Alphahole (Alphahole Roommates 1)

I take a bite.

Heaven.

She’s back a minute later with a cup of coffee. She puts it on my nightstand.

“Oh my God, this is good.” I say around a mouthful of fluffy cake and perfect frosting.

She smiles. “I know.”

“I’d offer you one,” I say after swallowing, “But I can’t. I need all six of these.”

She waves her hand. “I ate three before I came up.” She puts her hand to her belly. “Guilt therapy. Please stop being mad at me. If you want revenge against him, I’ll help you. If you want me to never mention it again, I won’t. If you---”

“Okay, enough. It’s done. I just want to take today to de-stress. Gonna do my laundry and pack for New York and not even think about anything. Revenge isn’t off the table, but there’s also that old saying about digging two graves instead of one before embarking on revenge…”

“Truth,” she mutters.

I pull my suitcase out of the closet and start rifling through my laundry to sort it. I’m sorting it in here. No way am I leaving my panties and bras in the laundry room in case he goes in there.

“So, tell me about Meryl and Ausin after I left.”

“Well!” She claps her hands. “After Aiden and you left, they came back to the table and they were huddled talking for a long time. I was kind of caught up with Jude.” Her face goes pink. “So, she tells me that they’re going for a coffee and she’ll see me at home. Jude and I stayed, we slow danced, and I gave him my number. I took a cab home. Got home and saw I missed a text from her. She said she’ll see me today. She isn’t home yet. I messaged while I was frosting those and asked if she was alive. She replied with ‘alive and well’ and put a smiley face. So… yeah. Looking forward to finding out how that went.”

My eyes are big.

Wow, Meryl.

“How much peach schnapps did she drink?”

Ally laughs. “Maybe three. She was drinking water before they left, so I don’t think Alphahole’s brother took advantage of her. She seemed to have all her faculties.”

“Hm.” I’m looking in my closet at my limited wardrobe. You’ve been to these conference things before, right? I’m only there for two days. How should I dress?”

“Business casual is advisable for daytime. You’re going to be doing a lot of walking and a lot of sitting through presentations and panels so be comfortable. But bring business professional with you just in case there’s some impromptu meeting. Bring business fun, too. A cocktail dress leaning toward professional in case you go to any of the banquets. You excited about the trip?”

I shrug. “I would be, but I don’t know much about what I’m in for. I know I’m flying out with Aiden tomorrow night. I got an itinerary Friday morning at the office and it said he, I, and a guy from marketing in New York would all go together. Tuesday, we check out exhibits and go to a couple presentations. There’s a dinner Tuesday night. Wednesday looks sort of the same. Some keynotes and meet and greets. An open floor thing full of exhibits. Mr. C wants us to have a booth and do some panels next year, so this year is about fact-finding. We fly home Thursday morning. I just hope he holds it together enough to be professional. After last night, I have my doubts. I’m thinking I should talk to him today and make sure things are clear about the trip.”

“At least there’s a third,” Ally says.

I nod in agreement. “Thank God. Though I don’t know how he’s gonna be with me. His name is Kieran and I’ve exchanged a few emails with him and we’ve been cc’d on a few together. I get the impression he doesn’t like that I’m here. I found out he wasn’t doing something he was supposed to be doing with retargeting our Google ads and he’s kind of in the hot seat with Mr. C. Our jobs are similar and me being hired suggests he wasn’t doing enough.”

She rolls her eyes. “CC is growing. That’s all your being hired indicates. He should be grateful he doesn’t have to do it all alone.”

I shrug and sip my coffee and go back to my sorting. “Where’s all my underwear?”

I’m staring at the empty hamper. I’ve got a few piles on the floor, sorted by color. There’s one pair of undies here. The pair I wore last night. I haven’t done laundry since I got here, and I’ve been here a week.

“Huh?” Ally asks.

“I’ve been here a week. I change my underwear every day, of course, so why are there zero dirty pairs other than what I had on last night?”

Her eyes go wide. “Um… that’s…” She doesn’t finish.

No. He wouldn’t.

I feel my face transform into absolute murder. I stomp out to the living room. Aiden is sitting there on the red sofa, in a black wife beater and basketball shorts, laptop open to his email and he’s got the television on. Some sports commentary.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I snap.