Tristan: Whatcha doing?
Tristan: Is it dinner time? Hanging out with your roommates?
Tristan: How’s my sister today? Roan stopped by lately?
Tristan: Are you taller or shorter than your roommates?
Tristan: Which of your roommates is most likely to shoplift?
Another unfair event out of her control—obnoxious brothers.
She closed the text messages rather than send him a scathing response. It would only encourage him.
Like her witchy chiefs, staying silent and carrying on was her best choice.
Because there was nothing else.
CHAPTER 11
Finishing on time without bloodshed during that ENT conference, Roan signed out around six in the evening and stopped by Clarissa’s rowhouse in the resident housing called Doctor’s Row. Her psychiatry roommate, Willow of the notorious fake-dating, let him in. Her other roommate, second-year internal medicine resident, Simone was boiling water on the stove.
“She’s not awake yet,” Simone said, finding two packages of Ramen in the cupboard.
“Yes, she is. I borrowed this shirt from her. She’s getting dressed.” Willow stood off to one side in a pink-heart-covered shirt and was drawing hearts on her face with red lipstick.
“Is she okay?” Roan asked quietly. Clarissa’s two roommates varied in how they treated him. Simone had made it clear she was less than thrilled about the whole fake-dating of Willow mess he’d created. It was hard to tell if Simone was still angry or if she was worried about Clarissa.
“I can’t imagine she had a good time taking call in the pediatric cancer ward.” Simone dumped the noodles into the water. “You will feed her something better than this, right?”
“Of course.” Roan told himself not to be annoyed with her implying he didn’t take good care of Clarissa. He had an entire plan at his house for tonight to make her feel appreciated.
“You do feed her when she’s not being your sex slave. Or only if she’s been a good girl?” Simone covered the pot as Roan gritted his teeth.
“Ignore her,” Willow said and turned to Simone. “Sure you don’t want to come out with me tonight? Or you gonna stay in and stew with your angry, dark, stormy self.”
Simone took in her roommate’s outfit. “Pass. Me and the ramen will stew here just fine. You go cheer on the Cardiac Bypasses. Any bad Clarissa mood will be cured by Chief Sex.”
Roan didn’t deny that was what was most likely going to happen, but he was going to set Simone straight. “Yes, I will feed her first. Actual food that isn’t Ramen.”
“Will it include fruits and vegetables? A balanced meal?” Simone pressed, unable to back off, wiggling what was practically an irritated tooth.
“Why are you giving him the third degree—or the fifth degree, or the tenth degree?” Willow was taking Roan’s side. “You don’t ask Zach how he’s taking care of me.”
“Because I can hear just fine through the walls how Zach is taking care of you. And he isn’t fake dating you.” The two roommates were squaring off in a way that caused him to suspect this wasn’t the first time the conversation had occurred.
Willow threatened Simone with the open tube of lipstick. “You are such an only child. Everybody has that unapproving jerky sibling. Clarissa just happens to have a murderous Navy SEAL, and that’s his best friend who plays naughty games with his little sister.”
Roan didn’t have a comeback for any of this. She was checking off the exact reasons why he had gotten himself in this mess. “I am sorry about that. I just…” He paused. “I want this to work without him interfering.”
Willow laughed. “I am so lucky. I have a little brother and not a big brother.”
Roan noticed that Simone was watching him intently, so he added for emphasis. “I wish I hadn’t lied. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
She shook her body like she was coming out of a trance. “That wasn’t what I was thinking about. Clarissa’s been different this year.”
He glanced up. “Different?”
Simone opened the Ramen pot and stirred it with unnecessary roughness. “Intern year—it’s supposed to be the hardest because you’re the most tired. Last year, Clarissa was always this ray of sunshine. I would have believed she had Disney birds showing up to braid her hair while she sang songs with them.”
