8. Betsy

Betsy

" J esus Christ, how hard is it to put your shoes where they belong?"

I glanced up from my iPad just in time to see Kelly kicking one of my shoes across the room.

"Problem?" I asked in a mild tone.

"Yes there's a problem," she groused, waving her hand to where I was lounging on the bed. "I'm sick of tripping over your shit. I would never have volunteered to be your roommate if I'd known you were such a pig."

Kelly and I had been sniping at each other for two days. Her snoring and perpetual perkiness irritated the shit out of me, as did her compulsive tidying. Meanwhile she seemed to think I spoke in a rude manner and was a slob. Honestly at this point, I was wondering if staying with Eve the homophobe would have been more peaceful.

The funny thing was I wasn't a person who normally argued a lot. Most of the time I was a ‘go with the flow' kind of girl. We'd won our first game this morning, so I was actually in a good mood. At least until Kelly started bitching at me.

"Relax, we're on vacation."

She slammed her hands onto her hips, the movement making the hem of her shirt ride up the slightest bit, giving me another tantalizing glimpse of her belly. Her skin looked soft. When I caught myself wondering if it was as soft as it looked, I nearly smacked myself in the head.

"We're here to work, it's not a vacation."

"Can't it be both?" I asked.

"No."

She'd pilfered some paper towels from the bathroom and was using them to dust the room. I watched in morbid fascination as she carefully dusted the top of her cardboard headboard, her bedside table, the three shelves that were affixed to the wall for clothing, and then the windowsill. I watched her from underneath my eyelashes while pretending to ignore her.

Until she came into my space.

"Put the paper towel down," I warned as she began dusting the edge of my dustless bedside table.

She ignored me, picking up my water bottle and dusting underneath it.

"Leave it," I growled.

When she continued to ignore me, I grabbed her wrist and tugged her away from my shit. The movement made her off balance, and before I knew what was happening, she fell right on top of me.

"Oof." The air escaped her lungs as her body made contact with mine.

She landed in a weird position, with one foot on the floor, one leg on the bed, and her torso spread diagonally across mine. She felt solid, despite her slight figure. She made no effort to get up, instead just raising her head to meet my gaze. Our eyes met and as I stared at them I realized there were flecks of darker blue within the lighter blue. For some reason I found that fascinating.

Something else that was fascinating? The way my body was responding to her sprawled across me. I could feel my heart pounding and my nipples were pressing against my bra like they wanted to poke through. And my throat was dry enough I was sorry that I hadn't grabbed that water bottle instead of her wrist.

I couldn't say how long we laid on the bed like that, staring at each other while our breathing seemed to sync up. Kelly shifted, moving higher on my body, and her head lowered just an inch. I thought she was going to kiss me, and maybe she was, but then she jumped off me like I'd turned electric.

Avoiding my gaze, she stalked out of our room without a word. I had no idea where she was going or when she'd be back, and it wasn't my business anyway. I sat up, suddenly eager to do something with my body. I found the shoes that Kelly had kicked out of her way – one was hiding underneath my comforter, the other resting against the baseboard near my clothing shelves – and headed for the gym, figuring that I'd lift weights for a while.

I was half-heartedly doing some biceps curls when I became aware of someone watching me. Using the mirror to look behind me, I saw a woman looking over here. She looked vaguely familiar.

"Hey," she called when she saw me looking at her. "Nice form."

I strained a muscle trying not to roll my eyes.

She walked over as I racked my weights. She was cute, in a soft butch kind of way, and looked like she was in her early twenties. The woman was a few inches shorter than me, slender but with muscled arms and shoulders. Her hair was cut in a boyish side part style, short on the bottom but a little longer on top, leaving a lock of hair flopping over her forehead and brushing the top of one brown eye. It was adorable.

"I'm Chris," she said, sticking out a hand.

I shook it automatically.

"Betsy."

"What's your sport, Betsy?" she asked as she picked up some weights and moved into a standing butterfly position.

She brought her elbows back, the movement highlighting her small breasts and muscled arms. I felt nothing, even though she was normally the kind of woman I'd be attracted to.

"Volleyball," I answered, dropping onto a weight bench and taking a break. "You?"

"Swimming."

That explained the strong shoulders and chest. "That was my guess."

She sent me a teasing smile as she continued doing reps. "Lucky guess. Are you interested in getting lucky somewhere else?"

I heard a noise and when I looked in the mirror, Kelly was walking up behind me. I could tell by the look on her face she'd heard Chris' proposition and wasn't super happy about it. For some reason, that made me happy.

My eyes locked on Kelly's in the mirror for a few seconds before I turned my attention back to Chris.

"Have you met my roommate, Kelly?"