Page 24 of Tapped By My Roommate
Cary:Haha! I will prevail!
Audrey: I’m a totally safe driver! You won’t regret it, R. Thank youuuuuuu!
Regret. Now there was a word I was well acquainted with lately. I closed out of our text stream and scrolled through Facebook and Reddit. Rolling my shoulders, I attempted to relax for a few minutes before resuming work. It was hopeless though. I’d been tense for days.
“Hey, what’s with the mopey face?” Keri asked as she ventured into the backroom. “You look like your dog died.”
“Maybe he did.”
She clutched at her heart. “Really?”
Keri could be so gullible. I chuckled guiltily. “Not really.”
She socked my arm. “Asshole.”
I stood. “I guess I should get back to work, huh? You’re probably ready for a break yourself.”
“That’d be nice, yeah, but it’s slow right now.” She met my eyes so directly I couldn’t escape. “Are you okay? For real?”
I sighed. “Yeah, just…I did something stupid.”
“Shocker,” she teased. I smiled weakly, unable to banter playfully, and she dropped the smile. “Tell me about it after last call?”
I must have been more stressed than I realized, because I wasnotthe kind of guy to spill my problems to co-workers. But later that night, I confessed it all. My inappropriate kiss, the tension with my roommate, the uncertainty about what I should do.
“Wow,” she said. “That’s definitely an awkward situation.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you like him?”
“Well, yeah, obviously. But—oh, you mean as… No.” I shook my head. “No, I don’t date. And besides, he’s straight.”
“I don’t know you that well, Rhett, but I don’t think you’d just kiss some straight guy without some kind of consent from him.”
“I asked first, sort of. But I think our wires got crossed. We were sort of discussing a hypothetical of what I’d do if I wanted to kiss someone. I thought he was saying yes to me, but maybe he was just playing along?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Sounds like you need to talk to him.”
I raked a hand through my hair. “I’ve tried, but he doesn’t want to hear it. He’s avoiding me.”
“So, give it time. My advice? Do your best to act normal. If you stop making it weird, maybe he will too.”
We hadalmosthad a full conversation before I came in to work tonight. I’d wanted to clear the air, but maybe that was the wrong move. Maybe I just needed to relax and show him that we could get back to normal. I’d just have to squash my own need to apologize and absolve myself of my actions. My guilty conscience was my problem.
“Yeah, that’s good advice.”
“And go get laid,” she said, giving me a playful shove. “Because your tension is stressing me out, man.”
I laughed. “Stop being weird and get laid. You should have an advice column.”
“I totally should,” she said with a grin.
Keri started mopping the sticky floor before we locked up for the night. She’d gotten a lot better at mixing drinks, but when we were moving fast, a few spills were unavoidable.
With a sigh, I resolved to go help her. But first I opened my Thrust app. Maybe Keri was right, and I just needed to get back in the saddle.
A few requests sat in my inbox. I skimmed them, feeling apathetic.
