"Same damn thing," she said, still glaring.
"No, it's not."
"Yes, it is."
"Nope," he said, making the word pop.
She growled. "You know you're annoying, right?"
"Yes," he said unconcerned.
"You were dropped on your head as a child, weren't you?"
"Once or twice," he mused. "Now, you were telling me how you f**ked up and got fired," he prompted.
"No, I wasn't," she said, frowning.
"Are you sure? Because I distinctly remember you saying, 'Let me tell you how I f**ked up, Trevor' and then stopping only to tell me that I'm the best landlord that you've ever had."
"Oh yeah, you rock," she said dryly, her lips twitching despite herself.
"I know," he said on a long drawn out sigh. She couldn't help but roll her eyes. The man truly was arrogant. Not that she could blame him with his chiseled bad boy good looks, killer green eyes and a body that didn't exactly hurt the eyes.
"So?"
"So what? I'm sleeping. Go away," she grumbled, not exactly in the mood to recap one of the stupidest things she'd ever done.
"No, you're not."
"How do you know?"
"Believe me I know when you're sleeping. You snore."
"I do not!" she practically screeched. She didn't. She would know.
He laughed.
The bastard.
"Go away."
"Can't," he simply said. "I still have half a pizza left."
She groaned. "Look, if I tell you, will you shut up and leave me to wallow in self-pity?"
"Sure," he readily agreed.
Zoe worried her lip as she ran her fingers over Mr. Cuddle's head. After a few minutes she said, "A few months ago I came across some inconsistencies in one of our audit programs. So for the past few months I've been following a money trail and yesterday I discovered that it lead straight to one of the owner's wives."
When he didn't say anything she continued. "I told my supervisor, who told everyone else so the owner actually heard the rumor before I was able to file my report this morning. He was angry to say the least, but I didn't think he was mad enough to fire me."
"Clearly you were wrong," Trevor mused.
"Clearly," she repeated dryly, again wondering why the hell she was talking to him? Oh, that's right, because she had absolutely no one else in the world to talk to and she was probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"So, what are you going to do now?" he asked.
"I thought you were going to leave me alone if I told you."
"I lied."
She sighed. "I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do now."
When he didn't say anything for a long time she figured that he'd finally left. Even though it was nice to talk to someone, she couldn't help but feel relieved. She didn't want to sit around talking or thinking about how she was going to fix her screwed up life. There was plenty of time to do that tomorrow. Right now she wanted to pull on her favorite Red Sox tee shirt and go to bed and forget this mess, at least for a little while.
"Look, there's this job in the office at my uncle's construction company," he suddenly announced, breaking the silence. "I can't guarantee you'd get it, but they're pretty desperate for some help. The pay is pretty good and so are the benefits. If you're interested, you could swing by in the morning and I could put a good word in for you."
She couldn't help but feel a little touched. "Why would you do that? You don't even know me."
"Well," he said, yawning loudly, "you could use the work, my uncle needs the help, and you don't piss me off as much as my other tenants do."
"Oh," she said, feeling slightly less touched.
"And as a thank you for hooking you up with a job you'll of course return the favor by ordering pizza from Black Jack's at least once a week for me," he said, sounding quite pleased with himself.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes at that little announcement even as her curiosity got the better of her. "How exactly do you get banned from a pizza delivery place?"
"Hey, don't judge me! Those bastards had it out for me!"
Chapter 4
"Aw f**k," Trevor muttered when he opened the fridge to grab his packed lunch only to remember that he didn't have one. He'd forgotten to go to the store last night. "Damn it."
Looked like he was hitting the coffee truck today, he thought unhappily. They never stocked it with enough food. He grabbed his tool belt and hardhat and headed for the door, already in a pissy mood at the prospect of starving. His only hope was that his cousins and uncles bagged their lunch so that he would have a chance at getting a decent lunch today. He hated competing with those bastards for food, especially his uncle who wasn't above kicking everyone's ass for a damn cupcake.
It was really kind of pathetic, he thought even as his stomach rumbled, liking the idea of a dozen or so cupcakes for breakfast. Perhaps he'd stop by Mary Lou's on the way to work and pick some up.
He stepped out of his apartment, trying to be quiet and not wake up his little tenant. It was kind of funny how after last night he was more conscious of all the noise he made. Before last night he honestly hadn't given it much thought. He quietly closed the front door behind him and scooped up her newspaper so he could look at the picture highlights from last night's game and carried it to his truck, deciding he'd be more considerate in small steps.
Halfway to his truck he paused and frowned as he watched some ass**le reaching into Zoe's car.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded, resuming his pace and hurrying towards the jackass. The man noticeably started as he stood up. He took one look at Trevor and dropped the armful of CD's he was holding and took off at a dead run.
"Don't let me catch you around here again, ass**le!" Trevor called after him, wishing he had the time to go after the piece of shit and knock some sense into him.
He walked back to his truck and threw his shit in and slammed the door shut, wincing when he realized how loud it was and hoping he hadn't woke her up since he had a pretty good idea that she'd stayed up most of the night pacing.
There was a lot more shit in her life besides losing her job and he had no interest in finding out about any of it. It was bad enough that he actually asked about her work drama, and that had only been because he'd felt bad about what he said. He didn't want or need to find out about any of the other shit.
He walked over to her car and cringed as he picked up her CD's. What kind of sick bastard listened to Phil Collins? God, this woman needed more help than he thought, he mused as he collected her CD cases and tossed them in her car. A dark frown crossed his features as he took in the soaked driver's seat and open window.
What in the hell was she thinking leaving the window down last night? he wondered as he looked at his watch. He really didn't have time for this, but he couldn't just leave her car here, knowing that bastard would come back.
With a resigned groan he walked back to the house and let himself inside and knocked on her door. He was just about to run up to his bedroom to see if he could wake her up through the wall when her door opened.