ROOMIES (Strangers-To-Lovers Romance Novel) Read online

  I was livid. What would make him think to do such a thing?

  I couldn’t even give it much thought because I had to go to a two-hour class called Consumer Behavior. While trying to concentrate, I received multiple messages from him, wanting to know how my day went, and telling me he loved me and had a surprise for me when I got home. I kept thinking that I had a surprise for him too. Sugarcoating his behavior was out of question this time. I would let him know I was leaving.

  The class ended at seven, and I had a detailed assignment to analyze my own consumer behavior. The assignment was geared towards us being better able to understand the psychology behind consumer behavior in general. It was worth thirty percent of our overall grade, to be handed in at the end of the course, but it would involve a lot of work, including keeping a diary to track my purchases over the weeks to answer questions our professor would give to us the following week.

  Unlike the other students, I didn’t groan. I was invested in Marketing. I liked that it helped me express my creativity. I had several ideas how the store I worked at could improve its marketability even in the simple way the products were displayed. Maybe one day, I would be brave enough to make my suggestions to Reggie.

  I took the long route via West Lakeshore instead of using the I-20 to give myself some time to calm down. Jake’s general behavior frustrated me. I was up to my neck with his bullshit, and I wouldn’t condone it anymore. It hurt that our relationship might end like this. I wasn’t used to heartbreak, and while I might not ‘crazy’ love him, like the way Miranda talked about Alexander, I did love him.

  His car was parked in its usual spot, and I parked mine next to his. I was at the door, searching for the apartment key, when it was opened from the inside and he filled the doorway.

  “Babe,” he greeted me with a smile that was as guilty as hell. I ducked his kiss and walked by him into the apartment.

  “Don’t babe me,” I snapped at him. “I know what you did.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said with such conviction I almost believed him. Except I knew him too well, and Jake was a pathological liar. It had taken me too long to see that. “I made dinner for you,” he announced and dragged me to the kitchen.

  The smell of homemade baked chicken was heavenly, and he had set out the china instead of the plastic dishes we always used to keep washing down to a minimum. Two wine glasses were on the table, and he had bought freshly cut pink roses for the centerpiece. It was all lovely, but I was too mad to appreciate it. This just made it more evident that he was guilty. Why would he have gone through all this trouble to distract me?

  “You went on to my Facebook page!” I turned and accused him, my back turned to everything nice about the kitchen.

  “What? I never—”

  “I know you did, so stop pretending—and this time, you’ve gone way too far. I’m leaving.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not staying here with you anymore,” I announced and stomped to our bedroom. I grabbed a suitcase from the closet and started throwing random things from the drawer into it.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked in alarm, walking up to me and wrestling a t-shirt out of my hand.

  “I told you, I’m leaving.”

  “Like hell you are! Emily, I had to know who those men were. You have so many people on your social media…all sorts of men liking your pictures.”

  “You had no right to invade my privacy!” I shouted at him. “If you wanted to know who they were, you could have simply asked me. I would have told you they mean nothing to me. Simply friends on social media. I’m studying marketing, for Heaven’s sake. I know the importance of social media and how helpful it can be as a marketing tool.”

  “Okay, well…I know that now,” he said meekly, trying to rub my shoulder. “You don’t have to go anywhere.”

  I pushed him away from me. “I can’t stay with you. I’ve never done anything for you to distrust me. Never!”

  “I see the way men look at you when we are out together!” he exploded. “I see the lust in their eyes, but you are mine and I’m ensuring it stays that way. I don’t want to lose you, Em.”

  “I’m sorry, Jake, but I can’t do this anymore. You and I—we’re not working out. We’re not compatible.”

  “Baby…” he said softly and reached out to me, but I slapped his hand away. I was furious and didn’t want him to touch me.

  “Leave me alone and let me go!” I snapped at him.

  He froze. A look came over his features I had never seen before. His eyes glinted threateningly and his brows knitted. I took a step back, and he advanced towards me. He grabbed the shirt from my hand and pushed me hard against the bed. I tried to sit up but his hand settled on my chest as he straddled my legs. My heart thumped hard in my chest as terror gripped me. His hands were at my chest, trying to rip my top open.

  “Jake, stop!” I cried out in dismay. He was so much bigger than I was that I couldn’t get him off me, although I fought him.

  “You will never leave me!” he exclaimed, shaking me so hard my teeth rattled. “You’re mine! The day you bled on my sheets you became mine and I will never let you go! Do you hear me, Emily?”

  “Jake, please, don’t do this!”

  He forced my legs open and ripped my top. The sound of the material tearing sobered him. My face was white with fear. And then he was off me and off the bed.

  “Em, I’m so sorry,” he murmured, his words sorrowful as his fingers plunged into his hair. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave.”

  He hurried from the room, and I heard the front door of the apartment slam shut. Tears coursed from my eyes, tears of relief that he was gone. For a minute, I’d thought…I’d thought…I couldn’t bear to think about the man I’d been with for the past year doing something so horrendous to me. After that display of aggression, I’d rather not stick around to let him complete what he had been about to do.

  I scrubbed the tears from my eyes and started packing again. I didn’t even care about taking everything with me. I just wanted to leave. I grabbed my phone and dialed Miranda’s number to ask if I could stay with her for a couple days until I could find an apartment.

  4

  Emily

  I stayed with Miranda for three nights, but it became clear I couldn’t stay there much longer. She had dropped by the apartment the night I’d called her to help me get my stuff out of Jake’s apartment. She’d brought Alexander with her in the event Jake returned before we got moved out, and I was relieved when he didn’t. I was profoundly grateful to Miranda for being there for me, crying into her arms that night as I explained to her what Jake had almost done. I was relieved she didn’t tell me ‘I told you so.’ Instead, she helped me look for an affordable apartment to rent.

  She had assured me I could take some time to find a suitable one, but I was nervous about putting my friend and her boyfriend in danger. Jake had come by the house in the night, demanding to talk to me, and it had taken Alexander threatening to call the police to get him to leave. He blasted my phone with calls and messages of apology and rants, begging me and demanding I come back to him. No way would I ever be caught in the same vicinity of him again.

  I was so affected by what happened between Jake and me that I forgot about my Consumer Affairs assignment. I was frustrated, especially when the new girl quit on us at work, leaving me as the only cashier during the days once more. Two high school girls worked in the evenings, but it seemed difficult to get someone to cover a day shift with me.

  A week after my breakup with Jake, he stopped calling. I found a perfect apartment located in Hickory Knolls. It was ideally situated less than fifteen minutes from Riverchase Galleria and the university campus. The pictures I looked at on the Internet were good too. The facilities were excellent and it was well-serviced.

  I had one big problem, though. It was a bit pricey—not if I’d had a better job—but with renting that apartment, I wouldn’t be able
to save much. I also had to pay utility bills, which I hadn’t paid when I stayed with Jake. I contributed to the rent, but that was it. I was relieved my name wasn’t on the lease since he’d had the apartment long before we were together. The lease would have made it quite impossible to leave like I’d done.

  “Where the hell will I find a roommate before the apartment is taken?” I questioned myself aloud at work. We had just opened the store and I was folding some tops falling off their racks. Opening hours were usually the calmest part of my day.

  “You’re looking for a roommate?” Reggie asked, coming up behind me. The floor of the shop was carpeted, and I hadn’t heard him approach.

  “Uh, yeah,” I responded warily. I didn’t like to talk about my personal life at work. I disliked people who constantly spilled their business with associates.

  “I know of this great website you can use,” he commented. “I guarantee you can find someone there. And the good thing about it is that it matches you up with someone based on a short questionnaire you fill out. They do all the background search for you as well so you won’t get any crazies like on Craigslist.”

  “Really?” I had thought briefly of using Craigslist, but Miranda had knocked that idea right out of my head by pulling up stories on the Internet about horrible, life-threatening experiences people had had using Craigslist.

  “Yes. If you want, you can remind me before you leave and I’ll jot it down for you.”

  “Amazing. Thanks, Reggie.”

  He smiled at me. “Well, you’re a good kid, Emily.”

  I smiled back at him and refrained from pointing out that I was hardly a kid at twenty-three. That evening when I left the store, I had the name and URL of the website he’d told me about. Because it was Monday, I had no class and headed straight home to check the website. As sweet as Miranda and her boyfriend were about me staying there, I suspected I was cramping their style. I heard the stifled sex noise coming from their room in the night—every single night. I wondered if they ever got tired. Although I could still hear them, I appreciated the effort they made to stifle their moaning and groaning. For sure, I didn’t miss Miranda crying out for him to do it harder.

  I wanted to get out of their way and let them get back to their life. It couldn’t be fun having me underfoot. Alexander had walked naked into the kitchen one morning, totally forgetting I was there. I’d spilled hot coffee on my foot at seeing his morning rise. I had looked away in embarrassment while he retreated, apologizing. Damn, I’d thought, if he had all that, no wonder Miranda screamed so much when they made love.

  That little episode in the kitchen was everything I needed to let me know it was time to move out. I could have gone home to stay with my parents, but I didn’t want to. They always let me know if I was in a bind they would be happy to help, but they deserved to enjoy their lives now that they were older. They didn’t need me and all my drama over a possessive boyfriend.

  I could tell my mom wasn’t displeased about the end of my relationship with Jake. She’d always thought he was too old for me, even though I didn’t consider seven years to be too old. I refrained from telling them the cause of the breakup since I didn’t want to alarm them.

  As soon as I got to the apartment, I got out my laptop and waited for it to connect to the Wi-Fi before I launched Chrome. I typed in the URL Reggie had given me, which didn’t work. He must have written something wrong. I typed in the name of the website and found the website as well as several others of its kind below it. I decided to use the one my supervisor had recommended.

  Immediately, testimonials popped up and faded out with each new one. I read some of them and decided the comments seemed great, but I still didn’t trust these sites—especially when they could easily pay people to post fake reviews. I did an independent search to find the ratings of the website. Four out of five wasn’t bad, so I decided it was good enough.

  Although I hadn’t called the real estate agent in charge of the apartment yet to set up a viewing, I entered in the search bars on the website that I had an apartment and the location. Immediately, ten people showed up on the first page with at least ten pages behind that one as well. I couldn’t check them out, though, until I signed up, which I did. The website had a questionnaire to fill out about my personality and attitude towards animals and lifestyle preferences such as drinking and smoking. By the time I had finished, it had paired me with several people ranking from the best fit. I skimmed over the first three because they were way too old.

  The fourth person on the list was a college female of twenty-one and the second was a male of twenty-five. I sent a personal message, asking them to reach out to me since I needed a roommate. Both were willing to pay more than half what the apartment would cost if we split the rent.

  Feeling for the first time that everything would be okay after all, I looked up the apartment again and dialed the number for the real estate agent leasing the apartment. A feminine voice answered the phone on the third ring.

  “Twenty First Century Homes, this is Laura speaking.”

  “Good afternoon, Laura,” I responded breathlessly. This was my first time renting an apartment and hoped I did it right. “I’m Emily Swanson and I’m interested in viewing an apartment I saw on your website.”

  “Great. I would love to facilitate you on that, but first, let’s check if the apartment you’re interested in is still available. What’s the address please?”

  I rattled off the address from the notepad I’d scribbled the information on and held the line as she stated while she checked its availability. My fingers were crossed as I listened to the clicking sound of long nails hitting the keyboard of a computer.

  “Miss Swanson?”

  “Yes, I’m still here, and Emily is fine.”

  “Well, Emily, the apartment isn’t available, but there’s a similar one a floor higher that is on offer for the same price.”

  “Umm…okay, and it’s the same apartment building?”

  “Yes. We just rented the one you wanted yesterday. The apartments are quite lovely and are never available for long.”

  “And the apartment is to be leased for how long?”

  “For a year with the possibility to renew the lease for longer at the end of that contract period. Are you interested in viewing the apartment?”

  “Yes, but there is one thing. I’m looking to split the rent with a roommate. Is that a problem?”

  “It shouldn’t be a problem,” the real estate agent explained. “But there are two ways of going about it. If you trust the individual, then you can take out the lease in your name and any discussion would be done between you two, or you can have both parties sign the lease so it’s more legally binding between the two.”

  I digested the information. I would definitely get the latter since I had no idea who I would end up living with. The last thing I needed was a roommate skipping out on me and the lease.

  “I understand. How soon can we have a viewing?”

  “I’ll be showing several properties tomorrow, so how about the next day? Wednesday?”

  “Is it okay if we do the viewing at seven in the morning? I have to get to work by eight.”

  “Sure, that’s fine. Just let me make a notation here. Okay, we’re all set for Wednesday. Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

  “No, that’s all for now. You’ve been very helpful. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Emily. Let me give you my personal number so you can contact me if I’m away from the office in the event things change.”

  “Okay, sure.”

  I scribbled down her number and repeated it to her for confirmation before I said goodbye and hung up. I felt excited for all about five minutes before I saw an email announcement that I had received a response from one of the individuals I had contacted, the female of the two. My moment of excitement plummeted when I read her message. Oops, I guess I need to remove my profile. I already found a roommate and it’s going well. This site is amazin
g. I’m sure you’ll find a wonderful roomie as well. All the best!!!

  “Well, I guess it’s down to one,” I mumbled before logging into my Facebook page. I hadn’t been on in a couple of days and was horrified to see several posts on my wall from Jake about missing me and loving me and wanting me back. He’d attached sad pictures and songs from YouTube with messages of how sorry he was. It was embarrassing, and I was glad my privacy settings were set so no one could see posts added to my wall unless I approved them. I deleted the posts but felt so bad for him that I wondered if I should call him. I decided to wait and run it by Miranda first.

  Alexander was out for the night, having a drink and watching the game with friends, so Miranda and I decided to catch a movie together. I wished Jake had friends he was close to, then maybe he wouldn’t have felt the need to smother me with attention. I liked the way Alexander and Miranda could do their own thing and not feel threatened by it. That was the way it was supposed to be.

  “I’ll be viewing the apartment on Wednesday,” I informed her when we were on our way to Carmike Cinemas to catch a chick flick.

  “Great. Do you want me to go with you?” she volunteered.

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Did something else happen? You seem to be a little inside your head tonight.”

  It was too much to hope that she had missed my mood. I was still thinking hard about calling Jake. When I admitted it to her, she tore her eyes away from the road to look at me as if I was crazy.

  “Not to get back with him or anything,” I rushed to add before she said anything. “It’s just that—you should see the things he put on my Facebook page. It was depressing. Maybe me leaving was enough to make him change.”

  “Don’t for a second start thinking that garbage,” Miranda retorted. “That man ain’t never changing, honey. How many times did you talk to him about his possessive behavior? A man like that never gets better unless he seeks professional help. If you stayed with him or went back to him, Miranda, it wouldn’t be long before he seriously hurts you. I will not sit here and be a pretend friend and let that man harm you.”