Page 53 of Damn Roommate

“His name is Mitch, he’s a medical student at Tufts University. He’s two years older than me I believe, and we’ve been talking for a week.”

“One week! And you’re only telling us now.”

She blushes, bites her lower lip, then smiles, lookingembarrassed.

“I didn’t know if anything would come out of it. But he wants us to meet.”

“Stressed?” I ask.

“Totally.”

We start laughing. This isn’t the first time Carol has met a guy through an app, and while she always makes sure for everything happens in a public place, she’s apprehensive.

“Let’s go out on Saturday, after the game. Invite him then!”

“In a nightclub?”

“Why not?” Paige asks. “We’ll be there, and if it’s annoying, boring, or just not your type, you’ll have an excuse to dump him.”

Carol thinks for a second before picking up her phone and typing on it. She receives a text right away and the date is set. Saturday night, we’ll meet Mitch.

It will keep me busy for a while. I won’t have to think of everything that is going through my head right now.

***

“You are kidding, right?”

Corey doesn’t give me time to close the apartment door before he sneaks up on me. I turn around, key in hand, and stare at him sheepishly. He’s pissed off and messing up his impeccably styled locks.

“I think I deserve some explanations; don’t you think?”

“I already told you how I feel,” I say.

“So, this is all I deserve? ‘It’s not you, it’s me. I don’t get attached. I’d like to break up.’”

He quotes me rudely, mimicking a sad pout while every feature of his face is tense with anger. I tried to make it right as he walked me home. I was tempted to bring him in, to suggest that we sit on the couch to chat calmly. Then I remembered thatthis wasjustthe place to avoid with all my being if I didn’t want to say too much information. Leaving my boyfriend right where I cheated on him… Corey didn’t deserve that.

“Corey, I’m sorry,” I say softly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

The tension is palpable. I’m walking on eggshells, I know that. I wanted to do this quickly, cause him as little frustration as possible. Like ripping off a band-aid. I should have known that doing it quickly wasn’t going to suffice. He finds himself at my house going around in circles like a lion in a cage. Not accepting the break-up as I would have hoped. What exactly was I expecting? I don’t even give him therealreason: I’m not in love withhim.

“Damn, but you take me for an idiot? Do you think you can leave me with such a shitty excuse, without any explanation that even makes sense? What kind of girl are you, actually? Do you like to take guys for idiots? There’s another one, right?” he asks angrily.

I step back, seeing him moving dangerously towards me as if he wanted to scare me, to show me that he wasn’t going to let go so easily.

“If you don’t lower your voice, nothing constructive will come out of this conversation,” I say.

“Don’t look down on me, Scarlett! I talk as I want,” he yells. “And if I want to speak to you in this tone, I speak to you in this tone! You’re fucking dumping me, and you don’t even bother to tell me why.”

I’m about to retort as the door opens and all the air in my lungs disappears when my eyes meet a dark, stern gaze. Nolan stares at me for a long moment, frowning and fixing his attention on Corey, standing inches from me.

“Let go of her arm,” Nolan growls.

It only when Corey’s grip loosens from my wrist that I realized he had grabbed me.

“Always in my way,” Corey says.

“Do you have a problem, Burtton?”

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