Page 76 of Roommating

Fake it till you make it.“Sit! Both of you. I’ll be back in a second.Just need to use the bathroom.” Covering my tits, I scurry out of the kitchen and to my room, where I whip off the tank top and exchange it for a bra and an oversize sweatshirt. But then I think better of it and put the tank top back on over the bra. Why not make Adam sweat through dinner? Since I really do need to pee, I use the bathroom and join them in the kitchen, where they’re both already seated at the table.

“I found this in a drawer,” Adam says, dangling my bra in the air. “I assume it’s yours?”

Marcia laughs. “It’s definitely too sexy to be mine.”

“Weird. I wonder how it got there.” I remove the garlic bread from the oven while my face burns as hot as the food. “I’m surprised you had enough confidence in me to look forward to this,” I say to Marcia, quickly changing the subject.

“I have the utmost faith in you.” She makes a move to get up, but I stop her.

“Let me know what you need. I’ll get it.”

She opens her mouth but I cut her off, knowing what she’s going to say. “Not because of your health but because this dinner is my full responsibility from start to finish.”

She sighs and sits back down. “If you insist. I was going to get the creamy Italian dressing for the salad.”

“Got it,” I say, grabbing the dressing from the side compartment of the fridge.

“Do we have Parmesan cheese?” Adam asks.

I snort, recalling how often he shoved his head in the refrigerator while I was preparing dinner. “I’d think you’d have memorized the contents of the refrigerator by now, but yes, we do.” I remove the container and bring it to the table.

My butt is about to hit the chair when he says, “How about wine?”

I freeze. “I forgot about it.” I bring over a new bottle of malbec and a corkscrew and hand them to him.

Adam looks from me to the bottle and back to me. “Are you going to open it?”

Still standing, I place my palms on the table. “Do you not know how to work a corkscrew?”

His eyes drop to my chest and back up. “It’s a twist-off.”

I breathe calmly through my nose. “Are you not strong enough to open it?”

His lips twitching, Adam says, “I didn’t want to be presumptuous. You said you were responsible for theentiredinner.”

“What is going on between you two lately?”

I whip my head to the left and Adam whips his to the right so we’re both facing Marcia, whose forehead wrinkles are more pronounced as she looks between us in confusion.

“Nothing. He’s right. Ididsay I had this entire meal covered.” Adam thinks he’s being clever, but all he’sreallydoing is demonstrating to Marcia that he’s an entitled brat. I’ll be the bigger person. I reach for the wine.

Except he does too. Our hands touch over the bottle. My skin tingles and I let go first.

“I got it.” He pours me a glass and slides it my way with a glint in his eyes. “You worked so hard on dinner, you deserve it.”

I lean forward and look at him from under my eyelashes. “Thanks.”

A muscle in his jaw twitches.

“I’ll take one too,” Marcia says.

“Are you sure?” we both ask at the same time.

She rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to dignify that with a response.”

Adam and I lock eyes and shrug in a moment of solidarity that reminds me that we both essentially want the samething—good health and happiness for Marcia. Wealsowant the second bedroom… and each other, but those things are secondary.

Standing, he says, “Let me get you a glass,” a subtle reminder that I only brought over two. When he gets up, I snatch the bra from where it’s dangled over the edge of his chair and sit on it.

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