Page 32 of The Roommate Problem
Chapter Ten
Mo had woken up in a cranky mood, and it hadn’t gone away all day. Not even at lunch when she got delivery from her favorite Pho place. What the heck was wrong with her when the most delicious noodle soup in the world didn’t cheer her up? Normally, she woke every day with a smile on her face and an earworm on her lips. But not today, and she knew the reason.
August Porter.
Things were weird last night at home after the supply room incident. So ridiculous. It wasn’t like they’d even done anything. Unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, she knew it was a bad idea, they lived together and blah, blah, blah. Try telling all that to her raging hormones that kept her up half the night thinking naughty things to do to every inch of August’s body.
She hadn’t been this sexually frustrated since she had a crush on her oldest brother’s best friend in college. Too bad Darren had a bigger crush on her brother than her.
But this time, it really stung. August wasn’t putting on the brakes because he wasn’t attracted to her. He was. A lot. Even if he tried to deny it, she saw the fire in his eyes, felt the proof of his hardness pressed up against her in the tiny room yesterday. He wanted her just as badly as she wanted him.
But you’re roommates. If it doesn’t work out and he leaves early, how are you going to afford your rent?
There was the financial aspect to think about along with physical ones. Sure, he signed a sublease, but people broke those all the time, and while she went after him for the money he owed her, the landlord would kick her out on her rear if she didn’t pay rent in full. So yes, hooking up was a bad idea even though they both—
“Moira!”
Startled, Mo glanced up from the paperwork she was blankly staring at to see Lilly standing in front of her desk, concerned eyes focused on her.
“What?”
“I’ve asked you a question three times, and you didn’t respond.” Lilly reached a hand across the desk, placing it on Mo’s forehead. “Are you feeling all right? You’re not getting Pru’s cold, are you?”
Poor Pru had come in Monday morning looking like death warmed over. Mo and Lilly immediately sent their friend home and disinfected the entire office. Well, Lilly disinfected it while Mo ordered soup delivery and cold medicine to be sent to Pru’s house, since her friend said Finn had been struck down, too.
“No,” Mo said, swatting her friend’s hand away. “I’m not getting sick.”
“Thank goodness, because this week might be slow, but I cannot handle everything myself.”
Lie. Mo had complete faith that Lilly could handle this job and two side gigs all by herself if she needed to. Her friend was a force.
“So why are you spacing out?”
“I wasn’t spacing out.” She totally was. “I just have something on my mind.” She totally did.
“Anything I can help with?”
Oh, that’d go over real great. Tell Lilly about her inappropriate sexual attraction to her new roommate. Logical Lilly would flip her lid and list all the hundreds of reasons it was a bad idea and Mo should keep it in her pants.
There might not be a hundred legitimate reasons, but Mo was sure Lilly would invent some.
“Naw. It’s just stuff.”
Lilly’s green eyes narrowed behind her dark-framed glasses. “What kind of stuff?”
Gah, her friend’s nosiness had only increased since she moved out. Well, too bad for Lil, because Mo wasn’t saying anything. She was already in a funk—she didn’t need a lecture about proper roommate protocol on top of it.
“Nunya business kind of stuff.” She made a shooing motion, going for the only thing she knew would get Lilly off her back. “Don’t you have work to do? We’re down a set of hands and all that.”
But her friend didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, Lilly gave her a long, hard look.
“Moira.”
Fantastic. It was Lilly’s stern tone. She hated the stern tone. Usually because it meant she was about to get a longwinded speech about why she shouldn’t do the thing she was thinking about doing. Which Mo usually went right ahead and did anyway because when someone told her no…it just made her want to do it more.
“Liiiiiilllllly.” She dragged out the name, doing her most outrageous impression of her friend.
With a long-suffering sigh, Lilly came around Mo’s desk and popped a hip on the edge. “Spill it,” her friend demanded.
