Page 37 of Accidental Roommates

“Don’t be sorry. If you want to keep using my shoulder as a pillow, go ahead. It’s all yours.”

I hesitate, wanting to accept his offer but knowing I probably shouldn’t.

“I could put a shirt on,” he says. “Actually, I should’ve done that earlier.” He gets up. “I’ll be right back.”

Put a shirt on? I was enjoying the sight of him without one. But it’s probably for the best that he puts one on so I stop having dirty thoughts about him.

He returns wearing a blue t-shirt. “Need anything before I sit down? Water? Soda? Whiskey?”

I laugh at the whiskey suggestion. “No, but thanks for offering.”

“That’s why I came out here earlier.” He sits beside me in the spot he was at before, so close our bodies are touching.

“What do you mean?” I ask, trying to ignore the heat rising inside me. The same thing happened during laser tag. Our bodies kept touching as we moved to hide, or shoot, or make our way along the narrow trail. By the time we were out of there, I was so hot I was sweating. He was too. We both blamed the game, saying it was too hot in that room, but that wasn’t the reason I was burning up inside.

“I came out here to get a shot of whiskey to help me sleep,” Jace says. “Actually, if I hadn’t found you out here, I might’ve finished off the bottle.”

“But now you don’t want to?”

“No. It’s not gonna help. Even if it did knock me out for an hour or two, I’d wake up feeling sick and I don’t want to feel that way. I’ve got shit to do tomorrow.”

“What are you doing?”

“Not sure.” He turns to me. “What do you want to do?”

“We’re spending the day together?”

“Only if you want to. But before you answer, I should let you know that I’m very entertaining, which you got a glimpse of tonight during laser tag.”

“I did take note of that,” I say, smiling.

“Also, you shouldn’t be alone on what’s technically your first full day here. I assume you don’t know anyone besides your ex?”

“Only his former roommate, who graduated last spring.”

“Then what do you say? Want to hang out tomorrow? Or I guess it’s later today, given that it’s after midnight. I could show you around town. Give you a tour of campus. Or we could just stay here on the couch. You could use me as a pillow as we watch hours of infomercials and I spend my next paycheck on things I’ll probably never use.”

“I’d like that,” I say, happy knowing I won’t be alone, and even happier knowing I’ll be spending the day with Jace. “I mean the part about hanging out, not the infomercial part.”

He laughs. “Yeah, that’s probably a bad idea, although I am really excited about those fry pans.”

I yawn. “I want to sleep, but I don’t think I can.”

He points to his shoulder. “Try this. It might help.”

Laying my head on his shoulder, I lean toward him but don’t get as close as before. But then his arm goes around me and I can’t help but rest my body against his. He’s warm and he smells good and his shirt is really soft. It makes me want to lay my head on his chest instead of his shoulder, but I can’t do that. A guy’s chest is girlfriend territory. The shoulder is meant for friends, or roommates in our case, although I think we’re starting to become friends.

His phone dings from the coffee table.

“You want to get that?” I ask, moving off him so he can reach his phone.

He grabs it and we resume our position.

“It’s nothing,” he says, tossing his phone aside.

It dings again and he checks it. He sighs and uses the hand that’s not around me to text back, then sets his phone down.

“What’s wrong?”

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