Page 104 of Accidental Roommates

“Um, no. It’s someone I’ve known since before classes started.”

“You didn’t know anyone then.” She pauses. “Except Liam, but it wasn’t him, so who else could it be? Someone you met at that pool party?”

“No.” I hesitate, because I know she’ll tell me I shouldn’t have done it with Jace.

“Just hurry up and tell me.”

“It was Jace.”

“Your roommate?”

“Yeah, we didn’t mean for it to happen. We were at a party, then we came home and were fighting, and the next thing I knew we were in his bed.”

She doesn’t say anything.

“I know it was a bad idea, but at the time I wasn’t thinking that. Anyway, now we’re back to just being roommates.”

“Is that what you want?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then why do you sound so sad?”

“I don’t. I’m fine with Jace and me just being friends. It’d never work for us to date. If we broke up, I’d be out on the streets. I’d have nowhere to go.”

“I doubt he’d leave you homeless.”

“There’s nothing he could do about it. There’s no place to live in this town. I’d have to move a half hour away to find an apartment. But aside from that, I can’t get into a relationship right now. I’m going to casually date so I can figure out what type of guy I really want.”

“What about Jace?”

“What about him?”

“Is he the type of guy you’d want?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t matter because, well, it just doesn’t.”

“What if it does matter? What if he was the guy?”

“But how would I know that? I need to date a lot of guys to know what I want so I don’t end up with another version of Liam.”

“I get the dating around thing, but if your heart tells you Jace might be the one, I wouldn’t ignore that.”

“You seriously think I can trust my heart? After it fell in love with Liam? A guy who cheated on me?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I don’t think your heart was really that into Liam. I think you loved the version of Liam you wanted him to be, a sweet caring boyfriend who wanted a future with you. But that was never Liam. I could see it, but you never could.”

My eyes are tearing up because she’s right. Liam was never the guy I imagined him to be. He was selfish and immature and said really hurtful things to me, but I overlooked it all because I wanted him to be the one.

“Listen, Kenzie, I don’t know this Jace guy, but from what you’ve told me about him, he sounds like he’s a better match for you than Liam ever was.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because he helped you get through one of the worst times of your life. You barely knew the guy, and yet he had you smiling just hours after Liam broke your heart. Remember that photo you texted me of you at the laser tag place?”

It was a photo of me aiming my laser gun at a cardboard zombie, laughing and smiling. It really is amazing Jace was able to cheer me up like that so soon after Liam dumped me.

“Jace and I can’t date. What happened last night was a one-time thing. We talked about it and, well, it’s just not gonna happen.”

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