Page 26 of Roommate's Guide to Love

She nods. “All the time. I live three time zones from my family. Sure, I’ve made friends. Up until today, I had a boyfriend. But you can be surrounded by people all the time and still feel like you’re the only one in the room.”

Well that takes me by surprise. “Boyfriend?”

“You caught that part, huh?”

“Are you all right?” Not that I can do anything to him, even though the thought of some douchebag hurting her makes my blood boil.

“As all right as a woman can be when she finds out the guy she’s been seeing for a year has been cheating on her for the past four months.”

“What!” I bark out, probably a little too loud, but seriously, what the fuck? “Did you catch him?”

“More or less,” she adds. “Stella asked to see pictures of us. That turned into her digging into his social media, and she asked about a woman I never noticed before. She was in the back of every picture he took when he was out with his friends. Before I knew it, Stella created a fake SnapChat and Instagram, friend requested the woman in question, she accepted, and then saw story after story of them together. I called to confront him and he admitted everything. Didn’t even try to lie. That’s how little he cared.”

“Fuck, Quinn,” I say, inching a little closer to her once I realize that she’s now crying too. “He’s a fucking idiot.”

She just shrugs, looking all sorts of defeated. “It is what it is.”

“No, it isn’t,” I say. “You’re a beautiful woman, and any guy would be lucky as hell to be with you. And any fucking prick who doesn’t realize that doesn’t deserve you, and you sure as fuck don’t deserve him.”

“Thanks,” she says, giving me a playful push with her shoulder. “And you don’t deserve to have to go through all of this alone.”

We sit there for a second, Quinn’s head on my shoulder, the warm summer air feeling a little cool as it gets closer to midnight.

“We’re a mess, aren’t we?”

I can only laugh at her comment. “Two peas in a pod.”

I don’t know if it’s the booze right now, Quinn this close to me, or how lonely I’ve felt all week, but the combination is about to make me say something really stupid.

“Quinn?”

“Yeah?”

I nod back to my house. “Want to get out of here?”

She looks to my house, then back to me. “Yeah. I do.”

And that was the night that started it all. Two sad souls needing to find comfort in something. Instead, we found each other.

We’ve never said it out loud, but we both thought it was going to be a one-time thing. Hell, when we were done, we both got dressed and went back to the bar.

Little did we know, eight years later, here we are…

“Come on, Quinn, we’re adults. And friends. We can work together. Unless you don’t think you can keep your hands off me.”

Quinn’s eyes narrow, and just as she’s about to probably tell me off, Charlie interrupts us with my food.

“Here you go. Chicken and waffles with two sides of bacon,” Charlie says as she sets my plates down. “Oh! Look! Now you have a friend to sit with.”

I snicker as I take a sip of my coffee, while Quinn looks mortified.

“Charlie, why don’t you tell Quinn that she should come work at The Joint?”

Quinn’s now giving me a full-on scowl while Charlie claps her hands in excitement. “Oh my God! Yes! That would be perfect.”

“I don’t think it would be,” Quinn defends. “Plus, I have a few interviews lined up over the next few days. Porter will have to look somewhere else for a new bartender.”

Charlie starts to say something else, but is called away by one of her cooks, leaving me and Quinn back to our game of cat and mouse.

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