Chasing Redemption (Book 2 of Chasing Series)

Thirteen | House guest

Xavier moves his belongings into my house a few hours later.

My apartment is small which means a guest bedroom does not exist. Instead, he's giving the luxury of sleeping on my couch.

At least I'd given up one of my drawers for his clothes. He could have just lived out of his duffel bag.

"What's for dinner, detective?"

I'm sitting in my room on my only day off, watching reruns of Law & Order. He saunters into my room like he's already made himself at home.

I scoff, pausing the episode.

"I'm not your mother," I jab. "You're the one that forced yourself to stay here."

He crosses his arms over his chest, leaning against the door frame.

"Something else?" I raise an eyebrow. "I'm in the middle of something."

He laughs, walking further into the room. He flops back onto my bed, stretching his arms back behind his head.

I glare at him but he's choosing to ignore me.

"What are we watching then?"

"I'm watching Law & Order. Not sure what you're watching, though."

I go to play the episode again when he doesn't move, but he grabs the remote turning the tv off.

"What the—"

"Let's go," he says suddenly.

"Go? You go home? By yourself? Sounds like a great idea."

"Supermarket. We're making dinner."

I roll my eyes. "I've got plenty of food here."

"Nothing that's actually decent or going to fill me," he scoffs.

"Then go by yourself some McDonalds, Xavier. I'm not gonna be dragged around a supermarket with you."

Half an hour later, I'm being dragged around a supermarket with him.

I cringe at the three chocolate bars he adds to the trolley. It already includes five packets of varieties of candy, bags of chips, ice cream, artificial cereals and fruit drinks that don't even contain actual juice.

"Im still not sure why I had to be here for this," I say. "You haven't bothered to find a single thing we can actually eat for dinner."

He completely ignores me, eyeing the shelves for his next snack.

I observe him quietly for a moment, noting how weird it is to see him doing something so mundane. His tough guy act is barely visible and I wonder if he's even aware of it.

I'm suddenly reminded of Thomas and the ongoing case. Could Xavier really involved himself in something like this again?

"Hey, detective."

My attention snaps back towards him as he waves two types of biscuits in my face.

"Which flavour?"

I snatch both from his hands, putting them back on the shelf like he's a child that keeps pulling things off.

"I'm going to go and get some ingredients for dinner. You do what you want."

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An hour later, we finally arrive home.

"Never again," I state. "I'm never going shopping with you again."