Page 1 of A Roommate for Christmas
Prologue
“Chicagosureisbeautifulat Christmastime.”
Startled, Paige Ellis turned to see Gerry from HR standing right behind her.
She had been lost in thought looking out toward the heart of downtown Chicago from the rooftop bar of LondonHouse, where her company was hosting their annual Christmas party.It was chilly and getting windy, but it was hard to pass up an opportunity to see this view.
“It sure is,” she replied lazily.“Excuse me, time for a refill,” she said as she looked down at her only half-empty glass of wine and then proceeded to chug it.The last thing she wanted was to get roped into looking at photos of Gerry’s pet iguanas again.
Besides, Paige hadn’t seen Chance since they arrived together an hour earlier, and she wanted to check up on him.She had been slightly miffed that he ditched her as soon as they walked in, probably to find his co-worker Trey to commiserate on their shitty work situation.He had tried convincing her to skip the party altogether, but Paige didn’t want to miss out on the free food and drinks and the above average goodie bags.
She assumed Chance was becoming increasingly more disillusioned with his job than she was with hers—which was saying something.But she made a note of his unenthusiastic attitude, regardless.It wasn’t like her boyfriend to be in a mood like this.
On her way to the bar she passed a custom ice sculpture of a snowman their CEO had created, a table stacked with goodie bags, and the door to the women’s bathroom, which conveniently gave her a chance to reapply her lipstick and make sure her golden blonde hair was still holding a curl.Based on how lavish their parties always were, Paige would have thought she worked for a swanky corporate law firm, not Chicago’s fourth-largest marketing agency.
She walked up to the bar at the same time as her counterpart, Brian.He was a nice guy, but Paige couldn’t help but feel slight animosity toward him.Brian was hired after her and promoted before her, which wouldn’t be a big deal if he actually had original ideas.But instead he just parroted what the online gurus were all doing and saying and got rewarded for it.
Thankfully, one of his work buddies sidled up next to him before she got trapped in another uncomfortable conversation, but she didn’t want to risk anyone else cornering her alone at the bar, so she ordered the quickest drink—a glass of white wine—and ambled around the party in an attempt to find Chance.
Paige had started at the company right out of college in an entry-level marketing associate position, but in the last six years she had barely progressed like she had hoped.Paige felt so lucky at first to land this job, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that, unlike her fantasies, marketing jobs weren’t as sexy in real life as they were on TV.
Now she was twenty-eight, underappreciated, stuck with the most uninteresting accounts, and was often left out of meetings she felt she should have been included in.
Paige had finally gotten her first promotion at the beginning of this year, despite being the hardest worker and most innovative thinker on her team.Each time a new opportunity opened up in the past, the role went to guys like Brian or to new hires.Apparently, they finally decided to throw her a bone.
After her first three thankless years, Paige had polished up her resumé and geared up to go back on the job hunt.But then one morning she turned around from the coffee maker and walked right into Chance—the new hire in the IT department.
Chance was over six feet tall with brown curly hair.He wore glasses, but not in a nerdy way.It took less than two seconds of eye contact for Paige to forget about her plans to find a new job.She was instantly hooked on Chance.
At first, they took their coffee and lunch breaks together.Chance was an awkward type of funny that Paige found irresistibly charming.She started looking forward to work each day, brushing off her frustration at how she was being treated by her own team.
Soon enough, casual lunches turned into after-work drinks, which turned into attending concerts, which eventually led to Chance asking her out on an actual date.Paige could barely contain her excitement when she broke the news to her roommate and BFF, Nadia.
She and Chance became inseparable, spending workdays together and hanging out with Nadia and her boyfriend, Linus, on a regular basis.Chance stayed most nights at Paige’s apartment, which she had purchased a year earlier with a generous inheritance check from her late grandfather that covered her down payment—one of the benefits of being the only child of an only child.
He was her first serious boyfriend, but Paige was sure they’d get married.After all, it was Chance who had said “I love you” first.He talked regularly about their future together, as if it were a given, which made Paige feel secure.Though when she brought up marriage, Chance always found a way to avoid the topic.
What had started out as a casual office romance quickly turned into a serious relationship.
Three years later, she and Chance were both still at the company, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore her dissatisfaction with her job—promotion or not.
And lately, Chance had been getting more fed up with his job, too.The company had been in the process of switching CRM systems so his team was slammed, not only with getting all of the systems updated, but also IT tickets from older employees who couldn’t figure out how to navigate the new platform.It had put a big damper on his mood, both in and out of the office.
He had been putting in overtime at work and was spending fewer nights at Paige’s apartment, and she couldn’t help but feel it was starting to impact their relationship.He acted distant when they were together and irritated when she called to check in, but she figured it was all of the added stress that was getting to him.She was looking forward to the upcoming Christmas break so they could reconnect and get some much-needed quality time together.
Where is he?Paige thought to herself as she walked through yet another room at the party.
It was then that she heard his familiar voice from around the corner.
“Shit, man.I really screwed this up.I should probably tell her, don’t you think?”
Paige paused before turning the corner into the room.What is he talking about?Did he screw something up with the CRM migration?His boss, Jana, ran a tight ship.She wouldn’t take this news very well, especially since the team was already behind schedule.
“Dude, I don’t envy you,” she heard another man’s voice say.It sounded like his counterpart, Trey.“If you think you can live with it on your conscience, just pretend like nothing happened.But it’s up to you, man.”
Yeah, must be some IT department drama.
“If I cheated on my girlfriend I don’t know how I’d ever be able to look at her the same way again,” Trey continued.
