8. Rose
Rose
Just over an hour later, when Rose let herself into her apartment after dropping Kirin off, she checked for her roommates.
They’d both messaged, saying they were home safe, but she knew better than anyone that texts can lie.
A quick glance down the hall on her way to her room revealed Harper’s door was ajar, her clicking and the glow of her computer spilling into the hallway.
She glanced at Ainsley’s door, closed with the light visible under it and the thumping bass of dubstep coming from behind it.
They’d made it home safely, as promised, and she breathed out a relieved sigh.
Still somehow hungry, she wandered into the kitchen and grabbed a snack out of the freezer where Ainsley kept her vegetable muffins.
Unceremoniously throwing it on a plate and into the microwave, Rose leaned back against the counter and pulled up her messaging thread with Kirin.
Rose
Please thank your roomies for getting mine home safe.
A glance at the microwave showed over a minute left, so she pulled up her internet and after a quick search, scrolled through the lists of “get to know your partner” articles and their hundreds of questions.
They were almost all focused on getting to know a romantic partner, so she tried a rephrase: “questions to get to know someone.”
When that revealed only the boring questions, she went back to her original inquiry and sighed. She’d made it through five rapidly scrolled pages before she internally groaned and went back to the most promising option, sitting near the bottom of the first page, and sent a follow-up text to Kirin.
Rose
Found this to get to know one another: 201 Best Questions to Ask Your Partner, According to Renowned Couples Therapist, Dr. Lillian Scholfeld
Kirin
This is great!
She nodded to herself and put her phone down, grabbing her plate from the microwave and picking a mug from the cabinet for some sleepy tea when her phone lit up again. A swipe had his message up and available for her to read.
Kirin
So tell me, what are the two things that you regret?
She snorted, shaking her head as she typed out a response.
Rose
WOW, just dove right in there, didn’t you? Did you even consider asking about favorite colors or foods?
Kirin
Considered and dismissed. Too easy.
Rose
You are alarmingly confident.
Kirin
You’ve worn burgundy every time I’ve seen you, and your Bronco is burgundy—not exactly a huge leap.
Rose
Hmmm, but what about my favorite food?
When he didn’t respond right away, Rose slapped the little lever on the kettle to get it started as she rummaged for her tea in the back of the drawer.
She kept it hidden from Harper, who had taken it twice and overslept both times.
Her tea was now considered a banned substance by both of her roommates since Ainsley wouldn’t touch tea with a ten-foot pole.
Kirin
I’ll figure out your favorite food when we spend time together. No worries there.
Rose
Awfully confident there, Buckaroo.
Kirin
Buckaroo? My gosh, am I in love?
Rose snorted again.
Rose
No.
Kirin
Ha! So, biggest regrets?
Rose
Aside from this conversation? And project?
Kirin
Adorable, yes, other than those two awesome choices.
Rose
You’ll have to ask me those mundane questions and then some before I answer that.
Kirin
Alrighty, we will circle back to the deeper questions. What’s your go-to drink at parties?
She had a momentary flashback to someone handing her an amaretto and Coke before things got bad.
Definitely not her favorite drink anymore, which was a damn shame.
As she ripped the packet of tea open, she considered what other options she might put in that place now.
She excluded alcohol from her shopping list these days, and she kept a thumb over any open beverages.
Rose
No favorite right now.
She considered leaving it there, letting this conversation come to its natural end, but Kirin was different, even if she couldn’t pinpoint why yet. So, she took the leap Kenzie was begging her to and followed it up with a question of her own.
Rose
And yours?
Kirin
Are you actually engaging in this little game we’ve started?
She let out a long sigh; he couldn’t just go with it.
Rose
Unfortunately.
Kirin
I knew I’d win you over.
Rose
Like I said, alarmingly confident. Are you going to answer?
What’s your favorite drink?
Doesn’t have to be alcohol.
While he considered his answer or maybe fell asleep, she poured her drink and took her goodies to her room, starting the preparations for bed.
Rose was halfway through scrubbing her teeth after downing her food when her phone lit up, and she narrowly missed throwing her toothbrush to swipe the phone open for Kirin’s response.
Kirin
I like the Sprite at McDonald’s. That was my go-to as a child, and when I have a bad day, I’ll drop by and grab one.
Rose
Ah, you are also a fan of the spicy water. My youngest sister has an unhealthy obsession with it.
I see you have healthier habits when you’re troubled than I do.
Kirin
Josephine is clearly a person of excellent taste, and we all handle our stresses differently.
Her brows shot up at the name drop, surprised he remembered. It had her cheeks warming. She’d have to be careful about what she told him if he kept that up.
Rose
Never let her know you think that. She will make it her entire personality for a month.
And do yourself a favor and call them Josie and Elle. They’d rip your tongue out if they heard someone calling them by their full names.
Kirin
Like when Liam called you Adeline? Also, are you gonna let me talk to your sisters?
She ignored the question about Liam. She didn’t want to talk about him.
Rose
Probably not. Not if I want to stay sane.
Kirin
We can start slow. You can meet my siblings; I’m sure they’ll give yours a run for their money.
Rose
Laurel is definitely giving my fourteen-year-old sister a run for her money, i.e., dramatic and holds a grudge.
Kirin
Ah, you have one of those too, huh? Would that be Elle?
Rose
Yep.
There wasn’t a response for a second, and she used the break to clean her face, ensuring her makeup was out of her eyelashes and starting the nightly ritual of her beauty routine.
She made it all the way to finishing her tea, sliding under the covers on her bed with her phone plugged in and playing the ambient noise she slept to before her phone lit up again.
The promising weight of sleep slowed her movements as she grabbed her phone.
Kirin
Did you like Westmont?
Rose blinked at her phone, taking a second to make sure she read it properly without her contacts. Of all the questions she could have expected from Kirin, that one wasn’t on the list.
Rose
Why do you ask?
Kirin
My brother is looking at schools, and it’s on his list because they have a stellar hockey team, and we obviously do not.
Rose
Their hockey team is top-notch, better than their football team.
Kirin
Used to be great, but it’s gone downhill in the last few years.
She flinched at the mention of the Westmont football team, even if her issues were with Preston. That team was full of enablers, and none of them had stepped in to help her. They all bowed down to Preston.
Before she could write an agreement or try to shift the conversation to literally anything except this, Kirin sent a follow-up and when his name popped up, she silently cursed herself for not replying faster until she read it.
Kirin
I’m glad you transferred, even if my sister isn’t.
Rose
I am biased, but it’s a good school. As is the case a lot, it comes down to who you surround yourself with. The hockey program is solid. The team seemed like a talented group of guys.
She held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t press her on it when the dots reappeared. His follow-up had her breathing a sigh of relief.
Kirin
Tell me the best dream you’ve ever had.
He must have sensed her raised brows or maybe the gutter she was finding her mind in with this man, because his next text was a clarification.
Kirin
Non-sexual! I didn’t mean to make it weird, sorry.
She huffed out a laugh and bit her lip to contain the smile at his panicked response.
Rose
Could you picture my eyebrows raising?
Kirin
Yes, I face-palmed myself.
Rose
I could sense your panic.
Best dream, probably the one where my late cat is still alive, Foghorn—aka Foggy—named by my mother because of the snoring that cat did even as a kitten.
Kirin
I love pet names with a story behind them.
Rose
She was actually my mom’s first Christmas gift from my dad when they were dating, and Foggy really latched onto me when I was born. She became my sidekick as I got older and then my little old lady when she got older, too.
Kirin
So your parents don’t have a cat anymore?
Rose scrunched up her nose at the thought of their current cat and typed out her response.
Rose
Now they have Rigby. He’s more demon than cat. He took to Elle and protects her like he’s a dragon, which just results in a lot of cuts and bites on my ankles.
Kirin
Rigby?
Rose
My dad named him when the demon chose Elle.
Kirin
Eleanor Rigby, got it. Is your dad a Beatles fan?
Rose
He’s a music fan, anything and everything.
Kirin
So, does your love of 80s music come from your mom?
Rose
Yep, 60s–80s, maybe a little 50s or 90s if I’m feeling spicy.
Rose yawned and squeezed her eyes closed as she stretched, pulling her phone back down in front of her face. Kirin’s bubbles were coming and going as he typed out his response, but she typed her own.
Rose
I answered your question. I’m going to bed.
Thank you for tonight, and for feeding me. It was nice talking to someone other than my roommates.
His bubbles stopped, disappearing again before they popped up again, this time for half a second before they were gone, and his response sat waiting for her.
Kirin
Anytime. Good night, Flower.
Rose
Night, Daddy.
Kirin
Can we switch that to Buckaroo?
Rose
Nope