The Roommate Equation

“Yeah, what about her.”

“She was my cover for Ash.”

Sloan tugs at the ends of his hair and lets out an exaggerated groan. “So, what happened?” His eyes meet mine. “You dated my sister while she was at Boston College, and then you ditched her to move across the country with me?”

“Yes,” I admit. “But it’s more complicated than that. I didn’t want to leave Ash behind.”

She snorts as if she finds this amusing.

Sloan’s eyes find Ash. “Did he break your heart?”

Ash sits in her chair, unable to look up at him. “We had bad timing.”

Sloan is silent for a minute before he says, “Is this serious?”

“I love her.” Ash’s head snaps in my direction as I add, “I’m in love with her.”

Ash’s eyes widen.

Sloan fists his hair between his fingers and sighs. “Fuck.”

“I would never hurt your sister,” I confess. “At least not on purpose. We were young back then, but things are different now.”

Sloan’s anger has now turned to sadness. “How am I supposed to trust you?”

“This is the only secret I’ve ever kept from you.”

“Will it be the last?”

“Yes,” I say without hesitation.

“I need time to think.”

Sloan storms out of the kitchen and slams the front door behind him. I attempt to follow him, and Ash grabs my wrist.

“Let him go.”

“I need to talk to him.”

“There’s nothing left to say.” She slides her hands up my chest and wraps her arms around my neck. “He’ll come back when he’s ready to talk.”

“I hope so.”

Ash stands on her tippy toes, holding onto me like a koala. “You said you love me.”

“You better love me, too.”

She chuckles. “I love you almost as much as a chicken burrito with extra rice and sour cream.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ash

Dylan moves my feet off the coffee table and onto his lap. My eyes slam shut when Dylan rubs my foot, kneading my skin between his hands. He’s so damn good with his hands. Dylan is the type of guy who studies until he’s an expert, and when it comes to my body, he has a Ph.D.

Until a few seconds ago, I was pretty focused on Silicon Valley, a nerdy show about a startup company in Silicon Valley, no shocker there, but it’s surprisingly funny. Dylan had begged me to watch it with him, and I’m happy I did because my stomach hurts from laughing so hard.

“That feels good,” I groan as Dylan’s fingers move across my toes. “And now, I’m super horny.”

Dylan laughs. “Everything makes you horny.”

“Correction,” I say, holding up my finger. “Everything you do makes me horny.”

He drops my foot, and I open my eyes, watching him intently as he crawls down the couch and up my body. His mouth is inches from mine when he rolls the pad of his thumb along my cheek.

Our lips touch, and that’s when Sloan stumbles through the front door. Dylan slides off me, not wanting to add to the tension, and we remain on our respective sides of the couch.

I throw a glance over my shoulder at Sloan, who stinks of beer. His hair looks like he’s been pulling at the ends all day. He ran out of the house, still wearing his navy pajama shorts and a white tank top, looking as if he rolled out of bed drunk.

“I can’t believe you drove like this,” I shout as I get off the couch to approach him. “You could have crashed your car. You could have gotten into an accident and killed someone… or yourself.”

Dylan is right behind me, towering over me by the time I reach Sloan.

Sloan holds up his hand. “Don’t lecture me. And if you must know, I didn’t drive home. I left my car at the bar and took an Uber home.”

I let out of sigh of relief. “Where were you?”

“Nowhere important.”

He moves into the kitchen, and I follow behind him with Dylan in tow.

“We didn’t finish talking,” I say.

Sloan reaches into the fridge and grabs a beer. “I don’t feel like talking.”

“You can’t drink us away. We’re not going anywhere.”

He twists off the top with a bottle opener and throws the cap at Dylan. We stand there in awkward silence for a few seconds before Sloan sets his beer on the counter with a dramatic thud.

“You know what this means, right?” Sloan looks over my shoulder at Dylan.”

“No, you tell me.”

“You better fucking marry my sister,” Sloan says with venom in his tone. “Because if you break her heart, I’ll kill you. I’ll bury your body on the beach and piss on your bones.”

“And I’m supposed to be the actor in the family,” I say to lighten the mood. “That’s a bit dark, big bro, don’t you think?”

“I’m serious,” he says with zero emotion. “If he hurts you, there’s no more talking. We’re done.”

Dylan cups my shoulders with his big hands and gives them a quick squeeze. “I meant what I said earlier.”