Free My Side by Tara Brown Page B

eyebrow,
“Your parents are divorced?”
    I nodded, “Thank God.”
    He winced, “Yikes.”
    “Yup.” My strong yup was back in full force.
    “My parents are still
together but they’ve had a couple close calls.”
    I took a huge bite and
moaned, “How do you find these places?”
    He laughed, “Just say
it—I was right, and this is the best shit you have ever eaten?”
    I nodded, “You were
right. This is exactly what I needed.”
    He laughed, “I have
had a lot of hangovers in my day.”
    I closed my eyes,
chewing and enjoying the sound of his voice and the taste in my mouth.
    “Now that you’re all
blissful and happy, there’s something I want to talk to you about.”
    I opened my eyes,
“What?”
    He drank a huge sip of
coffee, “I want to stay together. Forget the bet, forget the moving out, and apartment hunting. Just be roomies.”
    His proposal burned my
insides. I thought for a second and nodded, “Okay.” He made me feel safe. As
much as it burned me, I liked it.
    “It’ll be cheaper for
you to share the rent, and I won’t have to worry that you’re safe.” His voice
dropped down a bit.
    My eye twitched, “You
would worry about me?” I tried to sound sarcastic, but it didn’t happen.
    He nodded, “Yup.
Besides, I am in talks right now with the band, and an agent, and some serious
contracts. So if I have to tour, it’s better if I have someone at the house for
me.” He stole my strong yup , and I knew what we were
both talking about. It was the end of the flirting and the fun. I felt like I
could cry any second. He was asking me to be his friend. I was being
friend-zoned.
    I wanted that, didn’t
I?
    I wanted to go to
school and become a successful lawyer, and be independent. He was a sleazy
singer. He was going to be crazy famous. We would never fit.
    I wanted that, didn’t
I? My heart tried to negotiate, but my brain shut it down. “So we’ll be
roomies?” The words felt dirty and wrong, but I made myself smile.
    He smiled back. His
eyes tried to talk to me with emotions, he wasn’t
letting himself say either. We liked each other. There was chemistry.
    But we both felt the
pitfall the other person could be.
    I would be that
tag-along girlfriend who would make him less sexy to the women of the world,
and he would be that guy I never quite trusted and ruined my grades over. Or
worse, quit school and followed him around on his tours. The idea of him with
other women made me physically sick. I pointed, “Can we agree no dates at the
house? If girls and guys are roommates, it’s better not to have sex going on in
the house.”
    He nodded, “I agree
completely.” He put his huge hand out “To the new deal.”
    I gave him my hand. He shook them for both of us, while I tried not to think about the
fact , his touch lit me up .

Chapter Six
    Bromance

 
 
    I leaned against the
counter, bobbing to the Beats I’d stolen from his room. He had the best
headphones ever. I felt like I was at the Imagine Dragons concert. Not that I
even had a clue, who they were. He was opening my eyes to music, always filling
my iPod that he bought for me. I didn’t hear him come in the house. I picked at
the strawberries on the counter and read the text from the class I’d just left.
Something shifted in my peripheral. I looked up to a whipped cream-covered pie
sliding across the counter at me. I pulled the headphones off. He handed me a
fork.
    “What’s this?”
    He laughed, “We’ve
been living together for a month, no fights, no sex, no problems. It deserves
pie.”
    I scowled, “Do you
have an inner filter?”
    A devious smile
crossed his lips, “Nope.” He took the first bite.
    I dug in where he’d
taken his bite.
    The coconut-cream pie
melted in my mouth. Even with my lips covered in whipped cream and my mouth
full, I spoke, “Is that real whipped cream?”
    He nodded slowly,
“From this seedy, little place in the industrial section. I was going to bring
you there, ‘cause I heard