Unapologetically, Juliet

Chapter Five

"JULIET, open this door or I'll break it down!" I'd heard the pounding start halfway through my shower, but I'd kinda hoped they'd get the message that I was busy and leave me alone.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. But I finished the rest of my shower anyway.

Quickly throwing on clothes and wrapping my soaking wet hair in a towel, I made my way to the front door, where King was patiently waiting to find out who would be coming to see us at ten in the morning. On a Saturday, too.

I swung the door open and grinned when I saw Grimm filling up my doorway with a scowl on his face. He was only two years older than the twins and I, but sometimes it was hard to tell, what with his scruffy beard and too tan skin. His longish sandy hair almost reached his broad shoulders, but he wouldn't cut it for anything. He always looked like he worked outside way too much. Mostly because when they weren't working jobs, he had side employment as a construction worker.

"You look ravishing, Jules. What're you up to today?" He crossed through my apartment and fell onto one of my two sofas. Closing the door behind him, I turned around and held in a reluctant groan.

"What do you want?" I pinched the bridge of my nose while King went over and jumped up into Grimm's lap, purring so loudly I was almost sure the neighbors could hear it too.

"Come on, can't I come over and hang out with you without having an ulterior motive?"

I shot him a pointed stare. "Do I have to remind you how you broke up Max and I because you needed my help with a job you'd almost fucked over? Oooh, or last month when you barged in at two in the morning and got attacked by King because of it? All for seventy bucks to pay Ro for a bet."

"Hey, you know how he gets when someone doesn't pay up on time. I can't afford anymore crooked fingers! How is it they always heal weird?" He held up his hands to show me his gnarly fingers. I laughed at the expression on his face.

"Maybe because you never actually get them set by professionals." I sat down across from him, trying not to be jealous by the fact that King loved him more than me. He always had.

"Don't say that straight to Les' face. He thinks having a wilderness first responder's license makes him qualified to practice his version of medicine on us." Grimm rolled the same bright blue eyes that all the Burke siblings had.

"And you let him!"

"Let's not make that the thing we focus on." Grimm shot me that sly smile of his, the one he usually used to woo girls with. I'd been immune to his charms for years, although I had fallen for them once in my early teenage days.

"What are you here for anyway?"

That time he didn't try to beat around the bush, which I was grateful for. "I met a girl, and I need your help."

"With what exactly?" I raised my eyebrows as I watched the man cuddle with King like no else could. Except me, of course. Sometimes, I really thought he liked trying to make me jealous. King not Grimm.

"Is two weeks too soon to know you're in love?" The starry-eyed look on his face almost seemed genuine.

"Grimm, what do you really want?"

"Fine. You know, sometimes I just don't understand how you always figure it out. I even fool my brothers and sisters every once in a while, but never you." I stared at him blankly until he decided to give up the bullshit. "Can I borrow your horror movie collection? I'm seeing this girl, and she's never watched a bunch of them, I thought we'd get into the October Halloween spirit. Oh, and while you're at it, do you have any weed I could buy too?"