Page 13 of The Grumpy Roommate Gamble

One dark brow winged up. “Dystopian shit has happy endings?”

His expression said I was full of shit, and that had me laughing again. “Dystopian romance does.”

Gabe considered that and nodded. “Fair point.”

Setting the Coke aside, he opened a lower cabinet. “You like popcorn?”

“Are there clouds in the sky?”

“I make pretty good stovetop popcorn.”

“I won’t say no.” Drawn in by him, I slid onto one of the stools to watch as he placed a massive heavy-bottomed pot on the stove, added oil, and dumped in popcorn kernels.

“I noticed some of the books were signed by the authors.”

His back was to me as he dug out the lid to the pot, so he didn’t see me clutch at the pang in my chest. It gave me a few moments to get myself under control. “Yeah. Dad got them for me.”

“Ah.” He covered the pot and set the heat, leaning back against the counter beside the stove. “The flood jacked them up, didn’t they?”

Because my throat had gone thick, I just nodded.

“I could tell they were pretty important to you. Man, I’m sorry. That’s clearly a good memory of your dad.”

I shoved down the emotion and shrugged again. “I still have the memories.” Because I desperately needed to get the conversation off the negative before I embarrassed myself by crying, I teased him a little. “I’ll enjoy indoctrinating you into the genre.”

“You wanna to figure out which service it’s streaming on while I finishthis?”

“Sure.”

By the time I had the movie queued, Gabe came into the room with the biggest bowl of popcorn I’d ever seen.

“Snagged you a Diet Coke.”

“Perfect.”

He set the bowl in the middle of the sofa and dropped down to one side, kicking his sock feet up on the coffee table. I pressed play and lowered myself more carefully on the other, not wanting to upset the bowl. As the familiar opening credits began, I was grateful I knew every second of this movie because I couldn’t focus on it at all. I was too aware of the size and heat of the man beside me.

For heaven’s sake, girl, it’s just a movie. Eat your popcorn.

But when I reached for a handful, my hand brushed the back of his. A zing of electricity seemed to shoot right up my arm.

Gabe glanced over. “How is it?”

“What?”

“The popcorn.”

“Oh.” I tossed a few kernels in my mouth. As the delightfully salty taste hit my mouth, I closed my eyes and hummed in appreciation. “Oh, that’s delicious.”

When I opened my eyes again, I would’ve sworn I caught him staring at my mouth. But then he looked back at the screen, and I told myself I’d imagined it.

Watch the movie.

Gabe watched with an intensity of focus that made me wonder what it would be like to have all that focus dialed in to me. The idea of it made me shudder, as I did every time our hands brushed in the popcorn bowl. By the time the credits rolled, every inch of my skin felt electrified.

“Well, how did you like it?”

“That wasawesome. Isn’t there a sequel?”

---