Roomie Wars Box Set

“Slater will be working alongside Zoey. He’ll be running the new project downtown…” Mr. Becker stops mid-sentence, distracted by his cell ringing. “Excuse me, I need to take this.”

We stand in awkward silence as he talks on his cell. I really wish Mia could read my mind right now, so I could tell her to mop her drool off the floor. She’s married. Troy, her husband, works in our IT department and would, no doubt, have something to say about this.

The call finally ends, and Mr. Becker continues the conversation about the project downtown. It’s very exciting and something I’ve been dying to sink my teeth into.

Slater talks about his experience back in England, and the more he talks, the more I stand there quietly listening. I’m known to be a chatterbox, but his accent is hypnotizing. He could explain how dinosaurs became extinct, and I still would have listened without saying a word.

Mr. Becker finishes the conversation. He leaves the room with Slater following. The moment they’re out the door, Mia lets out a huge gasp.

“Holy moly! Zoey, did you hear his accent? I swear, if I weren’t pregnant, I would have dry-humped his mouth.”

“Calm down, will you? It’s just your pregnancy hormones running wild. And have you forgotten about your husband?”

“Of course not. We have this understanding. His eyes can wander just nothing else,” she admits with a cheap smile.

I laugh loudly. “So, are your eyes allowed to wander? You just said you wanted to dry-hump his mouth.”

“Yes. Troy doesn’t care. He knows I love him. It’s all for fun anyway.”

“I think it’s cute the two of you have that relationship. You know… where you can joke without hurting each other’s feelings.”

“But you and Drew are like that, at least, you used to be?” She raises her left eyebrow, tilting her head slightly while waiting for me to answer.

I keep quiet thinking about the way we were. Of course, as roomies, I would mouth off about men in general. It never bothered him because we weren’t together. Nowadays, I never really comment on other men, and why would I? I have my hunk.

“Uh oh,” Mia comments, covering her mouth.

“What?” I ask, paranoid.

“Your relationship has fallen into that jealousy trap.”

“Jealousy trap? Seriously, what’s in that tea of yours?” I laugh it off. “Drew has female friends at work, and it doesn’t bother me.”

“Does it bother him if you talk to other men?”

“I don’t talk to other men aside from my dad and brothers.”

She eyes me dubiously. “So, it doesn’t bother you at all that he spends every day at work with young women keen on furthering their career?”

“All right, that’s it,” I tell her. “You’ve been watching too much General Hospital. Drew isn’t like that. He loves me, and I trust him. He and his colleagues are busy saving lives, not standing around like us gasbagging about co-workers and their accents.”

I could see the sheepish grin on her face—the one of a troublemaker. Harmless fun from someone bored out of her mind while waiting for this baby to arrive. During her attempt to rise from the chair, I offer her support as she latches on with a deep breath.

“I guess we should get back to work and stop ‘gasbagging’ about accents.” She laughs accidentally letting out a loud fart.

Quick to apologize, her face turns beet red as I hold on to the chair in a fit of hysterics, struggling for air.

***

Mia is armed with a ton of magazines, dumping them on the coffee table as she falls onto the couch exhausted. I can’t blame her. We are on the third floor, and those flights of stairs are a bitch.

Drew is in the kitchen cooking something that makes my mouth water and stomach growl like crazy. Much to his amusement, he joins us briefly as Mia talks relentlessly about dates.

“C’mon, Drew, you must have some date in mind,” Mia asks, half listening while flipping through a magazine.

“Um, I don’t know. Spring is good, isn’t it?”

“That’s so far away,” she complains.