Page 71 of Accidental Roommates

“Morning!” I hear her cheery voice behind me.

I turn and see her coming into the kitchen, wearing shorts and a tank, her hair wet from the shower.

“Good morning. How’d you sleep?”

“Great!” She opens a cupboard and grabs a glass. “Thanks for the blanket.”

“You’re welcome. I didn’t want you getting cold.”

She fills her glass with water from the sink. “I need to get groceries today.”

“You can help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge. I’m not one of those roommates who keeps track of my food or labels it with my name.”

She laughs. “My friend, Tori, had a roommate like that. She wrote her name on all her food and made Tori do the same. Once she even weighed her peanut butter because she swore Tori ate some of it.”

“Did she?”

“No. But she found another place to live after that.”

I take out the jar of peanut butter and hand it to her. “Have all you want.”

She smiles. “That actually does sound good. You have any bread?”

I take it from the cupboard and offer it to her. “All I have is whole wheat.”

“That works.” She takes it from me and starts making a peanut butter sandwich on a paper towel. “Tori called me last night.”

“The friend you were talking about?”

“Yeah. She’s been traveling for work so I haven’t talked to her for a couple weeks. I told her about Liam. She didn’t seem that surprised. Well, she pretended to be surprised, but I don’t think she was. She never liked him.”

“Friends usually see what we don’t.”

“Did your friends like Nikki?”

“They hated her. They thought she was hot, but they didn’t like hanging out with her. They always said she was using me.”

“For what?”

“Money. Gifts. I gave her whatever she wanted. She was totally using me, but I didn’t see it when I was with her.” I dump some protein powder in my shaker bottle and go to the sink to add water. “Do you have any plans for today?”

“I want to walk around campus and make sure I know where my classes are so I’m not lost tomorrow. Oh, and I need to go to the bookstore. You want to come with?”

“I can’t. I have to work.”

“That’s right. I forgot. What are your hours?”

“Ten to seven.” I shake up my bottle, then pop the lid off and guzzle it down.

“You want to do something when you’re done? Or I could make us dinner. I’m not a great cook, but I feel I owe you since you made me dinner Friday night.”

“You don’t owe me, but if you want to make dinner sometime, I’m all for it. I never turn down a homemade meal.”

“Did Nikki make dinner much?”

I laugh. “Nikki doesn’t cook. Or clean up. She won’t even put dishes in the dishwasher. Says it makes her hands dirty.”

“So what do you think? Dinner tonight?”

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