Chapter 14

Mission 2: Find an apartment Sam liked.

“I like this one…”

“You do?”

Sam nodded as Alyx leaned towards her curiously, but he kept a careful distance as she looked around the rooms of the third place. A high rise, but nothing like the silver and chrome monstrosity that Carlyle lived in. Though it suited the redhead, Alyx didn’t want to live in a place like that(Carlyle had offered), Mick would never tolerate it, and Sam… a girl probably wouldn’t like it either.

Instead, it was warm and homey, while still outfitted with sleek and modern surfaces. The floors were polished wood-look tile, the walls a soft clean white, all the countertops done in a sparkling white surface, while the appliances all were a matching shiny silver color, and there were big floor to ceiling windows in every room. This was kind of nice, though. Alyx hadn’t thought much of any of the places, but Mick liked this one and so did Sam, so….

“Why?”

Sam looked over at him and Alyx was aware that he didn’t quite know how to be around her. He wasn’t in the military anymore, and she never had been, so he couldn’t be hard and gruff. He couldn’t be casual, as if they had just met, because they lived together and she had already seen him at his worst. He couldn’t be cool and suave like Mick, because… well… Alyx wasn’t cool and suave, and couldn’t even pretend with Sam because she was so perfect it made his teeth hurt.

But she ignored how awkward he was and gave a small one-shouldered shrug. “I don’t know. It’s bright. And I like it.”

Alyx shuffled closer. “Where would you put stuff..?”

“Like, how would I decorate?” Sam’s eyebrows lifted as she looked at him, confirming.

He nodded, and she looked around, now with a different purpose. She wandered from kitchen to living room, passing where Paxton and Mick were discussing pros and cons, through the rest of the layout until she reached the halls leading to the bedrooms. All with Alyx following her like a devoted pup. “Did you and Mick pick which rooms you would get?”

He shook his head. They hadn’t even signed papers for the place, but he wanted to know which she liked best. “What do you think?”

She hummed thoughtfully, looking at each of the bedrooms, walking back and forth as she mentally compared. “Well… Both rooms are great.”

He felt his face twist slightly in a small smirk. “But, if you were picking for your room… What would you pick?”

Her face scrunched, cute and thoughtful, then she pointed to the one furthest down the hall. “That one has the bathtub, and the windows would be great if you put the bed on the left wall.”

“Oh?” Alyx moved to the open door, peering inside. “Can you show me?” Alyx was a great pilot; quick reflexes and good instincts. A great student; he worked hard and when he got something wrong or didn’t understand it, he studied until he got it. But artistic things? Things that were subjective? He didn’t do well.

So he mentally made note of everything she said. Where the bed should go, the dresser, the types of drapes and art and plants. He quickly texted Mick, telling him to sign the papers for this place, and planned to make this room exactly the way Sam thought it should be. But he didn’t have most, or any, of the stuff she talked about. He was sharing a room with Mick in the dorms. They had no furniture of their own. “Would you… We have to go shopping for house stuff. Couches and everything… Would you come with me?”

“You want me to help you shop?” Sam looked at him with a tiny smile and an arch of her eyebrows, as if checking that he was sure he wanted her to come along, and he nodded. She blushed softly and bit her lip. “Yeah, okay…”

Mission 2: Accomplished

According to Mick, this was a good development. “Now, you just have to be the lovable idiot I know that you can be without being a temperamental ass.” Easier said than done. But she had agreed to help Alyx go shopping, which meant spending time together.

Mission 3: Take Sam shopping, don’t blow it.

Easier said than done.

* * *

“I need a king size bed.”

“Why do you need a king size bed?”

“I’m tall.”

Sam stared at Alyx, blinking slowly. “First of all, yeah, but a king and a queen are the same length.” At his somewhat annoyed look when he checked the tags, as if he didn’t believe her, she rolled her eyes.

He grumbled, then shifted his jaw from side to side as he turned away. “Whatever. I still need a king to stretch out.”

Sam took a long inhale, then let it out slowly. “Lay on the queen.”

He glared at her.

She ignored him and pointed to the bed again. “Do it. Lay in the middle and spread your arms.”

He huffed, thinking it over, before finally moving his large frame onto the bed. It did funny things to her stomach to see him shifting around on the bed as he tested it out. Hot, fluttery things. She blushed, her eyes darting away as he finally settled, spreading his arms.

“Look, my fingers hang off. There’s barely room for me, let alone-”

Sam glanced back at him as he cut himself off, her mind wondering what exactly he had stopped himself from saying, and yet somehow knowing exactly. What if he had a girl in bed...

To distract herself, she looked at his hands and, sure enough, his fingers could grip over the edges of the bed. The man had the wingspan of a damn airplane. Nibbling her lip, she sighed. “Fine, whatever. It is your bed.”

He gave her a small look of triumph and her eyes rolled up to look at the ceiling as she shook her head. “What else do you need?”

“Um…” He sat up and Sam forced herself not to notice how he did it all with his abs, not using his arms at all as he dug out his phone and started flicking through his list. “Ugh… The thing to put the bed on?”

“The frame and the headboard?”

He shrugged, continuing on the list. “Dresser thing, nightstand. You said I needed plants and art.”

“So… Everything but the bed.”

He nodded.

After an exhausting three hours picking out what turned into a bedroom set, since it was easier than buying separate pieces and trying to match them, finding art that Alyx tolerated and Sam actually thought was worth of being called art, and a few other items. Adding in the bedding, pillows, drapes, rug, plant hooks, it was a mountain of stuff.

Sam stared at it hesitantly as they stood in line. “Alyx… not to be nosy… But can you afford all this stuff?”

He just nodded, pushing the cart a few feet as the line moved up. “Of course.”

Once everything was rung up, it was a shocking amount, at least to Sam. But he didn’t even flinch, even yawned slightly, and handed over a black card that made the cashier raise her eyebrows and suddenly start flirting with Alyx.

Who the hell was Alyx Collins?