Melanie explained, trying to move his hand away from the door.
“We agreed that this was for the best,” Aidan reminded her as he quickly maneuvered around her and put his hands on her shoulders so that he could steer the stubborn woman back inside the apartment that was the perfect solution to their problem.
Well, it would make things easier at least, he amended a split second later after deciding that nothing was going to fix this.
“Just think of the possibilities,” Aidan said as he managed to get her inside, hoping that she ignored all his shit thrown everywhere and the damage to the walls that the last tenants left behind and focused on all the possibilities.
“I already have an apartment,” Melanie pointed out, which they both knew was a bullshit excuse to get out of this.
“And you can’t stay there,” he reminded her, already knowing that this was her best option.
“Well, not since a certain doctor put me back on bed rest,” she added dryly with a long, drawn-out sigh as she stepped around a box that he wasn’t sure was his.
“That and my brother is having the building renovated and you have to move out anyway,” Aidan said as he brought her into the kitchen and then immediately wished that he’d skipped this portion of the tour.
“Umm, there’s no stove.”
“I know.”
“And the fridge?”
“The door’s missing,” Aidan said, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he discreetly looked around the kitchen, noting all the damage to the walls and cabinets and started rethinking this plan only to wave it off because this could still work.
“You can use my kitchen until this one is fixed,” he said, deciding that it would probably be for the best if he got her out of this room before she noticed that some of the outlets had been ripped out of the wall.
“Why don’t we take a look at the bedroom?” Aidan suggested, steering her back towards the living room.
“Does it look like this?” Melanie asked, gesturing towards all the boxes and bags he’d thrown in here when he’d bought the place.
“It might,” Aidan hedged, wondering if he should have put this off until he had a chance to fix this apartment, but immediately decided against it since that would have only given her a chance to talk herself out of this.
“Then I think I’m good,” Melanie said with a thoughtful nod as she turned around and waddled, and really there was no other way that he could describe it, towards the door.
“Melanie,” Aidan said, shaking his head with a sigh as he followed her into the foyer and managed to steer her towards his apartment.
“This isn’t going to work,” she grumbled pathetically as she allowed him to steer her towards the mess in the middle of his living room, pretty sure that there was a couch beneath all that crap somewhere.
Mumbling an apology, Aidan made quick work of throwing all his shit aside and shot her a smile when it took a little longer than expected. Once the couch was free of dirty clothes, books, old medical journals, junk food wrappers, and an unopened Twinkie that was going to help make this really fucked up day better, Aidan gestured for her to sit down only to rethink the suggestion when he realized that she was going to have a hell of a time stepping over all the shit now covering the living room floor in order to get to the couch.
New plan.
“Why don’t we have a seat in the kitchen?” Aidan suggested with a smile as he kicked the shit out of his way, wrapped his arm around her and led her towards the kitchen before she could argue.
Once he had her in the kitchen, he-
“Shit!”
-realized that the kitchen was worse than the living room.
“Aidan-”
“One second,” he said, releasing her so that he could shove everything off the kitchen table, knock the stack of medical magazines that he’d been re-reading off a chair before pulling it out for her. “Here we are,” Aidan said, smiling as he gestured for her to sit down.
After a slight hesitation, Melanie sat down while she glanced around the kitchen that he was still in the process of unpacking and cleared her throat. “So, have you lived here long?” she asked, looking a little unsure where to begin as she glanced back at him and moved to place her hands on the table, but seemed to rethink it, and placed her hands on the large swell of her belly,