Part 2 (2/2)

He stopped in his tracks when he saw me. ”Hey guys, I'll catch you later.” I felt like a complete moron just standing there looking so helpless.

Maddox pulled my chin up so I would look into his eyes. ”Sweetheart, what's wrong?” With just those simple words the flood gates opened and I began to cry. He pulled me into his arms, rubbed my back and soothed me. I was starting to calm down and began to open my mouth but Maddox cut me off. ”I have an idea. We are going to grab a cup of that horrible coffee, go to your room, and talk about this.” With that he took my hand in his and pulled me out of the library.

After Maddox paid for the coffees and m.u.f.fins, we trudged back to my room. We both sat on my bed and there was complete silence for a couple of minutes. I needed a breather and he needed to eat so he scarfed down the m.u.f.fins and took half a tuna sandwich out of my mini fridge.

”Alright, start spilling,” he said while taking a bite out of the sandwich. I thought I had calmed down but the tears just ran down my face as I explained the whole predicament to him. ”I just don't know what I'm going to do. I owe $5,000 to room and board and I have $500 to my name. It's due by the end of this week. I mean, I knew this was coming so I decided to look at apartments off campus but I don't make enough money for that. And now I'm going to have to move back home and figure something out because I can't live with Cynthia.”

Maddox knew my relations.h.i.+p with Cynthia was different but I didn't want to tell him everything that had happened in my life. Some things I had to keep to myself because I couldn't endure seeing the look of pity in people's eyes.

I finally finished ranting and raving and went to the bathroom to wipe my eyes. I grabbed a few more tissues before coming back to my room. After closing the door I turned around and froze.

I couldn't believe it, I was such an idiot! I'd just ugly cried in front of Maddox and didn't even bother to look at was he was wearing. He was in his baseball uniform. My mouth fell open and, I swear to all of you, I drooled.

”You like what you see, sweetheart?” he said with a smirk.

Dammit, he caught me.

I heard him chuckling and then he swallowed the bite he was chewing. He stood up and started grabbing things and putting them in bags. ”Alright, I have an idea. Move in with me.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. ”What are you talking about? I can't move in with you Maddox; that's crazy!”

”Isabelle. I live by myself and have an extra bedroom that I use for storage; it's not that big of a deal. Look, you can live with me as long as you need. Rent free. Save your money for something more important.”

”Madd, I'm going to pay rent or at least the groceries, I'm not a mooch.” He looked at me like I had four heads and said, ”Sweetheart, it would be cheaper to pay rent, because you know how much I eat. But you aren't going to pay for that either. I make enough money to pay for the rent and live comfortably. So pack up your s.h.i.+t and let's go roomie!”

I was relieved that I would have a place to stay. As a bonus, I found out that Sarah and Gabe lived right down the hall from us. It was Tuesday night though, and I didn't want to move in right this moment. Maddox looked a little disappointed but we agreed that I would move in Friday after both our cla.s.ses were over. Maddox decided to stay over so we could work on our homework together and I got Chinese for the both of us. While we ate we watched some trashy reality television. Eating Chinese food to me is like eating Thanksgiving dinner; it just makes me extremely tired. At some point I fell asleep in Maddox's arms.

I opened my eyes a while later to Maddox pulling back my covers and putting me to bed.

”Where are you going?”

”I'm going to go home. Sweet dreams, sweetheart.”

He kissed me on the forehead and turned off the lights before leaving the room. Yeah, I was in trouble.

The next morning I was relieved that Sarah and I had our journalism cla.s.s so I could tell her about everything that was going on. I walked into cla.s.s and saw that Sarah was there with two big cups of coffee. Thankfully, she lived off campus so she could stop at Starbucks on her way to our 8 a.m. cla.s.s.

”Good morning Iz. You look like you had a good night last night.”

I needed a sip of my vanilla latte and smiled because yeah, I did have a good night. No scratch that, it was amazing.

”Alright spill Iz. What's with the grin on your face?”

”Well, Maddox came over...”

”And what happened?”

I explained everything from the room and board to Maddox offering to let me stay at his place. I spun my cup looking down at it and then looked up at Sarah. Her mouth was wide open and she hadn't blinked yet.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face to try and get her attention. ”Sarah?”

She blinked her eyes a few times. ”I never thought it was possible.”

”What was possible?”

”Maddox finding love.”

”Sarah, what are you talking about. We're friends, that's all it is.”

”Izzy, honey. You really don't understand. I grew up with Maddox and I thought Taylor had ripped his heart out for good. He was completely different before he met you. He loves you. The question is, do you love him?”

”I don't know. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's gorgeous and really sweet but... ”

Did I love him? Yeah, I guess I did. I think what Sarah meant to ask was, ”Are you in love with him?” I don't know. I looked up and Sarah was smiling so sweetly at me. I swear she heard all of my inner thoughts.

She took a sip of her coffee and thankfully, changed the subject. ”What did you think about the a.s.signment?”

I answered her but my mind wasn't in it. I had more important things on my mind like the beautiful man I was going to live with and who I just realized I might be in love with.

I am so royally f.u.c.ked!

I became more and more nervous the closer it came to Friday. This was the exact opposite of how Maddox was feeling. He couldn't wait for me to move in with him and begged me all Wednesday and Thursday to change the date. I decided to stand my ground because I had some things to think about.

I moved into Maddox's apartment on Friday after cla.s.ses.

When you walked into his apartment there was a kitchen and island to your left with a breakfast bar. To the right was the living room with an L-shaped couch, along with a plasma screen TV. Straight across the living room was a hall leading to the bedrooms. Halfway to the bedrooms was a bathroom to the right and at the end of the hall two bedrooms faced each other.

Basically, Maddox's apartment screamed, ”Bachelor Pad!”

After putting everything in its rightful place I put on some old sweats and grabbed a good book, looking forward to a relaxing night.

”Knock! Knock!” Maddox said while coming into my room. He stopped and just stared at me. I looked up from my book and, oh my Buddha.

Maddox was wearing dark jeans with a red s.h.i.+rt and tennis shoes. His tattoos were on display for all the girls to ogle over but for just a short while I was the only girl ogling.

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