“Shush,” he said, grinning and holding out a glass for her. “It’s a work in progress. I just moved in, you know.”

She lifted the glass to her nose, and scents of smoky burnt sugar and mature grains mingled with a slight fruitiness. The taste exploded in her mouth when she sipped—rich molasses, caramel, and a slight bitterness that coated her tongue. This beer was exquisite. She closed her eyes as she took a second sip, stifling a moan.

“Like it?” he asked.

“Love it. Would be amazing with … ” She thought for a moment. “Cheese. Maybe a sharp cheddar. Or smoked meat … short ribs. And definitely salty bread—pretzels, maybe.”

He grinned. “I am going to bloody love living across from you.”

Reena tensed, feeling exposed. She scanned the room and her eyes caught that puke-green chair. “Where’d you get that chair?”

“Your parents. They gave me a bedroom set, too.”

Of course! That chair had been in the storage room at her parents’ house for years. Along with other furniture no one needed anymore, like her old …

“Wait, what bedroom set?”

He tilted his head toward the bedroom, clearly visible from this vantage in the dining room. She glanced in his room. His clothes lay strewn around the floor and his pink bed was unmade. Scratch that, her pink bed. Because apparently, her intended fiancé had already been sleeping in her bed.

“They gave you my little-girl bedroom set?”

He huffed defensively. “I’m planning on painting it. It’s got nice workmanship. Solid wood and all that. Is this a problem? Your father said you didn’t want it.”

Reena looked into his room again. So bizarre to see her four-poster bed unmade, with a crumpled flannel blanket and a balled-up pillow. Like the poor thing had been held hostage at a frat house. She leaned closer. Definitely dirty socks hanging off the end of it.

He was right, though, she hadn’t wanted her old bedroom set when she moved out of her parents’ house six years ago. She’d been adamant she wanted to stand on her own two feet and not bring any of her old life with her, resulting in her spending way too much on poor-quality (but fabulously styled) furniture. Unfortunately, the new slatted platform bed she had bought hadn’t been up to the task of supporting Reena and her ex-boyfriend Carlos’s nighttime fun. The bed crashing to the ground at a climactic point had been hilarious to Reena, but poor Carlos had been mortified, thinking of it as a commentary on his body shape. The relationship never recovered. A shame, really. She had been quite fond of Carlos. And that bed. Her mattress directly on the floor was a bit depressing.

Her pink bed was solid—it would have held up to rigorous entertainment, not that she’d ever dreamed of bringing anyone back to her parents’ home when she lived there. But now there was finally a naked man in her strong bed and she couldn’t enjoy it.