Page 13 of The Roommate Situation

“You're a phys ed major?” I ask, and he nods.

“Yeah, I want to be a P.E. teacher, or maybe a coach someday, or both. I really like working with kids and I like sports and fitness, so…” He shrugs.

“Yeah, I can tell,” I say, then flush when he grins at me.

“What about you? What’s your major?”

“Illustration. I would love to illustrate children's books at some point.”

“That’s awesome.” His eyes light up. “Do you have a specialty?”

I can’t help smiling. Zach never really gave a shit about my major, or asked me questions about it. In fact he tried to talk me out of it. “I really enjoy watercolors. Acrylic paint is nice, too.”

“Do you have anything I can see?” he asks, and I smile wider at how eager he is.

“Yeah, just a second.” I finish loading the dishes in the dishwasher and wash my hands, then grab my phone out of my pocket and find some of the pictures I took of my recent work and show him the screen. “These are pictures of ballerinas I painted for my little sisters for their birthday, and then if you swipe you’ll see the one I did of my parents for their anniversary a few months back.”

“Wow, these are amazing,” he tells me. “Damn, little rabbit, you got skills.”

I beam. “Thank you. I enjoy it, too. It helps me unwind.” Zach always thought I was decent at art, but he was constantly trying to convince me to switch majors, saying being an illustrator wasn’t very practical and you had to be really good at it to succeed. Well, I knew I had room for improvement, but I also knew I was good. They wouldn’t have let me in the program here if I wasn’t, and hearing it from Parker means a lot.

He nods and hands the phone back. “You have twin sisters?”

“Yeah, Ava and Addison. They were my parents’ “oops” babies, but I love them.”

“How old are they?”

“Seven. So much energy.”

He laughs. “You said you hadfivebrothers and sisters?” I ask, unable to keep the shock out of my voice. Parker grins.

“Yeah, I’m the middle child. Two older brothers and three younger sisters. My brothers, Aaron and Archer are twins. They graduated college last year and live together now, near my parents. My sisters, Amy, Jessica, and Hope are ten, fourteen, and eighteen. It’s a full house when we’re all home.”

He’s smiling widely and I can tell how much he loves his family. “It sounds like you’re all really close.”

“Yeah, we are. They’re out in California so I don’t see them a lot, just holidays and summer break, but I love going home.”

“And they know you’re gay?” I ask, my face flushing when I realize maybe I shouldn’t have asked that, but he just grins wider.

“Practically threw me a parade when I told them,” he says with a laugh, and I smile. “And both my parents are bi.”

“Really? They just told you that?”

He shrugs. “We grew up knowing, yeah. They wanted to make it clear that even though they were in a relationship witheach other, there were other ways for love and families to exist, so they told us from the get go about both of them being attracted to men and women, but finding each other and falling in love. And they didn’t want us to ever be afraid of who we were attracted to.”

“I really like that. And your siblings? Are they straight?”

“Archer is pan, Aaron is straight. Hope is bi. I’m not sure about the other two. I think they’re still figuring it out.”

I finish wiping down the counters and putting away the leftover food, and then I join Parker in the living room, him on the couch and me on the chair as we do homework.

I can’t remember a time where I felt this content.

PARKER

Gosh, I can’t believe Freckles is my roommate. How lucky could a guy get? I never even thought he would give me a second look that night at the club, and when he did, damn, I was on cloud nine. He’s so stinking pretty, and he doesn’t even realize what he does to me. Those curls, the freckles scattered over his nose and cheeks, his blue framed glasses, his goddamn bowties, everything about him is just adorable. Especially the way his nose twitches when he’s nervous or agitated, and the way it scrunches up when he’s concentrating on something, like right now while he works on his homework.

He reminds me of a bunny rabbit, hence the nickname. I can’t seem to stop using them with him, and he doesn’t seem to mind.

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