Roommates (Soulmates #1)

by Hazel Kelly

  And as I approached it, I noticed there were more on the drying rack at the side of the room that he’d made using a variety of other bright colors.

  My chest swelled with pride as I heard the apartment door swing open and shut behind me.

  He walked in wiping his hands on his favorite pair of paint splattered jeans. "Jenny."

  "I love them."

  He smiled. "Yeah?"

  I nodded.

  "I like them, too," he said. "But you should see the model. They really don't do her justice."

  I couldn't suppress my wide smile. "She must be really beautiful then."

  "Blindingly," he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

  I hooked my fingers in the loops of his jeans. "How will I ever compete with her for your attention?"

  "I have a few ideas," he said, a mischievous grin giving his filthy thoughts away.

  I smacked his chest.

  "How was your audition?"

  "It was okay."

  He furrowed his brow. "Just okay?"

  I shrugged. "I got the sense that the director already made his mind up and was only sitting through the auditions because people bothered showing up."

  He cocked his head.

  "Either that or he's a robot who only stays alive by playing games on his phone."

  He scrunched his face. "Sorry."

  "It's okay," I said. "I'm actually feeling more optimistic with every audition."

  "Each no gets you closer to a yes."

  “That’s what I’m telling myself. Plus, Ira has kept his promise of getting me seen."

  "I suppose that's true."

  I ran a finger down his chest. "I hope you thanked your friend for me- Ira’s nephew who got me the appointment in the first place?"

  "Why don't you thank him yourself?"

  I raised my eyebrows.

  "I want you to come to the club tomorrow."

  "Are you sure you'll be able to concentrate if I'm there?"

  "Actually, it's for a private party so I'll be slacking off pretty hard."

  "I would like to see where you work."

  "And I'd like you to meet my friends."

  "Really?"

  He nodded and pulled me towards him.

  "Would I be meeting them as your stepsister or-"

  "You'll be meeting them as my wet hot lover."

  I laughed and looked down to hide my burning cheeks.

  "What do you say?"

  I looked up at him and furrowed my brow. "Are you sure?"

  "Of course I'm sure."

  "What's the party for?"

  "It's an engagement party," he said. "For my boss."

  "Ben?"

  He nodded. "One of many if I had to guess."

  "And you want me to be your date?"

  "Date, drinking buddy- whatever you want to call it."

  "And what if someone asks how we met?"

  He squinted at the ceiling before looking back at me. "Say I saved you from a burning building."

  I rolled my eyes.

  "I would you know."

  "Yeah, but-"

  "Or that I pulled you out of the Hudson after your tour boat capsized."

  I squinted at him.

  "Or that I threw myself in front of a bus to keep you from getting-"

  "Why does it have to be a story about you saving me?" I folded my arms. "Why don't we tell them that I saved you?"

  "We could," he said. "But lying is more fun."

  I fixed my eyes on him. "Oh, that's the truth, then, is it? That I saved you?"

  "More times than you know."

  I pursed my lips.

  "To be honest, I don't care what you tell them, and I care even less what they think."

  I took a deep breath, my inhale forcing my chest towards his.

  "All I care about is giving my friends a chance to meet the reason I'm in such a good mood these days."

  "You are in a pretty good mood."

  He laughed. "I know. I'm almost so smug I'm annoying myself."

  "Well, in that case, I'd be delighted to introduce myself as the reason you've gotten so annoying."

  "Great, cause I already said you'd come."

  I craned my neck forwards. "You did?!"

  "Yeah," he said, backing out of the room. "I figured once you knew I'd be there, you wouldn't be able to resist coming along."

  I shook my head and followed after him.

  He opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

  "Only if you're sure," I said, sliding onto one of the barstools.

  "Why the doubts?" he asked, leaning a hand on the counter. "Why wouldn't I be sure?"

  "I don't know." I shrugged. "I guess because once I meet your friends, you can't take it back."

  "Take what back?"

  "This," I said, waving my hands between us. "Along with everything that's happened between these walls in the last two weeks."

  "Why would I want to take any of this back? It would be like returning the only gift I ever really wanted."

  I reached for his water. "Is that what this feels like to you?"

  He handed me the bottle. "Of course. I've wanted you since I got on the bus that day-"

  "And completely ignored me."

  "What can I say? It was part of my slow seduction strategy."

  I laughed and set the bottle on the counter. "It was slow alright. I nearly died waiting."

  He raised his finger. "It was worth the wait in the end, though."

  "Was it?" I asked, cocking my head. "I can't really remember. It's been so long since I saw any of your moves-"

  And with that, he scooped me off the barstool and fireman carried me to the bedroom.

  Chapter 46: Ethan

  I could tell she was nervous on the way to the club.

  She kept making me check her teeth for lip gloss, and she was fidgeting like crazy, pushing her hair in front of her ear and then behind it and then in front of it and then-

  "You look great, Jen."

  She looked at me through grateful eyes. "Sorry. I'm a little nervous."

  "I know," I said, clocking a passing street sign. "But there's no reason to be. My friends are going to love you."

  "And if they don't?"

  "Then they aren't my fucking friends anymore, how's that?"

  She scrunched her face. "Excessive?"

  "Look, it's an engagement party for two people who are in the mood to celebrate happy couples, and seeing as how we just became one, we'll fit right in."

  "Did we become one?” she asked, cocking her head. “When did that happen?"

  "Around the time I made that print and you dropped to your-"

  She elbowed me in the ribs and glanced in the rearview mirror, but our Uber driver didn't seem to be paying attention. "Speaking of inappropriate,” she said. “When I first met Ira, he said he expected me to be more butch."

  I raised my eyebrows.

  "And bald. He thought I was going to be bald.”

  I swallowed.

  "Is anyone at this party expecting me to be bald and butch?" She turned an ear towards me. "Cause I'd really like to know now if I'm going to disappoint."

  I sighed.

  "Well?"

  "Christophe will probably be surprised."

  "And why is that?"

  "Cause when you first came to town, he started asking all these questions about you, and I wanted to squash his interest."

  "By telling him I was a hairless lesbian?"

  "By encouraging him to stop trying to picture you naked."

  "Sounds like a real charmer."

  "Oh he is,” I said.

  "Anything else I should know?"

  I squinted at her. "You probably shouldn't tell everyone how in love with me you are."

  She blinked.

  "Cause I don't want our love to overshadow the happy couple's."

  "You're so full of it."

  I reached around and squeezed her waist. "You're going to be so full of it if
you don't watch it."

  She smiled. "I better be."

  "It has been a full two hours since-"

  "I just hope we can make it to the end of the party."

  "If there's an emergency, just say the code word."

  She furrowed her brows. "What's the code word?"

  I glanced at the driver and put a finger over my lips.

  "How am I supposed to say the code word if I don’t know what it is-"

  "I'll know."

  "And what if you don't pick up on it?"

  "I will."

  She narrowed her eyes at me.

  "And if I don't for some reason, just drink your whole drink all at once."

  She raised her eyebrows. "That's a signal you won't miss, is it?"

  "It's a signal I'm highly trained to notice."

  She groaned and looked out her window but crossed her bare legs towards me.

  It felt great to have her as my date, but she was so much more than that.

  In the last two weeks, we'd sunk into a domestic routine that I was already getting used to… apart from how regularly I was waking up in the night with a dead arm from holding her while we slept.

  But that was the kind of thing we could get better at in time.

  And I was willing to work at it.

  That's how I knew it was serious.

  I'd met lots of women in the past that I had chemistry with, women who were great in bed and good company and easy on the eyes. But none of them were perfect.

  And neither was Jen. But in her case, I was willing to put up with the occasional disagreement, the occasional clogged sink, and the occasional wet towel on the bed.

  If anything, I felt kind of lucky to be the guy with her hair in my sink, the guy who knew all her little quirks.

  I knew what Taylor Swift songs she liked to sing in the shower, knew the weird way she ate Kit Kats so the wafer was the last part to go. I even knew when she was tired because she'd get so visibly cold her lips would change color.

  And with every little oddity I learned about, I fell for her a little more.

  I was especially enamored of the way she bit her lip before she dropped down to give me head, which she'd done only two hours ago in the shower.

  Hence my being so relaxed.

  But it wasn't just the sex. She was everything I could ever want in a woman- everything I ever had wanted- and it made the whole thing pretty surreal.

  "I guess there's a lot riding on tonight," she said, looking back my way.

  I furrowed my brow. "Why do you say that?"

  "Because." She shrugged. "If this goes well we might think about telling our parents."

  I clenched my jaw.

  "Unless you think this is a short term-"

  "Of course I don't," I said, putting a hand on her knee.

  "So why the long face?"

  "There's a chance they won't understand."

  "A very good chance," she said. "But don't you think they would in time?"

  "I like to think so."

  "That's why I think the sooner we come clean, the sooner we can relax."

  "I feel pretty relaxed as it is."

  "Well, I don't," she said. "I hate feeling like I have to hide how happy I am from the people I care about."

  "I'm glad you're happy."

  She sighed. “Too happy maybe."

  "Why too happy?"

  "Because I'm on such an ecstatic level of happiness it feels unsustainable."

  "Me too," I said. "But no matter what happens, we'll get through it."

  She smiled and leaned her head on my shoulder. "I suppose we've survived being miserable together before, too."

  "Yeah, but we’ll never be that unhappy again."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because I'm never going to let anything come between us again, least of all anyone else's agenda."

  She lifted her head. “That means a lot coming from the best roommate I ever had."

  I rolled my eyes. "I can't tell if that's a promotion or a demotion."

  "It just is what it is. That's all. No labels necessary."

  "I suppose labels have caused us some heartache in the past."

  She nodded. "Too much."

  "So how will we explain it to my old man?"

  She shrugged. "I don't know yet, but it's not going to be with the leaked sex tape idea you suggested last night."

  I smiled. "Shouldn't we make one just in case?"

  "Only if I can't get a break without it."

  My face dropped. "You wouldn't really consider-"

  "Shame on you," she said, smacking my chest. "As if."

  Chapter 47: Jenny

  He was a complete gentleman. Not only did he introduce me to everyone perfectly- as Jenny- but his hand was constantly finding my lower back just when I needed it to.

  Most of the guests were concentrated in a large VIP room at the back of the club.

  Apparently the bride to be, Carrie, decorated it herself, which is how she met Ben. There were quite a few toasts that made jokes about it. I guess she moved on to his apartment once he put a ring on it- a gorgeous ring at that.

  After Ethan introduced me to his friends, we got some drinks and took a seat at one of the scalloped tables jutting out from the wall.

  "There are some other people I have to say hi to,” he said. “But they aren't important."

  "Does that mean I've embarrassed you already?" I looked down at an invisible watch. "We haven't even been here for two hours."

  "I'm genuinely trying to spare you, but you're welcome to come if you want."

  A pretty brunette with two much eye makeup appeared beside the table in a black dress that I believe was supposed to look deliberately disheveled. "How about all these rich people, huh?"

  Ethan smiled. "Nora, this is Jenny."

  She raised her eyebrows. "Your Jenny, I take it?"

  "My Jenny," he said, squeezing my knee under the table.

  "In that case, I'll spare her the stories you’re least proud," she said, sitting down.

  I reached across the table and shook her hand.

  "Can I get you a drink?" Ethan asked, raising his eyebrows.

  "Only if you can get it faster than Woody can."

  Ethan stood up. "Glad to know he's already on the case."

  I tried to give Ethan a look that said, “Who is this person and why are you leaving me with her?”

  "You'll be happier here with Nora," he said. "I promise. And I would've introduced you to Woody already if I'd seen him but-"

  "We just got here," Nora said, batting her caked eyelashes.

  Ethan pointed at her. "No stories."

  She rolled her eyes.

  I watched him walk away.

  "Might want to tuck your tongue back in your mouth," she said.

  "Sorry.” I scrunched my face. “This is just still kind of new."

  "You don't have to explain." She leaned back in the tall booth. "I get it."

  Could she possibly?

  "You know all those Tinder horror stories you read about online?" she asked.

  I nodded.

  "They're all mine."

  "What?"

  "All of them," she said. "Or the equivalent."

  “I see.”

  "And then last year I met- get this- a homeless guy, well, formerly homeless, and I'm in deeper, cheesier love than I ever thought a weirdo like me deserved."

  "I know the feeling."

  She cocked her head. "Cause you're a weirdo, too?"

  I shrugged.

  She nodded. "I can tell."

  I raised my eyebrows.

  "I bet if Ethan met you ten years ago, you guys never would've worked."

  What the fuck?

  "I mean, he's such a jock, and you're obviously like a drama geek or something."

  I squinted at her. "What makes you say that?"

  "You just have that extra flair about you that other people don't have.”

  “Is that so?”

 
; She nodded. “I mean, I only picked up on it because my best friend works in a gallery."

  "Oh yeah?"

  "So I'm sensitive to creative types.”

  “Wow.”

  “I'm right, aren't I?" she asked.

  I nodded. "You are."

  "Like, you seem kind of shy, but I bet if someone pumped you full of vodka and handed you the mic, you'd be doing lines from the Tempest in no time."

  I laughed. "You're nuts."

  "So is my boyfriend. He's the same. Totally reserved unless he's sure he's got your full attention, in which case you better be in the mood for a dramatic monologue."

  "Is he an actor, too?"

  "No, a poet. He also does security here."

  I furrowed my brow. "And what about you?"

  "I'm Carrie's assistant."

  "So you saw all the love blossom between her and Ben?"

  She nodded. "Front row seats."

  "That must've been nice."

  "Meh." She shrugged. "It's better when it's happening to you."

  "Agreed."

  "You been in love before?" she asked, eyeing my drink.

  "Do you want some?" I slid it towards her. "To hold you over until your knight arrives with yours?"

  "Thanks." She took a healthy swig and scooted it back towards me. "Ooh that's nice. I wish I'd asked for that."

  "It’s some kind of boozy Shirley Temple, I guess."

  She smiled, her plum lips bringing out her bright teeth. "Sounds dangerous."

  "Time will tell," I said, reaching for my straw.

  "So is this your first time?"

  "At Club Abbott or-"

  "No, being in love."

  "Yeah." My first for a long time, more like.

  "Think it's your last?"

  I smiled. "I hope so."

  "You guys are cute together."

  "Thanks."

  "And Ethan's amazing."

  "I know."

  She leaned forward. "I was only teasing him about the stories before," she said. "Most of the ones I know about only make him look good."

  "Oh?"

  "One night I was here, and he gave a girl mouth to mouth and literally saved her life."

  "He never mentioned that."

  "It was really scary and awesome."

  "Sounds like it."

  "Always nice to have a boyfriend who gives good mouth to mouth, anyway."

  My cheeks burned.

  "There was another night when some guy fell while he was dancing and opened his hand up on his busted beer bottle."