Until the World Stops - L.A. Witt Page 0,8
for both of us. If you’re out on your own, you’re going to have to work at least one full-time job just to make ends meet. I know a lot of people who’ve gotten out and ended up working two or three jobs. Plus health insurance has gotten stupid expensive. Trying to work full-time or more and go to school?” He grimaced. “That sounds miserable as hell.”
“You’re not wrong.” I was exhausted just thinking about it.
“At least this way, we can share a place and split bills. It’ll benefit both of us, you know?”
“Except you’ll be pulling most of the weight financially. I’m happy to do more around the house to make up for it, but then I kind of feel like I’m signing up to be a housewife, you know? I mean, I know it’s not permanent, but…” I furrowed my brow and studied him. “Are you really sure about this?”
Parker met my gaze. “Yeah. I am. What about you?”
I thought about it. Really thought about it. No, I wasn’t sure about it, and no, I didn’t like it, but I didn’t like any of my other options either. Or, well, my lack of other options.
Clearing my throat, I nodded. “I think so, yeah. I just… I guess I’m not sure how it’ll work. With you and me, I mean. Since we’re not really each other’s biggest fans.”
“No, we’re not. But all we have to do is stay out of each other’s way, do each other a favor, and ride this out. When it’s over, we move on.” He extended a hand. “I’m in if you are.”
I regarded his hand and his offer for a moment, but seriously, what choice did I have?
So I shook his hand. “Yeah. I’m in.”
Chapter 3
Casey
March 2020
Leaning back in my chair in the guard shack, boots crossed on top of the desk journal, I thumbed through profiles on Tinder, then Grindr, then Tinder again. The pickings were fairly slim in small-town Maine, but I was happy to make the forty-minute trek to Bangor or drive even farther to meet someone halfway from Portland, so I hooked up on a somewhat regular basis.
The last three or four months, I’d been screwing every man I could get my hands on, even if he was someone I usually would have passed by. The sex was… Okay, it wasn’t always great or even good, but it meant an orgasm or two and a bed to sleep in besides my own. Whenever I didn’t have to work the next day, I was on the prowl for someplace else to sleep, and sometimes I got lucky and the sex was fun too.
No new profiles had popped up. None of the existing profiles were any more interesting than they’d been the last five times I’d read them. The guy I’d been messaging with had gone quiet.
With a sigh, I tossed my phone on the desk and reached for my can of Red Bull instead. Tinder was getting frustrating in ways it usually wasn’t. I couldn’t decide if that was because an increasing number of guys were hesitant to hook up since they were nervous about this weird new virus that was apparently going around, or if it was because I needed the hookups more as time went on.
I loved casual sex and always had, but I’d definitely been chasing it more lately than I had before. It was less because I was my usual horndog self and more because I dreaded going home.
I loved the duplex where we lived. I loved the cat we’d adopted a few months ago.
But dear God, I did not want to be around the man I’d married.
Shame no one seemed to be interested in hooking up tonight, though. Fuck my life.
Maybe I’d get lucky and deploy sooner than later. There was a chance I might get stationed overseas within the next twelve months—I’d be negotiating orders in September or so—but if I did, that meant bringing Tristan with me. The family separation pay wouldn’t be enough to keep us both going, even if he got a roommate and I stayed in the barracks. A deployment, though—that would make things easier.
Fuck. You know you’re miserable when you’re hoping to get deployed.
The guard shack door opened, startling me out of my thoughts.
“Oh my God.” MA2 Colby rolled her eyes as she stomped inside. “Deliver me from Chief and his conspiracy theories.”
“Oh yeah?” I sat back and laced my hands behind my head. Chief Larson had always been a