“Everything smells like my roommate.”

“You can smell him over your dryer sheets?” She sounded amused, but at least she’d stopped laughing.

I dropped my shirt. “No. He got rid of the sheets. Bad for the environment. We have these woolen dryer ball thingies now.” I smoothed out my scrubs. “Trick has been making a lot of jokes about his woolen balls.”

“He cooks, cleans, he’s crafty and environmentally conscious. The dream.” She sighed. “Strike that. If you were also tapping that, then it would be the dream. You’re halfway there.”

“Mom, ew.”

She snickered.

“He’s a wolf,” I said, fiddling with the hem of my shirt, and only half invested in the conversation now. I swear I could smell him. Would it be weird if I sniffed my shirt again? No one was up here with me. “It makes sense for him to be connected to the earth.” I shook my head, clearing it. “Does anyone say that anymore? Tapping that?” I dropped my shirt and flipped the lock closed on the door.

“I do, so yes.” There was a scuffling sound as she moved the phone. “I’m a classic. Everything I say is timeless.”

“Okay, lady.”

My mom was silent for a moment. “Did I screw you up? Because if you’re freaking out that someone is being thoughtful and taking care of you, then I’m pretty sure I screwed you up.”

“Mom, no. Absolutely not.” This was a constant worry of my mom’s, because her parents were elitist shitbirds and my biological dad was a shitbird of another feather. They were officially worse than pigeons. At least pigeons were up in your face because they were interested in you. It took my mom a long time to see her own worth, because she’d grown up thinking she was worthless.

She didn’t have any magic. It happened sometimes. Didn’t mean my mom wasn’t amazing. But her parents, they’d taught her that she was trash, and my father had just underlined the message. Sometimes their voices in her head were really loud and she worried she wasn’t enough for me. Wasn’t a good enough parent. Which was agonizing.

“I’m not freaked out that he’s nice.” Okay, so I was a little. But she didn’t need to know that. “I’m just worried we’re taking advantage.”

“Have you told him this?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re all chipping in financially?”

“Of course.”

“Then trust that he’s a grown-ass man and knows his own limits, but if you’re worried, keep checking in and making sure it’s okay. Maybe contributing more to the household is making him feel like he’s more a part of it.”

“He doesn’t have to make us stuff for us to like him!”

“That wasn’t what I meant.” A car honked in the background. “I got to go—a client pulled up. Movie night soon?”

“Sure, Mom.” We exchanged a quick goodbye and she hung up.

As soon as I was done up front, I went through the double doors into the back. Trick and Dammit were already there. We’d decided this area was safest because it was the least flammable. We also had two fire extinguishers attached to the wall, and I’d brought a small portable one out of the break room just in case.