Interlude: Marai (1)

"You're living where?"

"With Auntie Mal's son, Eli."

"Eli, who lives a floor down? Broody Eli? Eli Crewan?"

"I know you don't like him, but he's pretty cool."

Marai sat back, a little blindsided. "I don't not like him."

Bel raised her brows at her, but it was true.

Eli Crewan, who'd been living for five years as their downstairs neighbor, was a corporate fratboy, though quieter than most of that type.

Marai would've written him off if not for the awesomeness of his mother.

She was a queen.

If not for the woman suddenly half-adopting all the noisy bratty kids in the building and giving Marai some peace and quiet, she was fair certain she wouldn't have passed her college finals.

She shook that brief foray into the past from her mind. The cousin sitting before her was…

"I thought you were with your college friends, not one flipping floor away."