Page 65 of Dear Roomie
“Why the fuck are you staring at Evelyn like you want to drown her in the gravy?”
“Am not,” I huff, and she rolls her eyes.
“Girl, if you glared any harder, she might catch fire where she sits,” Karis pipes in.
“Fine, I was. So what?” I cross my arms and sit up straighter in my chair.
“So, what the fuck happened? Because you weren’t acting like this earlier, and I know Evelyn didn’t do shit to you.” Chelsea sits up as well, meeting my defiant posture head-on.
“She’s jealous, boss,” Nathan says as casually as he would talk about the weather, not bothering to pull his attention away from the tower of food in front of him. Chelsea’s eyes widen and her jaw falls slack.
“I’m not jealous,” I argue, but my protest sounds weak even to my own ears.
“You are so jealous, it’s not even funny,” Karis says, and then turns to Chelsea. “The two of them have been circling each other all semester. You’ve just been too dick blind to see it.”
“Wait…what?” Her mouth gapes open and closed as she stumbles over her words. “How am I just now finding out about this?”
“It’s true.” Nathan wraps his arm around her and pulls her in, kissing her on the cheek. “Morgan’s had it bad for James for months, and your girl here has been stringing him along the whole way.” He narrows his eyes with his cutting words, and my cheeks grow hot.
“But what about Tanner? Are you finally leaving that waste of space?”
“There is nothing going on between me and Morgan”—yet—“and Tanner is an issue I’d rather not get into right now. Can we talk about this later?” I give her a pleading look, and after a moment, she sighs and relaxes her shoulders.
“Fine, but we are talking about this.”
I nod in agreement, and she drops it.
“Don’t worry about those two, Goldilocks,” Karis says, clapping me on the shoulder. “Morgan’s only got eyes for you.”
“Well, I’m stuffed,” Nathan says, loud enough for the whole room to hear. “Is it time for Christmas?”
Gage grumbles something I think is supposed to be a sign of agreement, and that seems to be the cue everyone was waiting for. Morgan and our friends get up and clear away their messes. I don’t get up, though. Instead, I take the moment to watch my friends as they live out their chaotic moments of merriment. Chelsea chastises Nathan with a playful smirk, and he swoops her up into his arms, peppering her neck with kisses as he spins them both around. On the couch, Gage and Karis are locked in a quiet but intense conversation. Karis throws her hands around as she talks, nearly knocking Gage across the face. He manages to duck out of the way, and a hint of his rare smile pulls at the corner of his lips. Even Grover has found his person with Evelyn. He is blissed out while she showers him with affection from her spot on the floor. The apartment feels more like home now than it ever has before. The only thing missing is Morgan.
The back of my neck tingles with awareness half a second before Morgan reaches around me to grab my plate from the table.
“Go join them.” Warm breath brushes past my ear, the deep timber of his voice causing goose bumps to blossom over my skin. “You’ve done enough today. I’ve got this.”
He’s gone before I can protest, moving back to the kitchen to clean up from our meal. I don’t know the last time I’ve been able to sit back and enjoy a party that I’ve hosted. God knows Tanner has never helped with any of the hosting duties; getting him to show up was a hard enough task.
“Jamie, what movie are we watching?” Chelsea asks.
I decided it was best to forgo any sort of gift exchange for the Christmas part of Friendsgivmas. At first, it seemed like the obvious thing to do, but the more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt. Morgan doesn’t care about material things—he misses his family, and no twenty-dollar Secret Santa gift is going to give him that. I eventually landed on doing Christmas movies with the gang, but I never got around to picking what movie we’d watch.
“Before she says anything,Die Hardisn’t a Christmas movie,” Nathan interjects.
“Oh,come on”—Karis rolls her eyes in exasperation—“andPaul Blart: Mall Copis?”
“Both of you, knock it off.” Karis’s and Nathan’s heads snap toward Gage as he cuts off their arguing. “We have this argument every year, and they are banned, so no point in getting into it now.”
They both let out petulant huffs but let the matter drop.
“We could watchThe Grinch,” Evelyn offers.
“Animated or Jim Carrey?” Karis asks, directing her focus toward my more reserved friend. Evelyn blanches under the almost predatory intensity of the sharp woman’s stare.
“Um…Jim Carrey…” Evelyn mumbles, her tone raising in a way that makes it sound more like a question than a statement.
“Good choice.” Karis flashes her a toothy smile. “I voteGrinch.”
