Page 78 of Accidental Roommates

“Since a month ago. Who are you?”

She huffs, and puts her hand on her hip. “I thought Carson was kidding when he said Jace’s roommate was a girl.” Her eyes narrow. “So you’re sleeping with him?”

“What? No. We’re just roommates.”

“Yeah, right.” She takes off down the hall that goes to the bedrooms.

“Wait? What are you doing?”

“Getting my stuff.” She goes in Jace’s room and straight to his dresser.

“Your stuff?” As I stand in the doorway, it hits me that she’s his ex. She has to be. Why else would he have her stuff? “So you’re Nikki?”

“Obviously,” she says, slamming the top dresser drawer shut. She moves to the next one. “I’m sure he told you about me. We were practically married.” She slams the second drawer and moves to the third.

“Until you cheated on him.”

Her head whips back to me. “He didn’t give me what I needed. That’s his fault, not mine.”

“And what exactly did you need that he wasn’t giving you?” I ask, trying to hide how angry I am that she’s trying to justify her cheating. She’s just like Liam. She refuses to take responsibility for what she did.

She shoves the bottom drawer shut and stands up. “Jace didn’t excite me anymore. He knows I get bored easily, and he just gave up. He stopped trying.” She waves her skinny arm in the air. “What did he expect me to do? Stay with him and be bored?”

“Jace isn’t boring. And you can’t expect someone to entertain you every second of the day. That’s not realistic.”

She storms over to me and points her bony finger at my face. “So you are sleeping with him. Why’d you lie about it? You think I care? Jace and I are over.”

“I’m not sleeping with him. I’m defending him because I know what it feels like to be cheated on and blamed for it. It’s wrong. The cheaters are the ones who deserve the blame. If you were bored with Jace, you should’ve broken up with him, not cheated on him.”

“It was his job as my boyfriend to know when I’m unhappy. I stayed with him to give him time to figure it out, but he didn’t. That’s his fault, not mine. Now get out of here. And shut the door behind you.” She goes to Jace’s closet and starts searching through a box on the floor.

“Did he tell you it was okay to do this?” I ask.

She ignores me as she continues to sort through the box.

I go out to the hall and call Jace.

He picks up right away. “Hey, I’m sorry we can’t do dinner tonight. I was really looking forward to it but then—”

“Nikki’s here.”

“What?” I hear a chair scrape, like he stood up. “Nikki’s there? At the house?”

“Yeah. In your room.”

“Why’d you let her in?” he asks, sounding angry.

“I didn’t. She let herself in. She had a key. Why does she still have a key?”

“Because she never gave it back. And then I forgot she still had it. Tell her to leave it there before she goes.”

“I really don’t want to get involved in this. I’m only calling you because she’s tearing your room apart right now, saying she wants her things back.”

“There’s nothing there. Whatever she left has been tossed.”

“Okay, I’ll tell her. Then maybe she’ll leave.”

“I’ll tell her. I’ll call her right now. You’re right. You shouldn’t be in the middle of this. I’ll deal with it. I’ll talk to you later.”

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