Chapter 28

B illie Eilish's latest was playing as Lila gave the bathroom counter one last swipe with a Clorox wipe. Admittedly, the bathroom was pretty clean already, but she wanted to make sure that everything was in perfect order for when her new, mysterious roommate showed up. She just prayed he'd be amenable to putting the seat down.

She'd put all of her toiletries and hair-styling implements in one of the two drawers and ensured that all of her shower stuff was in a caddy underneath the sink closest to her bedroom. There was a double vanity, a toilet and a pretty decent-sized walk-in shower, all decorated with light-gray subway tile and white granite. She'd spent a little money on new, fluffy, dove gray hand towels and some of her favorite hand soap for each sink. Not like most guys would even notice, but she did it anyway.

Lila also nervously double checked that she'd taken her vibrator out of the shower. One of the double-edged swords of "dating" King was that she realized that she had a pretty high sex drive. Which would be great if she were having sex on the reg, which she was definitely not. Besides the failed attempt to date Eli, Lila hadn't gone out with or hooked up with anyone else.

It wasn't like she didn't get the occasional number slipped to her at work or that she didn't notice the interest in some of Knight and Bear's friends' eyes. But she couldn't fake it if she felt zero sparks. Especially now because she knew how potent chemistry between two people could be. So she was content to wait it out until she found someone she felt something for. Thus, all the sex toys, which were now stored in a shoe box underneath her bed.

Satisfied that the bathroom was in good shape, Lila headed back into her room, turned off the music, and made sure the deadbolt lock on her side of her bathroom door worked.

Check.

Such a nice feature, really. The handle locked from the inside of the bathroom, and the deadbolt locked the door from the other side.

Lila scanned her room. She'd gotten new bedding for her bigger bed when she moved in and picked a linen rose-colored bedspread with crisp white sheets. She'd hung up a full-length mirror on her closet door, and three poster-sized framed line drawings of abstract female nudes that she'd commissioned Dani to draw for her before she graduated with her degree in fine art on the wall. Even though Lila had only lived there a few months, she felt more at home in this room than she did when she visited her childhood bedroom.

She moved over to her desk and took stock of all of her textbooks. School was starting in a week, and she felt ready to start her last year. And even though some would say that graduating in three years was a little over the top, she wanted to get a jump start on graduate school, whether it was law school or something else. Hell, some people took a gap year before even starting college; she was just going to take one at the end instead.

The rumbling of male voices and the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs was muffled, but she could only assume it was her new roommate. She suddenly felt nervous, unsure of how to play the situation. She'd been getting better at dealing with her social awkwardness and shyness. The more she practiced being outgoing, the more outgoing she became. But she felt tongue-tied and awkward and almost gave in to the inclination to hide herself away in her room.

Chiding herself, she sucked in a breath and walked out of her room and down the hall to say hello.

She heard Knight's uproarious laughter through the partially open door. He seemed to be talking to the new roomie, so she knocked before pushing the door open a little farther until the mystery guy's face was visible.

Her eyes widened as she took in the form of one King Spencer. He caught her gawking and half smiled. "Hey, La."

"Surprise!" Knight exclaimed, about giving Lila heart failure.

"Decrease the volume, bud. You just about scared me to death."

"Sorry." For the record, Knight did not look one bit sorry. "But, you have to admit, this is a fun little plot twist. We're all going to have so much fun now that you two are friends again."

She looked at Knight then King. "So you're seriously the new roommate?"

King nodded.

Lila tried to ignore the way her heart painfully twisted in her chest, because she still wanted him, dammit. And not in a friendly way. She was barely holding it together just being his friend. How would she be able to last the next nine months? How would she be able to handle it when he brought girls home? She pushed the last thought away.

"Earth to Lila," Knight said, verbally nudging her out of her thoughts. "This is so great, right?"

"So great," she parroted with enthusiasm she didn't feel. She gave herself an internal shake and added, "I was so worried about bathroom sharing with a random and feeling mildly guilty about threatening bodily harm if the toilet seat gets left up. And now I am fully absolved of that guilt." She smirked cheekily.

"I would never, ever do something so terrible," King deadpanned. He seemed to be analyzing her every word and facial expression, and the scrutiny was almost unbearable. Seemed like she needed to do a better job of hiding her feelings.

"Well, that's a relief." Lila looked around the room. "Need help with anything? I just cleaned the bathroom, and there's plenty of room for your bathroom stuff."

"Nah, I don't have a lot to unpack."

"Except your extensive sneaker collection," Knight interjected. "Have any size 13s in there by chance?"

"Sorry, they're all my standard 14s."

Knight put King in a mock choke hold. "That's it, I don't think this whole thing is going to work out after all."

King stuck out a leg and flipped Knight over so he landed on the bed. "I guess I better pack up all this shit, then." They both laughed.

"Well, I'll leave you two to it, then." Lila headed toward the door that led to the bathroom and started rambling. "King, we'll have to work out a showering schedule or whatever, though I usually do it at night, so maybe that won't even be a conflict. Except for when you're using it for…extracurricular activities when you bring girls over. So maybe we need a system for that…for ear plug purposes. In fact…" She took the thin floral scrunchie off of her wrist and threw it to him; he deftly caught it with one hand. "You can just put this on my bedroom door handle if you're going to be using the bathroom for sexy times, and I'll plan accordingly."

Knight was standing just behind King and was desperately trying to hold in his laughter. Nice, he mouthed to Lila, and she could feel her whole face bursting into an inferno.

King looked pained, and she tried not to think about how awkward she'd just been. His brow furrowed, and he worried his bottom lip with his teeth. "What about when you, ah, need the shower for, what did you call it, extracurricular activities?"

Shit, this is awkward.

"I'll do the same. I have more than one scrunchie." She shot the guys an awkward little finger wave and then darted through the bathroom and into her room. After both doors were closed, she flopped down on her bed and put her hands over her face.

"Fuck," she whispered. Yup, this definitely warranted an F-bomb. She sat up, got out her phone, and started typing.

LILA: 911. King is my new roommate. Repeat, King fucking Spencer is my new fucking roommate. Who I will be sharing a fucking shower with. Who has agreed to put a scrunchie on my doorknob when he's using said shower for "extracurricular activities." FML.

WREN: The plot thickens…hopefully in a fun way?

LILA: …

WREN: I'm sorry, babe. It'll be okay. Maybe this will just help move things in the direction they're supposed to move in.

LILA: Unfortunately, that direction seems to involve my shower.

WREN: Hang in there, bestest. I'm always here for you, eight-hour time difference notwithstanding.

LILA: *heart*

WREN: *heart*

She lay back down on her bed and grabbed a pillow and put it over her head. She may or may not have shouted an expletive or two into the pillow. Her head was starting to ache.

"Knock, knock," Knight said as he shuffled into her room.

"Lila's not here," she said.

Knight grabbed the pillow and removed it from her face. "Say that again? Your voice was pretty muffled."

"Never mind," she groaned as she sat up.

Knight sat down on the edge of her bed and playfully hit her with her pillow. "Talk to me, Li."

"I can't, Knight."

"C'mon." He nudged her with his elbow. "I thought things were good between you and King now. I thought this would be a fun surprise. You don't have to share your space with some random dude."

Lila arranged her face into something she hoped resembled a smile. "You're right. We're like the best of buds right now. It'll be a party. And I've got a whole drawer of ear plugs ready to go, so…we're golden."

Knight studied her intently for a minute. "So you're telling me that you don't have any more sexy feelings towards our new roommate, and you're totally fine if he has sex with someone else within earshot?

"Yes?" Dammit, she'd made it sound like a question. This conversation was going downhill fast.

"Aw, babe. If you still have feelings for him, why don't you tell him?"

She scoffed softly, her voice rising a note or two. "I so don't. Besides, even if I did, hypothetically speaking, he's made it abundantly clear that he just wants to be friends. Also, he's the one who imploded everything before—twice—and I don't know that I could ever trust that it wouldn't happen again."

Lila faked another smile. "And so it's all fine. We've got a system already. It's great. He can bang whomever he wants to bang."

"Was the term ‘bang' ever really a thing?"

"It is now."

"Okay, Li. Whatever you say." He kissed her on the forehead and then left her alone.

And she tried really, really hard not to cry tears of frustration. But failed quite miserably.