Room Mated: Standalone Reverse Harem Romance

“Make yourselves at home,” Sierra said as we entered the living room. There was a butter-colored sofa taking up most of the open space. A kitchen and dining room were on one side, and doors presumably leading to bedrooms on the other. The vast expanse of windows showed downtown Denver and the Rockies off in the distance.

“This is really amazing. All this for a Chase Cooper film?” I didn’t really understand how the Hollywood publicity machine worked. Sierra had been in a big-budget action movie that’d filmed not that far from my hometown over the summer. That’s how we’d met.

“No, actually, they invited me out here because of an indie film I did a few years ago. A local film school is having a showing of indie films featuring female leads, and they asked me to speak at it.”

“Wow, that’s great,” Alyssa said. “But aren’t you nervous?”

“No.” Sierra gestured for us to sit down. She wasn’t the type that got hung up on public speaking or panels or interviews. Now men, on the other hand… men made her nervous. Luckily, it was just us girls for the weekend. “How did you two meet? Are you getting an MBA too, Alyssa?”

“No.” Alyssa crossed one thin leg over the other. “Kylie’s dating my brother.”

Crap.

I’d completely forgotten Mason had told Kylie I was his girlfriend.

Sierra perched on the edge of an armchair as she turned to me, her gorgeous waves of flaxen hair flipping from one shoulder to the other. “You didn’t tell me you were seeing someone! I want to hear everything about him.”

“Well… “ Damn. I hadn’t anticipated this. It’s not like I couldn’t trust them with the truth, but I was afraid Alyssa would be upset about the lie, and she’d had a crappy enough week already.

Getting no answer from me, Sierra turned to Alyssa. “What’s your brother like? Tell me everything.”

Alyssa shook her head ruefully. “He’s my half-brother, actually, and Kylie probably knows him better than I do.”

They both looked at me expectantly, and I huffed out a loud breath. “Okay, here’s the thing…”

I explained it all. The mistake the housing office made. How incredible the suite was, and all that. “The thing is, it’s working out really well, as long as we don’t get caught.” I turned to Alyssa. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth when we had lunch. We just had so many other things to talk about, I forgot you didn’t know.”

Alyssa tried hard not to look upset. “At least you told me. Mason never tells me anything. If I’m lucky, I get a text every so often that says, ‘How’s it going?’ I should’ve known someone like you would never date him.”

“Why’s that?”

“You’re nice. He’s not.” Disappointment tinged her voice, and I exchanged a glance with Sierra, who looked puzzled as well. And then I thought about it for a moment. Had Alyssa hoped Mason and I would end up together so she and I would stay close? After all, it didn’t sound like her family life was all that great, and Mason had said most of her friends had already graduated.

I smiled at her. “It’s better this way, because if we had gone out and broke up, it might make things awkward between you and me. But you and I became friends on our own, so it doesn’t matter what happens with him.”

“I want in on this friendship deal too,” Sierra said, smoothing things over. “But first, I ordered lunch. Do you mind eating up here in the suite?”

Neither of us did.

Lunch was incredible, but in a nice hotel, that wasn’t surprising. Alyssa and I asked Sierra questions about the indie film featured in the film festival. It would’ve been normal for Sierra to ask Alyssa about her plans after graduation, but I’d already warned the actress to stay away from that subject.

Toward the end of the meal, the conversation returned to my unusual living arrangement. “I still can’t believe you share a room with three men,” Alyssa said.

“But it’s not a room, it’s a pretty substantial suite, right?” Sierra clarified.

“Well…”

“You share a room?” Sierra exclaimed.

“Yeah. It’s kind of a long story.”

She shook her head. “I thought Ronnie had a strange situation when she shared a house with three men. But a room? I’d rather set up a hammock on the balcony.”

“It’s not all bad.”

Sierra raised an elegantly arched eyebrow. “Are you blushing?”

“She is.” Alyssa squinted at me. “Do you have a crush on one of them? I met Parker last year—he’s a cutie.”

“Have you met Jude, too?” I asked, hoping the flush had faded from my cheeks.

“Yeah, a few times. He and Mason have been friends for years.”

“Which one do you like best?” Sierra asked, like we were in grade school.

“You can tell us,” Alyssa encouraged. “I won’t be offended if it’s not Mason.”