Chapter 9 #2
I look at her door and see the light peeking out from under it.
She hasn’t been weird around me since I apologized.
Then again, with my schedule, I’ve barely seen the woman.
It makes me wonder what she’s been up to the past couple of days and if she ended up meeting Brad or not.
Since he and I aren’t close, he wouldn’t let me know, and I can’t come right out and ask without it getting back to Stevie.
I’m only hoping that he wasn’t over the top with a girl who’s still getting over a dick ex and has other things going on in her life that require her full attention.
I hope I made the right choice, but my roommate can handle herself.
After I rummage through the fridge, I find the lemonade we share and grab a bag of chips. Just as I’m about to walk back to the room, a voice I don’t recognize echoes from behind Stevie’s door.
“Was Brad hot?”
The statement makes me halt in my tracks.
Stevie’s light laugh filters through and catches me by surprise. It’s not like I haven’t heard her laugh before, but this one’s different. She mumbles something I can’t hear. The other voice answers, and whoever she’s talking to is loud as fuck compared to my roommate.
As curious as I am to hear how her encounter with Brad went and whether she thought he was hot or not, I know it’s none of my business. I mutter a curse and take another step toward my room, so my all-too-curious side won’t go stomping straight to her door.
“At least Levi pulled through with that. It was the least he could do after being such a dick.”
That makes me turn to her room with wide eyes. Yeah, that definitely isn’t Stevie talking.
Shit, I couldn’t have been that bad. I apologized and tried to help. Did she not think it was enough?
Sometimes I can be a little too nosy for my own good, but this is different from gossiping with friends.
I live with Stevie and should know how she feels to keep the peace between us.
At least that’s what I tell myself before reaching her door in a few quick, silent strides.
Both voices are much clearer now that my ear is practically shoved against the wood.
“He apologized, Jenn,” Stevie answers.
I nod as if she and her friend can see me. Okay, just as I thought, we’re all good.
An annoyed huff comes from her phone. “So, we like Levi?”
Tough crowd.
“We like Levi. He’s been a good roommate, and he introduced me to his friends. He’s also playful and kind of entertaining.”
Only kind of? Jenny is quick to jump in before I can question anything else.
“Just because he’s your roommate, doesn’t mean you have to be close friends.”
“I know,” Stevie sighs.
Ouch.
“Look, S, I’m worried about you. After finding out what you did about Andrew’s dickhead friends, I don’t want you going through another complicated friendship situation. Sure, Levi’s been a decent friend for the most part, but be careful.”
“I can’t make friends like you do, Jenn. It’s not that easy,” Stevie says almost too quietly for me to hear, and it hurts something inside of me that she hasn’t been able to find her people here.
“You don’t have to. What you’re doing with the list and putting yourself out there will attract the kind of people you need and deserve in your life. Friends who put the time and effort into your relationship with them. I know that this year will be amazing, S.”
Stevie mentioned Jenny when we had breakfast together the first and last time. I can see why she’d be best friends with her. It’s not bad advice, even if she did say I was kind of a dick.
After a long beat of silence, Stevie responds.
“You’re usually right, so I’ll take your word for it.”
Jenny laughs. “Okay, so back to Brad and the song. You didn’t sing in front of him, but the number one item on your list is to sing in public. Auditions are coming up pretty soon. What’s your plan then?”
My roommate groans. “Yeah, I know, I need to get on that ASAP…”
I stop listening because her voice and footsteps are growing closer, meaning she might be heading out here. I sprint to the couch and open my phone, pretending to scroll through my feed and acting like I didn’t overhear an intimate conversation.
Right before Stevie opens the door, it hits me that I should’ve moved away from the spot as soon as they finished talking about me. Scratch that, I shouldn’t have listened at all. Guilt slams into me.
Jenny is speaking when I turn to meet Stevie’s gaze.
“Okay, Jenn, I gotta go,” Stevie yells over her friend’s voice. “I love you.” She hangs up and tucks her phone into her pocket.
“Hey.” I smile.
“Hey.” She gives me an uneven smile back.
Her footsteps move to the kitchen, and she does the same thing I was doing a couple of minutes ago, except she grabs one of her containers to heat up.
I break the silence first.
“Did you meet Brad yet?” I don’t know why the hell that was the first thing I had to ask.
She raises her eyebrows. “Um, yeah.”
Nodding, I can’t help but ask her the follow-up question. “Do you guys get along?”
Stevie puts the container into the microwave and nods. “Yes. He is a cool guy. Somewhat of a flirt, but still professional. Thanks again for giving me his number.”
Thank fuck he was helpful and not a douche. “Of course.”
Stevie taps her foot impatiently, making her wide pajama pants sway, as she waits for the food to finish heating.
“Hungry?” I ask, amused.
She smiles briefly. “Yeah, I haven’t eaten much today and my head…”
The unfinished sentence has me standing. “Are you feeling okay?”
Waving her hands in the air, she assures me that she’s fine. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to have a seizure.”
I sigh in relief, sitting back down on the couch.
“Well, never say never.”
Once again, I shoot up, making myself a little dizzy.
Stevie laughs, and I look at her, confused.
“What’s so funny?”
She shakes her head, letting out another giggle. “Sometimes it’s necessary to joke around about it. If I don’t, who will?”
I narrow my eyes at her, wondering whether she’s telling the truth. She has a point, but she could also be deflecting.
Stevie sighs, knowing why I’m still standing. “You need to calm down. I’ll let you know when something’s wrong.”
After a few seconds of observing her, the microwave beeps, and I give her a slight tilt of my chin before sitting back down. I open my bag of chips.
“Is that your dinner?” She pours herself a glass of water.
“Kind of. Not the first time I’ve had chips for dinner.” I shrug.
My roommate looks back and forth between me and the fridge. Pursing her lips, she opens it, grabs a new container, and sticks it in the microwave.
Before I can register what she’s doing, Stevie walks over to the couch and stuffs the already heated food with a fork into my face.
“Here.”
Shit. “No, I can’t. It’s your food.”
“Look, the other container is heating up, so if you don’t eat it, it’ll end up in the garbage since I can’t reheat it again.” She sticks it directly in front of my face. “Take it.”
The smell of teriyaki chicken with broccoli and fried rice almost makes me groan. I can’t help the annoyingly loud growl that my stomach makes, which makes Stevie smile.
Knowing there’s no point in denying the food, I grab it, along with her hand.
“Thanks, Bambi.”
I try to convey everything I’m trying to say through my stare. She’s a good friend, she’s an amazingly sweet woman, and she deserves all the good things that Jenny mentioned.
She looks down at our touch, and an odd tingle hits me straight in a place it shouldn’t. She blinks three times before smiling and gently pulling herself out of my grasp. Reasonable distance, that’s for the best.
“It’s no problem. I always make too much anyway.”
That’s bullshit. The girl is too humble for her own good.
I invite her to eat on the couch with me, but she takes it to her room to finish some work.
After I finish the awesome fucking food, I wash the dishes and think about how Valentine’s Day is this weekend.
I’m dreading the holiday and haven’t made any concrete plans yet, but something from earlier inspires an idea, and now I know exactly what I’m going to do on Saturday night.