Chapter 9

Meghan's POV

I wake up slowly to the smell of food drifting through the apartment.

For a second, I’m too dazed to understand where I am.

Then warmth presses against my back.

Strong.

Steady.

My sleepy brain catches up all at once.

Ollie.

I freeze instantly, suddenly hyperaware of the position I’m in. I’m facing the wall while one of Ollie’s arms is wrapped securely around my waist, holding me against him like sometime during the night he decided letting me go wasn’t an option.

Heat rushes straight to my face.

His chest rises slowly against my back, warm breaths fanning lightly against my neck, and my entire body short-circuits trying to process the fact that this man, this ridiculously attractive stranger is in my bed holding me like this.

I am absolutely doomed.

I feel him stir slightly behind me, and panic immediately kicks in.

I need to get up.

I really, really need to pee.

Carefully, I try squirming out of his arm without waking him, inching forward slowly

Only for his grip to tighten instinctively.

A quiet groan leaves him, deep and rough with sleep, before his voice rumbles softly behind me.

“Mornin’, Megs.”

Oh.

Oh no.

Every nerve ending in my body lights on fire.

Not only is he somehow even hotter half asleep, but he woke up and immediately said my name like it belonged in his mouth.

I’m done for.

Completely.

I scramble awkwardly out of his hold before my brain melts entirely, nearly tripping over my own blanket in the process.

“Ihavetopee,” I ramble in one breath while fleeing toward the bathroom.

I hear the faintest sleepy chuckle behind me before the door shuts.

The second I’m alone, I grip the bathroom sink and stare at myself in the mirror.

Deep breath in.

Out.

Again.

What is happening to me?

How can someone I just met make me feel this deeply this quickly? It makes no logical sense. None.

And yet every time he touches me, looks at me, says my name

It feels like my body already knows him.

Like some part of me recognized him long before I did.

I splash cold water on my face, hoping it’ll calm me down.

It doesn’t.

When I finally walk back out of the bathroom, my room is empty.

The bed’s slightly messy, blankets tossed aside where he’d been laying, and my door is cracked open now.

Voices drift faintly down the hallway.

Laughter.

I hesitate for half a second before following the sound toward the kitchen.

The second I step into view, every conversation pauses.

My roommates are scattered around the kitchen island looking varying levels of exhausted and hungover while three unfamiliar men take up the rest of the space.

That alone makes me stop.

I don’t know them.

Not at all.

My grip tightens slightly on the hem of my hoodie as I take them in, trying to place them, trying to understand why they’re in our apartment like they belong here.

One of them is leaning casually against the counter like he owns it, eating something off a plate that definitely wasn’t his. Another is sitting at the island with his elbows resting on the counter, watching the room with a calm, observant expression. The third is pouring coffee like he’s done it a hundred times before.

And then

Ollie looks up.

The moment his eyes land on me, something in his expression shifts. Softer. Relieved. Like he’s been waiting for me to appear before he could fully relax.

“There she is,” he says quietly, like it matters.

Before I can even ask what’s going on, one of the guys grins and gestures vaguely around the room. “Sleeping Beauty finally joins the land of the living.”

Kylah gasps from her spot on the counter. “OH my God, you guys didn’t wake her up?”

Eliana groans. “Please don’t start.”

Anya leans forward immediately, eyes sparkling. “Wait. Introduce us to your friends first before you start interrogating her life choices.”

Ollie lets out a small exhale like he’s amused by all of it, then nods slightly toward the three men.

“Right,” he says, setting his coffee down.

His gaze flicks to each of them in turn, casual but familiar in a way that makes my confusion worse.

“This is Shane,” he starts.

The guy leaning at the counter gives me a small nod, calm and collected. “Hey.”

Ollie’s voice drops slightly as he continues, “Adrian.”

The one at the island lifts two fingers in a lazy wave, eyes briefly flicking over me before going back to the room like he’s already figured everything out.

“And Luca,” Ollie finishes, nodding toward the last one, who immediately grins like he’s been waiting for attention.

“Hi,” Luca says brightly. “Nice to meet you. We’ve heard… a lot.”

My eyes narrow slightly. “That doesn’t sound reassuring.”

“It shouldn’t,” Adrian mutters, earning a snort from Shane.

I glance back at Ollie, still trying to piece together how they all fit into this moment, into last night, into him being in my bed like it was the most natural thing in the world.

And Ollie just watches me for a second longer than necessary.

Like he’s making sure I’m okay.

Like last night still matters.

Like I still matter in it.

And I don’t know what to do with that feeling.

“How do you know each other?” I ask, my eyes landing on Ollie.

He doesn’t answer right away.

Instead, Luca does.

“We’re all roommates,” he says easily, like it’s the most normal thing in the world. He jerks his chin toward the rest of them. “Live just two blocks down. Here for college, bars, girls—”

He smirks at the last word, eyes flicking toward Eliana in a way that instantly earns him a glare.

“Don’t start,” she warns.

“Too late,” Kylah mutters under her breath.

I stay quiet, still trying to make sense of all of it. The energy in the room is too familiar for how unfamiliar it should feel, like I’ve been dropped into the middle of something already in motion.

I give a small, uncertain nod and peel off toward the counter, grabbing a plate and loading up a piece of bacon before pouring myself coffee.

The warmth of the mug settles in my hands, grounding me more than anything else has since last night.

I don’t really say anything else.

Neither does Ollie.

But I feel him watching me for a second too long before he turns back to whatever he was doing at the stove.

And that alone is enough to make my chest tighten in a way I don’t fully understand.

I drift away from the kitchen, coffee in hand, and sink into the couch.

The apartment is loud behind me again, laughing, teasing, the clatter of plates, Luca saying something that makes Eliana threaten his life, but it all starts to blur at the edges.

Like I’m not fully in it.

Like I’m sitting just slightly outside of myself, watching everything happen through glass.

I pull my knees up under me, staring down into my coffee.

Last night keeps replaying in fragments I can’t fully organize.

The bar.

Julien.

The hand at my waist.

The feeling of being held like I mattered.

Ollie’s voice in the dark.

Ollie’s arms around me like it was the most natural thing in the world.

My stomach twists.

I shouldn’t feel like this.

Not about someone I barely know.

Not about someone who somehow feels like—

I cut the thought off before it finishes.

Because whatever that word is trying to become in my head, I don’t have a name for it yet.

So I just sit there.

Listening to the noise of everyone else.

Trying very hard not to think about him across the room.