Page 41 of Endgame

“Good points, all. But what about this whole shared bathroom situation? Like, I wouldn’t be sharing with either you or Bear because you already share one, yes? So I’d have to share with some random guy?”

She cringed at the thought. She had three little brothers, after all. Falling into the toilet in the middle of the night because they forgot to put the seat back down? Not awesome.

“Yes, you are correct that you would have to share a bathroom with a dude, but he will be thoroughly vetted by me, so he won’t be a creep. I’ll also threaten to kick his ass if he leaves the toilet seat up. And, just so you know, there are both inside and outside locks on the bathroom doors. So you can lock it when you’re inside the bathroom for privacy, and you can also lock your door from the inside of your room so no one can enter it from the bathroom.”

That made her feel marginally better. If she could handle a house full of females during shark week and a naked roommate in lotus pose, she could handle sharing a bathroom with a guy. And the truth was, she didn’t really have any other options at this point.

“You really think this is a good idea?” she asked, uncertain.

“I think it’s one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Plus, you can’t beat the commute. You can move in today if you want. The other room will probably be vacant until fall semester starts anyway, because a lot of people go home for the summer.”

Lila could only think of one reason why she’d refuse, and he lived across the street from Knight. But she was bound to see him at some point anyway, wasn’t she? There was no avoiding it when they shared a best friend. She also wasn’t positive he was still planning on living there anyway or that he would even be returning back to school. So Lila decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it.

“Okay, Knight. I’m in.”

“This is going to be the best summer and senior year ever,” Knight cheered.

“Junior year for me. But I guess senior year for me too, since I’m hellbent on graduating in three years.”

“Genius pants.”

“Says the guy with the eidetic memory.”

“It has its positives and its negatives.”

“Touché, my friend. Touché. All right, I’ll pack my shit and be there later tonight.”

“Need any help?”

“Nah, I don’t have that much stuff. It shouldn’t take me too long.”

“Then I’ll pick up the Ben and Jerry’s and have it ready for you.”

“See, this is why we’re best friends. You get me.”

“I really, really do.”

They said their goodbyes, and Lila made her way back to her apartment. Vicky and Dani had already moved out, and so it was just her and Becky until the end of the week. She wrinkled her nose at the sight of Becky’s white noise machine.

Definitely not going to miss those womb sounds, she thought with a smile as she packed up her stuff. The benefit of attending a university that required off campus housing to be furnished with, at the bare minimum, a bed, a dresser, and a desk, was that she had no heavy furniture to move. Just her clothes and toiletries and a few decorative items she’d added to her room and the apartment. It only took a few trips to her car, and then she was ready to go.

Not wanting to be a total jerk, she wrote Becky a little note as a way of saying goodbye, stuck it on the sound machine, and then drove over to her new place.

Chapter 23

“Lila!” The chorus of deep male voices greeted her as soon as she walked in the door. Bear, Knight, and Will were all sitting on the U-shaped sectional in the front room and eyed the bags in her hands expectantly. She’d been living with Knight and Bear for a couple of months now, and it had become a bit of a tradition for her to bring them home food if she was working a closing shift. When Bryan, the owner of The Pub, found out that she was living with Bradley U athletes, he basically gave her carte blanche to take home what she wanted. Which definitely helped her score some major points with her roomies.

Surprisingly, she’d only seen King a handful of times, mostly in passing. She suspected that he and Knight had purposely coordinated hanging out with each other when she was at work, on campus taking a few classes to ensure she could graduate early, or otherwise not at the house. Which was a relief, because her heart was still doing that stupid thing where it did a series of cartwheels in her chest and then promptly bottomed out whenever he was in her proximity. Or whenever she heard his name. She didn’t quite know what to do about that, but she’d gotten a lot better at suppressing it. Hopefully one day, the feeling would fade altogether.

“You all expecting something?” she teased, even as she moved over to the kitchen island and started taking to-go boxes out of the bags. “Knight, there’s ribs tonight. And Bear, some of those spicy hot wings you’re obsessed with. Will, I know you’re a sucker for those oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so there are some of those as well.”

Bear dug into the wings. “Seriously Lila, if I were into chicks, I’d marry you tonight.”

“High praise, Bear. High praise, indeed.” Lila went over to the fridge and grabbed a rose lemonade. Her guys, as she’d come to call them, knew she liked them, and they weren’t always available at the grocery store, so whenever they saw them while out shopping, they’d grab a pack for her. It turned out that living with a house full of males wasn’t so bad, especially since the parties were on such a smaller scale since it was summertime. She missed Wren and her girls, but that’s why FaceTime, What’s App, and Marco Polo existed. There were multiple threads happening so they all still felt connected.

“So Lila darling, we were talking about going super throwback and having an epic Die Hard franchise movie marathon tomorrow night. Most of the guys have never seen it. Because obviously they don’t have excellent vintage film tastes like you and me,” Knight said between bites. “You in?”

Lila winced. “As much as I would love to revel in the excellence that is John McClane, I can’t. I have plans.”

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