Brayden rolled off his bed with a thump. Stretching his arms far above his head as he stood up, letting the stretch reach his toes. Yawning himself into his bathroom blearily shutting the door behind him. Brayden stripped off his boxers and yawned again climbing into his shower. He stood deeply in the corner turning the water on to hide from the frozen spray.

Brayden’s brain still felt fuzzy from sleep as he finally stepped into the now warm shower. He let the water pour over his head, washing the rest of the sleep off him. He took his time washing his hair and body, just existing in the warm water.

He finally climbed out of the shower grabbing the towel off the rung next to him, roughly drying his hair before quickly drying his body off and wrapping the towel around his waist. A wickedly cold gust of air followed his bathroom door being flung open. On the other side - that girl.

“What do you want now?” He grumbled, reaching for his toothbrush at the sink.

“I want you.” Racheal returned.

“That sucks. Now fuck off.” Muffled by the toothbrush in his mouth.

“No.”

“I think yes. Don’t they teach in school that no means no?” Still brushing his teeth.

“You don’t really mean that.”

“I very much do.”

“That’s not what your body was saying when I was grinding in your lap.” She replied seductively.

“Don’t think so highly of yourself, I’ll rock a hard on for a good goal in hockey.” Spitting in the sink.

Racheal blustered and folded her arms.

“What is your problem? Why’re you playing so hard to get?”

“I’m not, you’re just hard to get rid of, like chlamydia.” Brayden glared down at her.

“You’re a fucking dick, you know that?” She spat back.

“I do, in fact, know that. Now will you fuck off?” He flipped back, moisturizing his face.

Racheal huffed indignantly and slammed his bathroom door behind her. Brayden rolled his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror. A few drops of water hung off the hair falling in his face and he thumbed toothpaste out of the corner of his mouth.

Was she always that annoying?

He wondered.

He couldn’t remember when or how he stopped seeing her. Maybe he ghosted her? Probably, he did that a lot. What are the chances she found James on her Tinder? Brayden grumbled and padded back to his bedroom to get dressed.

He dipped back into his bathroom and quickly ran some pomade through his hair once he was dressed. Brayden suspiciously glanced around his apartment before making a break for the door, trying to escape before that girl found him again.

Quickly making his getaway he grabbed his keys and gym bag and made his way down to the parking garage. He’d let himself sleep in a little today, while Lillian was in her morning class. Brayden would hit the gym before meeting her at her place to pick her up and check out the apartments he had picked out for the day. He tapped happily at his steering wheel at the prospect. He pulled into the gym parking lot a few minutes later, beaming.

“I really hope the next one is actually livable.” Brayden groaned, leaning his head back against his seat.

“That one wasn’t that bad.” Lillian smiled teasingly at him.

“It wasn’t? I must have made up the screaming kids next door and the distinct rust smell the water had.” Brayden retorted.

“Okay… well it wasn’t great you’re right.” She laughed.

“Last one for the day, at least.” Brayden smiled crookedly back at her.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Mmmm.” Brayden grumbled.

A few minutes later Brayden pulled into another parking lot.

“The area is really pretty, look at the view the south facing apartments have!” Lillian grinned, gesturing to the small park and overflow lake behind the building.

“You’re right, so far so good hey?”

She beamed up at him lacing their fingers together. Brayden dropped a habitual kiss on her head before leading them into the main doors and into the leasing office.

“Hi, I have a viewing booked for 3:30.” He smiled sweetly at the women sitting behind the counter.

The older women blushed and waved her hand coyly, gesturing them to follow her. Lillian lightly poked Brayden in the side at his blatant flirting.

“What?” He laughed. “Maybe it’ll get me a deal on the rent.” Brayden winked down at her.

Lillian rolled her eyes adoringly.

The women reappeared after telling them to take a seat in the pretty office she had led them too.

“Right this way.” She smiled over her shoulder at Brayden, yapping about the different amenities the apartment offered.

Brayden listened attentively, asking questions about the fees and different parking options. Lillian admired his know how quietly from his side. The women continued to chat with him when they finally arrived.

“This is it, apartment 504.” The women beamed, unlocking the door.

The elevator had seemed nice, and the hallways were wide and bright. So far everything seemed alright. Brayden looked around appreciatively before letting the two women enter the apartment before him. He smiled wide at Lillian’s wide-eyed reaction. The whole south wall was windows, part of it a sliding glass door onto the spacious looking balcony. The two doors to the left and right were the in-suit laundry and the bathroom respectively. The large kitchen just beyond the entrance to the left, with the cozy looking fireplace and living room to the right.

The whole apartment had been staged with elegant and cozy looking furniture, with accent lighting scattered across the surfaces. The far wall had two doors on it, one leading to a generously sized bedroom with a walk-in closet, and the other to a cozy office.

Brayden followed Lillian diligently through the apartment, following her into the office through the right door, large windows graced the south and east facing walls.

“It’s a corner unit?!” Lillian gasped, shocked.

“Yeah, it is, you weren’t listening?”

“No, I guess I wasn’t.” Lillian laughed looking sheepishly back at him.

The bedroom on the left looked inviting and cozy, with large windows facing east overlooking a field Brayden hadn’t noticed when they parked. The walk-in the closet also looked more than big enough to house his clothes and hers.

“Ben…” Lillian whispered, pulling Brayden down to whisper in his ear. “Ben – it’s beautiful, you cannot tell that women how much you like it – whatever you do.”

Brayden laughed quietly and stood back upright. He winked down at Lillian and gripped her hand, pulling her out towards the kitchen where the woman was waiting.

“I’d like to get started on the paperwork.” Brayden announced boldly, dragging a protesting Lillian behind him.

“Of course, I have some of the initial paperwork with me now.” The women smiled brightly at him.

“Thank you.” Brayden nodded with a flirty wink for the women, and another flirty wink for Lillian who was dumbfounded.

“You’re insane.” Lillian griped in the truck back to her house.

“I’d be insane not to sign that lease.” Brayden countered. “The rent is something I can afford easily, the view is obviously fantastic, it’s 15 minutes from you and 15 minutes from work, so the location is perfect, with shopping and local business nearby. It is ideal.” Brayden confirmed nodding at his steering wheel.

“It was the third one you looked at and as soon as I mentioned liking it you basically signed the lease in your blood.” Lillian pleaded.

“I don’t know why you’re acting like I didn’t tell you I was picking this apartment so you would live with me in it.” Brayden teased back at her, lifting an eyebrow at her from the driver’s seat.

“You’re sure about this?”

“Look, we’ll still go look at the other two tomorrow, say I checked out all the options, but I’m pretty sure that’s the one.” Brayden conceded.

“Fine.” Lillian nodded back. “It really was so pretty, but that could have been all that staging furniture.” Lillian mumbled.

“Then we’ll just have to furnish it. I don’t have any actual furniture. The couches belonged to James, as you know. And we flipped a coin for the dining table and I lost. I have a BBQ and my bedroom furniture, which I fully expect you to replace with yours, its much nicer.”

“Ben, you know it’s expensive, buying furniture, right?” Lillian gapped at him.

“I think you’re underestimating how much money I actually make as a cop. Did James never tell you?” He glanced quickly across the truck cab at her.

“I knew he made a good amount of money but, he didn’t really like paying for things in full, we split a lot of it. I figured it was because he made enough money but nothing frivolous.” Lillian grumbled.

“Well, he was always buying such useless shit. I make more than enough money, and have much more saved to afford this move, don’t worry about it.” Grabbing her thigh sweetly.

“Hmm.” She added, just nodding while she looked out the window. “I wonder if he even loved me in the end.”

“Look – I have to tell you something, and I doubt you’ll like it, but you should probably know.” Grimacing as he squeezed her thigh lightly.

“What?”

“So last night, after we dived up the kitchen, I was taking some boxes down to my truck and ran into this chick in the elevator, I honestly didn’t recognize her or think anything of it at first, but when I came back up to the apartment she was in there, with James.” He paused watching for any kind of reaction from her. “It wasn’t – well you know.” He finished lamely.

“He was with a girl last night? And why would you recognize her?” Narrowing her eyes at him.

Brayden mocked himself in his head, why couldn’t he just spit it out? He glared at the road ahead and tried to reason with himself, before Lillian interrupted him.

“Just say it.” Her look ice cold.

Brayden took a deep breath and recounted the evenings events and that morning’s added encounter.

“I figured I’m supposed to tell you those kinds of things. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a serious relationship.” He finished quietly."All I can think is how cute you are, trying to do “serious relationship” talk.” Lillian laughed lightly.

Brayden gapped, probably looking like a fish trying to think of something to say back, but his mind was empty.

“Thank you, for being so transparent.” She added, lacing her fingers through his hand on her thigh.

“Of course.” Was all he mustered.

“So, he was already sleeping with this girl?”

“Probably once or twice.” He puffed.

“Rebound?”

“Definitely, she looks a lot like you from the back.” He said before he could stop himself.

He leaned his head back against his seat and grimaced again. He must be the greatest idiot alive. Why? Why would he say that out loud, like that?

“She looks like me, from the back?” She said slowly.

He looked over bleakly and then back at the road. He felt like bashing his head against the steering wheel.

“And you know that because…?”

Brayden took a deep breath, bracing himself for the consequences of this truth.

“Because I only went out with her so many times because when I fucked her from behind, I could easily picture you.” Wincing.

“You only went out with her because she looked like me?” He could feel the eyebrow cocked in his direction.

“She was the first girl I went out with that reminded me of you, I was trying to get you out of my system, okay?”

“How many girls did you go out with that you thought looked like me?”

“Six? Seven?” He replied.

“You went out with seven girls because you thought they looked like me?”

“Yep. Last one I didn’t even manage to sleep with. I brought her back to the apartment and had to send her home, in August, right before you came back from hiatus.” Brayden decided that he was already deep in it, he might as well commit.

“You’ve been doing with little dance with your feelings about me for a year?” Lillian balked.

“Yep.” He nodded.

“Wow.” Was all she said, petting Brayden’s ego when he thought he noted real awe in her voice.

“I thought James was losing his mind, and I thought I was losing it too. He said you kept bringing girls who looked like me back to the apartment. I even met a few, and I really thought I was making it up, and so was James.” Lillian said gathering up the facts Brayden was laying out.

“Nope.”

“I just lost $20.” She groaned.

“What?” Turning to look at her accusingly.

“Kat said you were sleeping with look-alikes on purpose and I bet money on it that you weren’t.” Covering her face with her hands.

“Ha! Yeah, Kat would have seen right through me.” Brayden laughed. “You’re going to be alright? With everything I just told you?” He added seriously.

“Yeah, I think I’m going to be just fine.” She smiled up at him.

“Good.” He nodded, returning her smile as he pulled up to her house.