NFH 02 Perfection (11 page)

"Why don't one of us order?" Zack
said, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.

"Won't work," Mitch said absently,
never looking up from his phone.

"Why not?"

"Because they won't deliver here if a
guy calls up," Brad said, leaning further back so Jason could reach
past him to check the empty bowls on the end tables. "It has to be
a woman."

"Look, you either go ask Zoe to order
food or I'm going to start getting cranky," Jason
snapped.

"Getting?" Brad repeated,
chuckling.

"Shut up, damn it! I need
food!"

"Anything to get you to stop whining,"
Trevor said, getting to his feet. Truth be told he was getting a
little cranky. Zoe knew he was having the guys over and should have
already ordered them food a couple of hours ago. She was usually on
top of these things. He knew she hadn't forgotten that he was
having the guys over since she'd filled his counters with junk food
and his fridge with beer and soda.

Speaking of junk food....

After she ordered them food she was
going to have to run out and grab some more junk food and maybe
after that he'd have her run out and hit the barbeque place over on
Fourth Street and get them a couple buckets of ribs. His stomach
growled at the idea even as he gave himself another pat on the
back. Hiring Zoe really was the best thing he'd ever
done.

Too bad she didn't cook, otherwise
he'd have her cook him breakfast in bed. That would have made this
arrangement perfect, but he'd settle for her running out tomorrow
morning and picking him up a fresh coffee cake from Mary Lou's. Of
course she'd have to head over there before seven otherwise they'd
sell out quickly. He hadn't had Mary Lou's coffee cake in three
years since they started making it only on Saturday morning and he
was usually too damn exhausted and lazy to get his ass out of bed
and go get it, but he no longer had to worry about that problem
thanks to his little tenant.

He walked out into the hallway, not
bothering to close his door and rapt once on her door before
opening it only to find his entrance suddenly blocked.

"Hi, Trevor," Zoe said brightly as she
tried to close the door another inch.

"What's going on?" he asked, curious
since she never denied him entrance. Since they set up their little
arrangement neither one of them bothered locking their doors.
Leaving the doors unlocked made it easier for him when he needed a
favor or grab his lunch and for her to clean his apartment and run
his errands.

"Nothing," Zoe said even as she tried
to close the door a little more. With a tired sigh he reached out
and placed his hand on her door, easily stopping her. "Is there
something I can help you with?" she asked with a nervous smile, he
noted. She shifted to block his view into her apartment, well she
tried, but since he towered over her she kind of failed.

"Well," he said, looking past her into
her tidy apartment, "I was wondering if you could order us some
food."

She suddenly looked over her shoulder
and noticeably started.

"Is something wrong?" he asked,
frowning as he leaned in to see what was going on only to find
himself shoved back as Zoe swiftly stepped out of her apartment and
closed the door before he could see what the hell was going
on.

"No, no, nothing is wrong," she said
brightly, a little too brightly for his comfort, but he was willing
to let it go as long as the house wasn't burning down and she got
his damn food.

"Can you order some food for us?" He
sighed, gesturing towards his apartment. "And make sure you double
the amount, because-"

"Triple it! I'm starving," Jason piped
in from the apartment.

"I already ordered the food," she said
and rushed to add, "and Haley already called me to let me know
Jason was coming over so I tripled the order," before Jason could
bitch.

"That's because my wife adores me,"
Jason said, sounding smug.

"No, that's because you're a pig,"
Brad pointed out.

"Shut up, you bastard!"

"The order should be here soon," Zoe
said, ignoring Jason's rant. "So, if there's nothing else I'm going
to-" she started only to be cut by a loud crash in her
apartment.

"What the hell was that?" Trevor
asked, moving to check it out only to have Zoe jump in front of
him.

"Nothing?" she said
quickly.

"Nothing?"

"Well, um," she said, nibbling her
bottom lip as she shot her closed door a nervous look. "That is,
you see, um, I um, have company," she said, wringing her hands
together.

He threw her a disbelieving look as he
looked pointedly at her light teal baby top that showed an
incredible amount of cleavage that his eyes may have lingered on
for a second or two before moving down to her dark blue plaid
pajama pants that he knew from prior experience would give him a
really good view of her ass if she turned around.

"Company?" he asked in clear disbelief
as his eyes returned to her face to find her blushing rather
adorably.

"Yes?"

His lips twitched. "You're not sure if
you have company or not?"

"No, I mean yes. I, um, that is
I-"

"She probably has a date," Jason
suggested from the living room, cutting Zoe off.

"Yes, that's it. I have a date?" she
quickly agreed, but really didn't sound all that sure.

"A date?" Trevor asked hesitantly,
wondering if she mentioned it this morning and he simply forgot.
Then he frowned, wondering what kind of asshole couldn't fork over
a few dollars to take his date out. He didn't like the idea of
anyone taking advantage of Zoe, well, besides him of
course.

"Yeah, so I should probably return to
him," she said, moving towards her apartment door only to come to a
halt when the doorbell rang. With an exasperated sigh she reached
around him and snagged his wallet out of his back pocket and
promptly shoved him into his apartment and closed the door in his
face, leaving him stunned.

"I like her," Brad said,
chuckling.

"For a Red Sox tee shirt wearing woman
I guess she's okay," Jason grumbled.

"Does no one care that she just
manhandled me?" Trevor demanded, facing the men who should be
properly outraged on his behalf.

Jason snorted. "As long as she brings
me food she can bitch slap you and call you spanky."

Trevor narrowed his eyes on the men
who dared laugh at his pain.

Betraying bastards.

"All set!" Zoe yelled.

After throwing one last menacing glare
at the bastards who either laughed at him or ignored him, Trevor
opened his door just as Zoe's was practically slammed shut. Seconds
later he heard the telltale sounds of the lock clicking.

He quickly moved out of the way as
Jason shoved past him to get to the large piles of takeout bags and
boxes Zoe left on the floor and couldn't help but wonder what Zoe
was hiding.

Chapter
10

"Wouldn't you rather have this old
tennis ball?" Zoe asked, holding up the ball and nearly crying in
frustration as Toby licked Mr. Cuddles' face and laid his muzzle
across her poor defenseless bear's stomach.

"This is so much more fun," she said,
tossing the tennis ball in the air and catching it. "See?" she
said, giving him a hopeful look that he simply ignored.

"Hey! Don't lick that!" she pleaded as
he licked poor Mr. Cuddle's eyes.

"Zoe?" Trevor said through the wall.
"Is everything okay?"

Damn it.

"Um, yeah, Everything is fine?" she
said loudly, shifting nervously as she wondered not for the first
time what the hell she was going to do with a dog.

Sooner or later Trevor was going to
find out about Toby and send them both packing since there was no
way she was going to be able to keep a dog a secret for very long.
She thought she was going to have a heart attack a few hours ago
when Toby knocked over her stack of books while she was talking to
Trevor in the hallway. Her quick thinking certainly hadn't saved
her ass, she thought dryly.

Toby chose that moment to bark while
his tail thumped happily against her bed.

"
Shhhh
," Zoe hissed quietly. Oh god,
the dog was about to sell her ass down the river.

"What the hell was that?" Trevor
demanded.

"Um, my date?" she said, feeling like
an idiot.

"
Your date
?"

"Yeah, we're um, you know, um having
sex?" she said, wondering when this hell would end as she dropped
her face into her hands, feeling like a moron.

"If you're having sex then why are you
talking to me?" Trevor demanded, sounding oddly suspicious. She
could have sex if she damn well wanted to. Okay, granted she did
want to, but she lacked a willing partner since she really didn't
know any available guys. Something she planned on fixing soon, but
not the problem at the moment.

"Intermission?" she said, wondering
why the hell everything out of her mouth was coming out as a
question. Oh that's right, because she just plain sucked at
lying.

"Well," she heard him clear his
throat, "I'll just leave you to it then." A minute later she heard
his bedroom door shut and she dropped back on the bed in relief. If
Trevor didn't kill her when he found out what she was hiding then
all this stress damn well would.

"I hate this," she
grumbled.

Toby let out a little
whimper.

With a little sigh she looked over to
find Toby pouting with his muzzle once again resting on Mr.
Cuddle's stomach. "Not you, buddy. None of this is your fault," she
said, reaching over to give him a little scratch behind his
ears.

"Oh that's good to know," Trevor
drawled from her doorway, scaring the living hell out of
her.

************

"This isn't what it looks like!" Zoe
managed to say as she gasped for air and tried to hide the large
puppy on her bed by stepping in front of it.

"It's not?" he asked in a bored tone
and nearly rolled his eyes when she tried to discretely toss a
throw blanket over the poor dog.

"No?"

She was such a horrible little liar,
he thought, but appreciated it all the more since it meant that she
would never be able to pull anything over his head.

He leaned back against the door frame,
crossed his arms over his chest and nodded towards the bed. "Then
what's that?"

"A blanket?"

"Uh huh, did you know that your
blanket is moving?" he asked, watching as the puppy began playfully
wrestling with the blanket.

Zoe nibbled on her bottom lip, drawing
his attention. He had to admit that he liked her lips. A cute
little top with just the right amount of curve and a pouty little
bottom lip that made him wonder if they were as soft as they
looked.

Holy hell he needed to get laid if he
was checking her out, which he was. It was happening more
frequently than he'd like to admit and truly frightening him since
she was in no way his type. If he didn't think lack of sex was
responsible he'd be worried about all those late night fantasies
he'd been having about her.

"The house is infested?" she said,
sounding like a question again. He idly wondered if she realized
she was doing it.

"I see," he murmured, looking around
the obscenely clean and tidy bedroom. There wasn't a dust ball to
be found, a crumb of food or a single thing out of place much like
his place. He had to admit that she did great work even if she was
a horrible little liar.

"So, that thing on your bed beneath
the blanket is......," he prompted.

She noticeably swallowed as she dared
a glance over her shoulder. "A huge rat?"

"Then why didn't you tell me the house
was infested?" he asked, trying not to laugh at the expression of
pure panic on her face while she tried to come up with a suitable
lie.

"I didn't want to scare
you?"

"That was really nice of you," he
said, pushing away from the door. He walked over to the bed and
reached past her to tug the blanket off the playful pup. "Oh, look
at that. It seems we're also infested by puppies," he mused,
folding his arms over his chest while he stared down at her,
cocking a brow as he silently dared to her to try and bullshit her
way out of this one.

He watched as her mouth worked
soundlessly for a moment before she worried her bottom lip between
her teeth and nodded as her shoulders sagged with defeat. "We're
not infested," she mumbled.

"No shit," he snapped, making her jump
and not caring one bit as all the humor from the situation
disappeared. She not only ignored one of his rules, one of the
rules he'd like to point out that she agreed to, but then lied
about it and tried to hide it from him.

"I'm sorry," she said
softly.