Page 13 of Tapped By My Roommate
Ethan glanced up. “Yeah, among the few things I managed to toss into a duffel as I ran out like a coward.” His words were bitter. “If I’d stayed…”
I joined him on the bed, wrapping an arm around his shoulders again. I’d never touched Ethan much before tonight. We were more like casual acquaintances who shared a space. But if ever anyone needed it, it was Ethan. He sank against me without the slightest resistance.
“If you’d stayed, she might have destroyed your things right in front of you. Don’t beat yourself up, Ethan. You were in a toxic situation, and you got out.”
“I guess.”
“I’ve never seen you wear a bowtie. Are they just for sentimental value?”
Ethan gave an awkward shrug from his position pressed against my side. “Used to wear them. Stopped.” He pulled away with a sigh. “Tess said I looked like an idiot.”
He returned to the box on the floor and knelt beside it. I watched him pull out items and form them into piles on the floor.
I frowned. “Tess’s judgment is questionable.”
Ethan didn’t look at me as he continued unpacking. “I mean, it’s not like there’s a lot of college guys walking around in suspenders or a bowtie, so I get it.”
“Nothing wrong with being an original,” I said, even though it was difficult to picture. Ethan had worn nothing but casual T-shirts—and his animal rescue Polo—since I’d known him. I hesitated. “Want to show me?”
He whipped his head toward me, eyes wide. “What?”
That had gotten his attention. I smiled encouragingly. “Show me your style—the one you had before Tess stomped all over it.” He looked unsure. “How about this? I’ll go order that pizza, grab a couple of beers, and you can finish unpacking. Then, later, you can show me how much you rock a bowtie.”
Ethan chuckled. It was a weak laugh, but it was a laugh. Anything was better than the defeated expression he’d worn since our visit to his evil ex’s house. “Okay. But don’t expect much. It’s pretty geeky.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” I said decisively, as if I knew anything about fashion. All I really knew was that if Ethan had a way of expressing himself, he shouldn’t let a vile human like Tess squash that. Even if he did look geeky, so what? Ethanwasa geek. And geeky could be hot.
Not that Ethan was hot. I mean, he was okay. Attractive enough, with his blond hair and smooth skin and vivid blue eyes. He was on the slim side, but he wasn’t all bones. He filled out his T-shirts and jeans just enough to—Oh hell, what was I even thinking? This was Ethan, myroommate.Not some hookup I should be checking out head to toe.
Thrown by the direction my thoughts had taken, I whirled to leave the room.
“I’ll get that pizza,” I called without looking back.
I was still rattled from watching Ethan take a verbal beating. That was all. I wanted to comfort him, but it really wasn’t my place.
So pizza and beer it was.
Hopefully, it would get us both back on a more even keel.
* * *
ETHAN
Rhett rapped on my bedroom door twenty minutes later. “Pizza delivery.”
I opened up to see him standing there with a pizza box in his hands and paper plates, napkins, and four bottles balanced on top. He’d showered and dressed down to shorts and a tank top, looking comfortable in his own skin. Something I couldn’t quite manage.
“Not sure I’m hungry,” I said.
Rhett ignored that, stepping past me and looking around my room. It’d only taken me fifteen minutes to unpack my things. I’d set out my collectibles, plugged in my nightlight lamp that looked like Tetris blocks stacked together, taken my flour and sugar canisters to the kitchen, started a load of laundry with the dusty clothes that hadn’t been cut to shreds, and dumped my mangled bowties in a dresser drawer—at a loss for what to do with them. I wasn’t ready to toss them into the trash despite their state.
As Rhett’s gaze landed on the handful of Godzilla and Bakugan figures on my bookshelf, I flushed. Tess had always thought it was strange I kepttoys.They weren’t really toys to me, though I’d owned a couple of them since childhood. It wasn’t as if I played with them.Much.
It was a wonder she hadn’t destroyed them too. We’d found them jumbled in a cedar chest, along with the quilt my grandmother had made. I’d folded that and laid it across the foot of my bed.
Rhett made himself at home, flipping over the two empty boxes to use as tables.
“I’m probably not good company,” I insisted as he laid out dinner and took a seat on my bed.
