Fisher’s eyebrows slid up an inch.

“She has money from her dad. She’s going to pay cash for it.”

He nodded slowly. “What car are you getting?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll go with you,” he said.

“I don’t need you to go with me.”

“Oh …” Rory wiped her hands again and picked up her phone. “I have to get this it’s … a friend. I’ll be right back.”

I squinted at her odd behavior while she hustled to her bedroom and shut the door.

“I realize this is going to piss you off, but it’s just life right now. If you take me with you, you’ll get a better deal on a car because there will be a male adult negotiating for you.”

“That’s—”

“Sexist? Not fair? Ridiculous? Yes. Yes, it is. But it doesn’t make it less true.”

“You have work.”

He grabbed my stool and turned me to face him, my knees tucked between his spread legs. “I know the boss. I can get the morning off.” He rested his hands on my legs.

I made a quick glance at the closed bedroom door.

“She’ll be in there for a while.”

I turned back toward Fisher. “How do you know?”

“Because she’s talking to Rose.”

“Who’s Rose?”

“Her friend.”

“Were they in prison together?”

Fisher inched his head side to side.

“Oh. Do they work together?”

“Rose is a teacher. She teaches middle school art.”

I nodded, twisting my lips. “She’s probably a client.”

“Yeah, Rory does her hair.”

“Once a social butterfly, always a social butterfly. I’m more introverted like my dad.” When I allowed myself to look at Fisher for more than two seconds, I realized he was looking at me. It was that more than friends look.

“I wonder how long it will take before I no longer want to kiss you.”

Again, I checked her bedroom door while pressing my lips together. “Y-you want to kiss me?”

He grinned while squeezing my legs. “Desperately.”

I don’t know why I thought Fisher had everything on a switch, including his emotions or his attraction to me, but I did. I thought it. I relied on it.

“We’re done. Right?” I punctuated the right with serious doubt like I really needed him to answer me because I wasn’t sure where any of this was coming from.

“I think that was the agreement.”

That wasn’t an answer. He threw it back on me. I was the one who first said things would have to end when Rory came home. I said I didn’t want her to know about us, but he agreed.

He. Agreed!

“Yeah. It was the mutual agreement.” I rested my hands on his hands to slide them off my legs, but when my skin touched his, it wasn’t that easy.

“How’s that leak in the back room?” he asked.