To lighten the mood, I stuck my tongue out at him. My tactic failed as he continued to look down at me with a serious expression.

"What are you looking so worried about, Lurch?"

"Do you get lonely here yourself?" The gravelly voice was quiet when uttered his concerns.

I did get lonely myself. I sometimes felt so hollow that I had conversations with myself. I got so bored that I sat and made-up theories about Egyptian mummies and Scandinavian Vikings to keep myself entertained.

"It is not that bad." I lied to him with a shrug of my shoulder "I have peace and quiet to get through my collection of books."

"You are lying." He gruffly remarked, his husky voice growing deeper.

I crossed my arms and challenged "And how did you gather that?"

"I told you." He grumbled, his serious scowl never breaking "I am an Ella Expert."

"You are a pain in my ass." I rebutted, trying to act serious but I failed because I smiled at him "That is what you are."

Stone's attention flicked to my smile and his tensed wide shoulders relaxed.

"Why am I a pain in your ass, Medusa?"

I opened my mouth and then closed it.

"Because...Because you are everywhere," I lamely replied as I stared up at him "And when you're not then I end up wondering where you are and when you are going to show up again."

The permanent scowl that he usually wore on his face disappeared for a good minute. The corner of his mouth hiked up in a small triumphant smirk.

I looked down at my legs and fought the urge to crawl back into my bed in embarrassment.

"You are always thinking about me?" The words left his large chest in a raspy drawl "Is that what you are trying to say?"

"I think about you because I hate you so much." I rebutted with a nervous laugh.

He chuckled while the corner of his lip twitched again.

I was still holding out to see him smile.

"What the hell was yesterday with Chase?" I finally remembered to ask, "You turned full Tyler Durden."

Stone shook his head, his lip twitching upwards as he spoke "Trust you to make a Fight Club reference."

I shushed him "First rule of fight club is to not talk about fight club."

"You are changing the subject about you thinking about me all of the time." He mentioned with a deep sigh.

While attempting to tame my hair, I glared at him "You are changing the subject about yesterday at the ice cream place. So, we are even."

"I will be honest with you when you are with me."

I sighed because he was right. I nodded my head in agreement.

Instead of asking what I meant when I said I thought about him, he asked "Do you ever get lonely?"