you doing back here?” Aiden grunted, folding his arms across his chest, as he rested against the kitchen counter. “I told you to stop annoying Clary.”
“You’re annoying her even more than I was,” Elliot replied.
I smiled as I put the pasta on to boil. He wasn’t wrong.
Aiden was still standing right by the cooktop and he leaned in close to me. “Am I annoying you, Clary?”
I glanced up at him. His green-blue eyes were sparkling with anticipation, and a small smile curved his lips. If he thought I was about to side with him, he had another thing coming.
I returned his smile, as though I was about to conspire with him. “I think the more fitting question is, are you ever not?”
Elliot burst out laughing. “Burn!”
Aiden turned and thumped his brother on the arm, but Elliot didn’t seem to notice. He was too busy laughing.
“MJ, you can come stay with us anytime,” he said as he gasped for breath.
“Thanks, I think.”
“You think?” Aiden replied.
“Well, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” I said. “And, I’m still trying to figure out if staying with you guys is a good thing or a bad thing.”
“Trust me, it’s a good thing,” Aiden replied before he dipped another finger into the simmering sauce and slowly licked it off. “Definitely a good thing.”
His eyes didn’t move from mine, and the intensity with which he watched me made my cheeks flush. The warmth spread from my face and down my neck, and the room suddenly felt like a sauna. I wasn’t sure I could blame the cooktop for the dramatic increase in temperature.
Thankfully, the pasta started to boil over, and I broke our stare-off to turn the burner down. I wasn’t sure why he had me so flustered. I didn’t like him, and I certainly didn’t want him. His little flirtations were just a part of his game, and he only wanted to get under my skin. He’d done a pretty good job of it tonight, because I was suddenly planning on eating dinner in my room to get some space from him.
I just had to be grateful that this arrangement wouldn’t be for long. My parents would be back home before I knew it, and life would return to normal. I could survive a few days with the stupid, sexy jerk. I hoped.
5
Clary
My parents didn’t get in contact that night, and I couldn’t sleep because of it. Anxiety gripped me as I worried about when they would get back home, and every time I shut my eyes, I seemed to picture the worst. The virus was more dangerous for older people, and while my parents weren’t ancient, they were in their late forties and could get really sick. The thought of them becoming ill in a foreign country was enough to give me nightmares.
I’d seen footage of how the pandemic had spread across other countries, and it was terrifying how quickly the virus had moved and how lethal it was. It had attacked with such speed that in some places there weren’t enough hospital beds for the sick, and so many people couldn’t get the treatment they desperately needed. What if my parents got really sick and couldn’t get help? What if I couldn’t be there for them?
I must have dozed off at some point because I woke to the soft sound of grunting in my room. I stretched in bed and rubbed my face as I sat up. My eyes slowly blinked open, and I gasped. Aiden was lying on the weight bench in the corner of my room, and he was completely shirtless as he pushed a pair of weights above his head.
“Aiden! What the hell!” I grabbed my quilt and yanked it up to cover myself. I’d been sweating with worry during the night and had kicked off my pajama bottoms to cool off. He must have seen my bare legs.
“Oh, morning, Clary.” Aiden lowered his weights to the side of the bench and sat upright. There was a bright, innocent smile on his face.
“Aiden, what are you doing in here?”
“Uh, working out…” He said it slowly, like he was talking to a child.
“I can see that,” I growled. “Didn’t you think that perhaps you should wait until I was out of the room or, at the very least, awake.”
He stood up and grabbed a towel before rubbing it across his forehead. His forehead didn’t seem to be the problem though, because I could very clearly see droplets of sweat