My Nerdy Valentine (Nerds, #7)(37)
Author: Vicki Lewis Thompson

Amanda had the right to call them nosy because she loved Mavis and Chester, but she’d be damned if she’d let Gloria diss her friends. "They’re concerned about me. And they’re good-hearted."

"Apparently everyone on this floor is good-hearted. I’ve never seen such a valentine frenzy in my life." "It helps bring the tenants closer together." "That’s all well and good, but you need something more than sappy sentiment. You need motion detectors and Mace. Why didn’t you tell me this guy was leaving creepy songs on your answering machine?"

Amanda shrugged. "I thought it was my problem."

"So you solved it with Will, is that it? You’re damned lucky I haven’t terminated your internship. You betrayed me, Amanda."

"It wasn’t meant to turn out like that. It was a temporary situation." And if saying that made her heart ache, too bad.

"All men are a temporary situation. Monogamy was created by a patriarchal society. It’s up to women like me to battle that concept." Gloria pushed back the sleeve of her fur coat to consult her jeweled watch. "Grab your coat. By the time we get there, the hardware store should be open."

Amanda couldn’t imagine a more bizarre activity than shopping in a hardware store with Gloria. She’d probably spend all her time examining the ropes and chains.

"Come on." Gloria tapped her watch. "We’re burning daylight."

"I really appreciate that you’re taking an interest, but I can do this myself. I realize that I need some sort of personal protection and I was planning to get a few things today."

Gloria let out her breath in obvious exasperation. "Lord give me strength. You’re on a limited budget, right?"

"I can manage this expense." And Gloria was the last person she wanted giving her charity.

"I can picture it, now. You’ll buy the inferior, on-sale item that will fail you at a critical moment. That’s how you ended up with this death trap of an apartment. Get your coat. This shopping trip is on me."

"No. I mean, no, thanks." Amanda had her limits. Gloria could get away with banishing Will because that was probably in Amanda’s best interest. She’d been getting too involved, too attached. But Gloria was not buying her protective hardware.

"You don’t want to argue with me." Gloria’s gaze was filled with haughty confidence. "I’m still holding the big club."

Amanda’s jaw dropped. "You’d give me a bad review over this?"

"You bet your sweet little tush I would. A good psychologist keeps an open mind when confronted with a problem.

You have a problem, but your mind is closed tight against the possibility that I might be of some help. You’re allowing stubborn pride to skew your thinking."

Amanda tried to stare Gloria down, but she couldn’t do it. Gloria was right. That was a humbling revelation. Gloria could be criticized for many things, but having a closed mind wasn’t one of them.

Besides that, Gloria shared one quality with Amanda— she was incredibly tenacious. Admitting that they were even slightly alike was tough, but if Amanda believed in being open-minded, then she had to look at Gloria honestly. She wasn’t completely bad, not by a long shot.

Amanda took a deep breath. "Okay, let’s go to the hardware store. And thank you."

"You’re welcome." With a smile of triumph, Gloria headed for the door. "We’ll also pick up razor blades and solvent so we can take that damned heart off your window. It’s creeping me out."

When Harvey came back from Starbucks all caffeined up, Louise was waiting for him. She stood in the living room, smoking a cigarette. It sagged, like it was still sort of soggy, which meant it was one of the ones he’d frozen.

Because he’d convinced her that she’d put the cigarettes in the freezer, she refused to buy a new carton when she still had this one. With all her money, she was weird about the little stuff, sort of like Scrooge. She had trouble keeping the thawed cigarettes lit, though. She had to smoke with one hand and keep her lighter handy in the other.

"You’ve been gone a lot." Louise took a drag on her cigarette. "Shit." Flicking the wheel on the lighter, she relit her cigarette.

"You know I go to Starbucks, butter buns."

Louise drew in a lungful of smoke. "I’m not talking about Starbucks in the morning, like now. I woke up in the middle of the night and you were gone. What the hell were you doing roaming around at two in the morning?" "Something."

"You pencil prick. It better not be a girl." "Okay."

Louise advanced on him, her cigarette in the corner of her mouth and smoke coming out the other side. She looked exactly like a fire-breathing dragon with tits. "It is a girl, isn’t it?"

"I can’t help it, lemon lips. You know I’m a bad boy." She blew smoke in his face. "You tittle turd. Tell me her name, now." "Amanda."

"That’s a lie. Amanda Detmer’s a famous actress. She’d never go for a twerp like you. You’re making this up." The tip of her cigarette stopped glowing. She swore and flicked the lighter over it again.

"Not Amanda Detmer. Amanda Rykowsky."

"I don’t know any Amanda Rykowsky!" Louise puffed on her cigarette and coughed like she was about to hack up a lung.

Harvey waited for the light to come on in Louise’s brain. He’d told her about Amanda last week. She would remember if she thought about it long enough. He knew the minute she’d made the connection, because her eyes started shooting sparks.

"The receptionist." Louise began to quiver. "She’s so pretty."

Louise got right in his face, and her eyes glowed like the tip of her cigarette. "If I catch you messing with that girl, I’ll glue your dick to a train track."

A thrill of excitement ran through him. "I’ll try to stay away, jelly joints, but I can’t promise. She’s in love with me."

Louise’s jaw worked. "In love with you?"

"She wants me real bad."

"The bitch. So she thinks she can steal another woman’s husband, does she?"

Harvey sighed dramatically. "Guess so."

"We’ll just see about that!" Louise glared at him. "From now on, I’m keeping an eye on you, buster. A very close eye."

That was exactly what he wanted. He’d make his move tonight. Louise had taken him for granted for years, but if she saw that he had someone else, if she thought she might have to fight to keep him, things would change around here. Finally he’d have the upper hand.

For the first time since he’d become involved with Amanda, Will had to buzz the apartment intercom to get inside the building. Mavis had called mid-afternoon, after Amanda had taken off for the library. She’d told Mavis she wouldn’t be back until dinnertime.

It wasn’t a very good intercom. Mavis’s voice was crackly and hard to hear. Will spoke with exaggerated clarity. Between a bad intercom and her dicey hearing, she might not have the faintest idea who he was. "It’s Will Sloan." Her response came through loud and clear. "Goody!" The door lock buzzed, and he was in. Walking down the valentine-infested hallway made him grumpy. He’d tried to call Justin and ream him out, but Justin hadn’t picked up. Will didn’t blame him. If he were in Justin’s guilty shoes, he wouldn’t pick up, either.

Hell, maybe it was for the best. He’d wanted to believe he could be an asset to Amanda and not a distraction, but in reality they’d spent too much time hav**g s*x. While she was near, his hormones kept him from admitting the bitter truth— they couldn’t seem to control their urges. Because of that, he could be a huge distraction, one she didn’t need at this time in her life.

Mavis and Chester came out of Mavis’s apartment. Mavis looked as if she’d won the lottery. Chester wasn’t exactly smiling, but he looked less disgruntled than usual. Will tried to feel happy for them, but instead he was irritated and jealous. A few more hours of sleep and he might be able to dredge up some better emotions.

"This is the second time she’s left," Mavis said as she came to meet him. "Here’s the spare key I keep for her."

Will pocketed the key. "I hope the first time she left included a trip to the hardware store for something to discourage an intruder."

"Yep," Chester said. "She went to the hardware store with that Gloria person, the one who broke you two up."

"You’re kidding."

"Nope." Chester unlocked his apartment door and ushered them both inside. "They came back with a boatload of stuff. Mavis and me, we went over later to find out about it."

"Well, and to return the vibrator," Mavis said. "That seemed only fair, with you being gone and … and …" She paused, her cheeks pink. "You know."

Chester closed the door. "She’s trying to say that she doesn’t need that thing now that she has a live model."

"Right." Will didn’t want to think that he could be replaced in Amanda’s life by a red vibrator, but it could be true. How totally depressing. "So what kind of supplies did they get?"

"Motion detectors and pepper spray," Mavis said. "They also got some wire and strung up a series of bells in case the motion detectors fail somehow, like the guy figures out how to cut the electricity or something."

"Good."

Chester hooked his thumbs through his belt loops. "Much as I hate to say it, Gloria seemed to know what she was doing."

"But Amanda’s never going into a hardware store with Gloria again," Mavis said. "Gloria asked the clerks all kinds of embarrassing questions about ropes, and pulleys, and counterweights. She made it clear she was building a sex gym in her guest room."

Will groaned. More bait to keep Justin enslaved. But the way Will was feeling about Justin at the moment, he was willing to abandon his buddy to whatever fate he’d chosen.

"So, this is the place." Chester swept an arm around the living room, which was very similar to Amanda’s except that Chester had a TV in one corner and an American flag tacked on the wall.

"Thanks for letting me hang out here, Chester."

"No problem. You’re welcome to sleep in the bed." He gestured toward the bedroom.

Will noticed that the floor plan was a flipped version of Amanda’s, with the living room on the right and the kitchen, bedroom, and bath on the left. "If I sleep, I need to be close to the common wall between the apartments, so I’ll probably stay here in the living room."

"The middle of the walls seem to be the best for hearing anything," Mavis said. "I think they skimped on insulation there."

"They skimped on insulation everywhere," Chester said. "But it’s worst in the middle of the wall between apartments."

"But we don’t listen," Mavis said.

"I’m sure not." Will didn’t care if they spent all day and night with their ears to the wall, if it meant that he had a way to keep Amanda safe.

"There’s beer and frozen pizza in the fridge," Chester said.

"I could bring you a nice meal if you’ll give me a few minutes," Mavis added.

Chester gave him a nudge. "I’d advise you to stick with the beer and the pizza, my friend."

Will held up his duffel bag. "Thanks for both offers, but I brought sandwiches."

"Sandwiches." Mavis rolled her eyes. "I could make you something hot."

Chester steered her toward the door. "Leave the poor boy alone. You can make me something hot."

Will pretended not to understand the meaning of Chester’s remark. His life sucked enough without being reminded that the seniors were hav**g s*x and he wasn’t. "Thanks again for the loan of the apartment, Chester."

"Make yourself at home." With a wave, Chester maneuvered Mavis out the door.

Prowling the living room, Will decided to rearrange the furniture so that he could sit in an armchair and look outside. Unfortunately, his view was limited by snow-covered bushes. He’d have to rely mostly on sound, but maybe he’d get lucky and catch a glimpse of the slimeball sneaking around Amanda’s window.

He put his sandwiches in the refrigerator, opened one of the Cokes he’d brought, and settled down with the book he’d grabbed before heading out the door. It had been handy, but it might not have been the best choice under the circumstances. With a sigh, he opened Titillating Trivia.

Amanda’s dedication to her goals had abandoned her. She’d hoped that by immersing herself in academic surroundings, she’d regain her sense of purpose. Instead she’d wasted hours sitting in the library thinking about Will.

If only she’d taken an acting class sometime in her college career, she might have a better grasp of this lying thing. Then she could have been comfortable sneaking Will into her apartment, because she would have been able to convince Gloria he was no longer there. Instead she was forced to walk into an apartment that felt emptier than she ever remembered.

She’d picked up a fast food hamburger before heading home, so she ate that without enthusiasm, only because she needed to keep up her strength. She wondered what Will was doing right now. Maybe watching a basketball game with Justin. Sure, he might be angry with his friend, but they’d known each other a long time. They would have patched up their differences by now.

Then again, Gloria might be keeping Justin busy constructing the apparatus she’d described to a very embarrassed hardware clerk earlier today. Will might be alone and missing her as much as she missed him. That thought should cheer her up, but it didn’t. One of them should be happy.

At least the apartment was more secure. Two motion detectors would alert her if anyone came through one of the two windows. Wires threaded through little bells crisscrossed the windows, in case the motion detectors failed. If someone came through one of those windows, Amanda would know about it.

Gloria had advised her to run out the front door if that happened. Amanda thought it was good advice, but she would love to catch the guy, and running away wouldn’t make that happen. Running was the wisest choice, though.

Maybe she wouldn’t have to make that choice. So far as the guy knew, she still had Will staying here, a man willing to chase a prowler down in the middle of the night. The guy might think twice about taunting a determined protector like Will.