Page 74 of Tapped By My Roommate
“Okay.” I chewed my lip. “I could make you that thank-you dinner tonight if you wanted.”
It was a flimsy excuse, probably transparent. I wanted to spend more time with him, and I’d feel better if I saw him eat better. He’d wolfed that sandwich like a starving man today. I worried he wasn’t taking care of himself.
“You don’t have to thank me. We’re friends,” he said.
I never thought the word friends would bother me so much. Even when we’d gotten naked together, we’d beenfriends.But it sounded wrong now. The label no longer fit comfortably. It couldn’t contain everything that had passed between us in recent weeks. Butfriends who had a few hookups and should be moving on nowwas a bit of a mouthful.
“Besides,” Rhett added. “I won’t be home for dinner. I’ve got plans.”
“But you haven’t had dinner here in days,” I protested before I could filter myself. “You can’t live off of—” I stopped before that word vomit could embarrass me further.
“Live off what?”
“You know.” I couldn’tsaysex, but Rhett was waiting for an explanation. “Other stuff.”
His lips quirked. “Very eloquent, Ethan. I’m not sure what you mean. I do eat, even if it’s not here.” He adjusted his backpack. “I really have to go. Good luck with the posters. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He took off down the hall at a run. I’d kept him too long. A swirl of guilt rose, along with a flash of jealousy. If he wasn’t coming home for dinner—again—it was probably because he was using his spare time to meet a hookup.
The same way he’d used that spare time to hook up with me just a week ago.
God, had it only been a week? It felt like an eternity.
Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t have better things to do than rattle around an empty apartment thinking about what Rhett was up to. There was more to my life than Rhett Hayes—and it was time I acted like it.
I took out my phone and found the number I needed. I’d put this off for too long, reluctant to drag my conflict with Tess into court. But I had todosomething. Zilla needed me, even if Rhett didn’t.
A pleasant woman answered the phone. “You’ve reached the legal offices of Bretz and Harding. How can I help you?”
“I’d like to have a legal consult about filing a lawsuit,” I said. “My ex-girlfriend is holding my lizard hostage.”
20
RHETT
Ihated tutoring sessions. There was just something so demoralizing about them. I couldn’t figure out why—it was just additional learning. Maybe I’d taken my academic ease up to this point for granted. I’d never loved computer science, but I’d passed the introductory level classes without too much difficulty. But now I had tothinklike a programmer, and I just…didn’t. No matter how many principles and foundations they drilled into my head, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around some of the questions that seemed more like brain teasers than real-world problems.
Ethan’s words kept echoing in my head too.Maybe you should have gone into marketing.
More and more, I thought the same thing. Marketing was one of those saturated fields that didn’t come with a job guarantee or the highest of salaries right away. I’d wanted the best chance to help Audrey and Cary—thoughts about whether I wouldenjoycomputer science had never entered into the equation, much less whether I coulddothe work.
Now, I was having doubts, and I was so far down the road I wasn’t sure I could change my course. I’d be a senior soon. Even if I wanted to change majors, could I do it and graduate on time? I didn’t know.
Hal’s offer to manage his bar was looking more tempting—especially as I struggled through another assignment set by my tutor. Andrea interrupted my work. “No, don’t forget your basics, Rhett. You’re overlooking the obvious.”
I stared at the problem until my eyes blurred, and Andrea finally pointed out my missed opportunity to untangle the coding with a much simpler approach than I’d been using.
By the time I packed up, I was disheartened and hungry—with little time to grab a sandwich on campus before heading to work. I thought of Ethan and his offer to make me dinner, sighing mournfully. I wished I could be there with him, but all in all, it was better that I wasn’t.
Working on those graphics with him so close had been a serious test of my restraint. And part of me kept wondering why I was holding back. I wanted him. I liked him. And I could see that Ethan was still into me physically. But…was that enough?
The checklist and rules he’d written made me feel unsure of where I stood with him. I didn’t know what he felt, or if he felt anything at all, and that festered inside me like a splinter. Sooner or later, it would rise to the surface. I wasn’t great at suppressing how I felt about anything. But I wanted to respect Ethan’s boundaries. He might not want to date a roommate, and I could understand that after what had happened with Tess.
Of course, there was an easy way to find out what he wanted. But asking came with a lot of risks. It wasn’t just about possible rejection, which would suck. It was about the other consequences that might follow if Ethan and I weren’t on the same page.
We were roommates. Before everything else, there was that to consider. And I could still remember the awkward tension in the days after that first kiss. The avoidance and discomfort. We’d navigated this last transition more gracefully. Maybe because we’d been careful to set limits in the beginning. Maybe instead of cursing Ethan’s rules, I should be thanking him for them. We were still friends—even if I did feel a thread of want lacing through our every interaction.
But if I did this? If I told Ethan everything I felt, everything I thought I wanted, and he didn’t feel the same?
