a laugh tumbled out of him. “I wasn’t scandalized. I was just making sure I didn’t have to start locking my door at night.”

Her eyes stayed on him, the serious expression not moving from her face. “I’m not violent though. You know that, right? There have been times in my life I’ve had to do…things. Things I’m not super proud of, but that were necessary at the time.”

It seemed really important to her that Gavin understood this about her, though he had no idea why. Especially since it had never occurred to him that Blake was a violent person. A little out there, sure. But not aggressive or harmful. “I know. I never thought you were.”

She studied him for a second before saying “Okay” and turning away to start going through the closing-down procedures.

Gavin stared after her, confounded by, well, pretty much everything about his roommate. She was mercurial and zany and intense and complicated. But she was also oddly solid and intelligent and fun and simple. Blake was an enigma, and Gavin found himself wanting to figure her out more than he cared to admit.

* * *

Blake needed to get a handle on herself. She’d spilled more to Gavin since he’d moved in than she had to anyone else since she’d been a kid and learned the hard way that the things that made you tick were best kept secret from others. Even Celeste didn’t know much about her. Not really. And Blake liked it that way.

Whenever people had heard about what her life had been like growing up, they looked at her differently—started trying to put her behavior into some kind of context. But Blake liked to think of herself as beyond comprehension. There was no putting the pieces of her childhood together to make a clear picture of who she was as an adult. She looked nothing like the box she’d originally been packaged in.

So she let people see only who she was now. And they could decide to take her or leave her from there. Most people decided to take a pass on knowing her, and that was completely fine. Blake wasn’t able to handle a lot of different people in her life. But she knew without a doubt that she wanted to handle Gavin. He’d slid into a comfortable nook in her life, and she wanted to keep him there. Which was why what he thought of her had been so damn important. She’d chased away tons of roommates, but she wanted to hang onto Gavin’s friendship for as long as she could.

“Ready to go?” Gavin asked from behind her. She turned to look at him, and he continued. “Patrick said we could head out.”

Patrick was the assistant manager who closed most nights. He was pretty chill and sometimes let them leave a few minutes early as long as the place was prepped for the next morning. “Yup.”

They called goodbye to Patrick before walking out and heading for Gavin’s car. They were quiet, but it was comfortable between them. At least to Blake, who typically never found herself very at peace in silence. Once they arrived at the car, Gavin unlocked her door and held it open for her, closing it behind her after she climbed in. He settled into the driver’s seat seconds later and began driving them home.

“You working at the bar tomorrow night?” he asked.

“Yup. Saturday too.” She usually worked Monday and Friday nights, and Sunday afternoons, but she offered to fill in for another bartender Saturday as well. She usually liked having at least one weekend night free so she could pretend she had a social life, but money was money. She’d been hoping to get more weeknight hours, but the small bar usually didn’t get busy enough during the week to need more than one bartender, and those nights were usually worked by the owner. He’d offered to let her work as a server if she needed more hours, but that put her too much in the fray. She liked having a bar—or counter in the case of The Coffee Bean—between her and the masses.

“Maybe I’ll come see you.”

“Yeah?” she asked, knowing that he’d heard the delight in her voice at the prospect.

“Sure. Maybe I’ll be able to drag Simon out with me.”

“That’d be cool. I can let Celeste know, and he can call her a pizza again.” She smiled widely as Gavin laughed.

“Yeah, he’s a great guy, but he’s got no game at all.”

“And you do?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Well, since I had you offering to let me round second base within hours of me moving in, I’d say I’ve got plenty of game.”

“I never said you could touch them. I just felt bad for you and wanted to throw you a pity flash.”

“If you say so.”

Blake’s mind wandered as they drove. Something was bothering her, and even though she told herself she shouldn’t bring it up, that was exactly what she did as Gavin parallel parked in a spot near their apartment. “Are you banging other girls?”

His hand on the steering wheel slipped a little, causing the car to straighten out too early, so Gavin had to pull out and attempt to park again. When he’d nestled them safely into the spot, he cut the engine and looked over at her. “Does it change anything between us if I am?”

Blake thought for a second. “No. As long as you’re not using me to cheat on some poor girl who thinks you’re the future daddy of her children.” That answer wasn’t entirely true, but it was close enough. Blake didn’t particularly love the idea of sharing Gavin because she was selfish as hell, but she knew she had no claim to him. If he was out laying pipe every other night, that was his business. She’d just be extra vigilant to make sure she stayed stocked up on condoms.

“Okay. Good,” Gavin said before he threw open his door and got out of the car, leaving Blake sitting there dumbfounded. He stood on the curb and looked at her through the windshield, probably wondering why she was still sitting in his car, so she hurried out and fell into step beside him.

They made it halfway down the block before she threw her hands up. “Jesus Christ, are you going to answer my question or not?”

“I thought I did.”

“Gavin, I swear to God, I don’t want to have to shank you out here and leave you for dead.”

She saw his shoulders shaking in her periphery and knew he was laughing. The asshole. “I thought you said you weren’t violent,” he said through his laughter.

“I’ll make an exception for you.”

Out of nowhere, he slung an arm around her and pulled her close as they walked. “What’s the matter? Don’t wanna share all this hotness with anyone else?”

“Well, now I wish I could give you to someone else.”

“That’s not true,” he taunted.

“Did you take ecstasy at some point between work and here? And if so, why didn’t you share?”

Laughing again, Gavin pulled her even closer. “Now you know damn well I always share,” he said suggestively.

“Yeah? With how many women?”

Gavin pulled back a little so he could look into her eyes. She wasn’t sure what he was looking for as he studied her, but his smile morphed into something smaller and sweeter. “None. I have my hands full with you.”

His answer caused a burst of warmth to rush through her, though she did her best to hide it. “Not yet you don’t. But as soon as I get you in that apartment, your hands will definitely be full of me.” They shared a smile, but the moment felt incomplete somehow. So Blake said the only thing she could think of. “My hands are full with you too.”

And from the way Gavin squeezed her shoulder, she assumed he was happy to hear it.