The Apartment (Apartment #1) by Amanda Black Page A

a fool if you think that your family would want anything to do with you now.”
    He flinched at the bitter memory. Had Rachel been right after all?
    Ethan wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. Looking at the family portrait hanging on the wall, he saw his parents, siblings, and younger self grinning down at him from a time when happiness was easily within reach.
    “I should have left her years ago,” he whispered to the smiling faces. “I’m sorry that this is what it took to finally bring me home.”
    With that, he turned and left the house, walking quickly to his car to avoid breaking down in plain sight of anyone who happened to be looking out the window.
    He got in his car and started driving without any destination in mind, tears running freely down his face. So many emotions were raging through him that he didn’t know which was the strongest. He was sad about the ugliness of Rachel’s departure, but he felt betrayed and furious about it as well.
    While it was true that he’d been miserable over a large part of their partnership, he never wanted things to end this badly. But when he had finally worked up the nerve to tell her how he felt, he’d been surprised to find that she’d beaten him to the punch and already left—taking a large portion of his savings with her.
    When Ethan finally parked the car after driving around for over an hour, he realized that he had gone right back to the apartment. As soon as he made his way upstairs, he collapsed face first onto the bed, completely drained.
    He was asleep the moment he smelled his mystery woman’s scent on the pillow.

Chapter 7
    “
Mrowwrr
”
    “Ugh…” Lily groaned, trying to roll away from the offending noise of Wembley so close to her face, but finding herself trapped. She opened her eyes and looked around; the room was illuminated by the morning light, which filtered through the curtains in colored streaks. At some point in the night she must have rolled onto her stomach. Boober was curled up on top of the covers between her legs. She laid her head back down on the pillow for a moment, every ache and sore muscle becoming apparent.
    Her body had never been worked so thoroughly in her life.
    After returning home, she had spent the entire night trying not to walk funny in front of her father. When George had finally noticed her slight limp, she’d simply played it off as a result of overexerting herself at the gym. She laughed at the memory, deciding that “overexertion” was probably the understatement of the century.
    “
Mrowwrrrr
”
    “Alright, Wembley,” Lily sighed. “Let Mama up, babies.” She wiggled her legs until Boober moved, allowing her the freedom to get out of the rumpled sheets. Moaning and stretching as she stood, she threw on a robe and went downstairs to feed her cats.
    Sitting down at the table with a bowl of cereal, Lily wasn’t surprised to find the usual Saturday morning note from her father explaining that he would be gone hunting all day. Rolling her eyes at the thought of even more meat in the freezer, she finished her breakfast and set about finishing her weekend chores.
    As she threw in a load of laundry and cleaned the bathroom, she did her best to avoid thinking about the amazing things that had happened to her the day before in that crappy apartment. Lily knew dwelling on it would only drive her crazy, and if she actually intended on repeating her not-so-noble actions, then she would have to learn to cope with the feelings of withdrawal whenever she went back to her less-than-interesting life.
    She knew she had been unfaithful and disloyal to Scott. She also knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this man had made her feel more alive in two days than she had ever felt in her entire life. This was a fleeting affair. She had absolutely no idea how long he would be around and that uncertainty made her want to lock herself away with him in that apartment, soaking up every ounce of passion she could get her hands