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The comical look on Malik’s face made her laugh.
“That reminds me of one of the apartments I saw earlier in the week. In fact—” She peered around at the gabillion ornate Halloween decorations filling every available space, many of them big standing witch, vampire, or mummy figures, among others. “—this whole place reminds me of that apartment.”
“I think I’m scared,” Malik deadpanned.
“But which would’ve scared you more? The table full of voodoo-looking items in what would’ve been my bedroom because my would-be roommate believed a mostly friendly male spirit inhabited the room? Or the approximately ten thousand clown figurines and decorations that filled the living room, some of which were disturbing enough to have fit in here as Halloween decorations?”
“Where are you finding these places?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said with a chuckle. “On roommate-finder websites and Craigslist and one realty site that specializes in rentals and sublets.” She shrugged. “So? Ghosts or clowns?”
“Uh-uh,” he said around a bite and shaking his head. “Both are a nope for me. Just no. No. No. Nope. No way.” He nailed her with a stare.
“Yeah, that was pretty much Billy’s reaction, too.”
“So, Billy’s the current roommate, right?” he asked.
“Yeah. Well, it was never the plan for me to be his roommate. He served in the Army Rangers with my brother, who asked him if he’d put me up for a few weeks until I found a place of my own. I’m crashing in his office.”
“Oh,” Malik said, shaking his head. “And you can’t stay there, then?”
Okay, universe, you can stop having people ask me that any time now! Kthxbai.
Shayna shook her head. “Not forever, no.” In addition to the other reasons she’d laid out for why her arrangement at Billy’s was temporary came the realization that, despite knowing how challenging of a time she was having, he’d never offered for her to stay.
Which was the first time that she’d ever had that thought. And it was really freaking depressing.
No, he hadn’t offered. Which, fine, was his right. Didn’t make it suck any less, though. Crap, how had it taken her so long to realize that?
“Well, this might be crazy, Shayna, but I have an extra room in my rowhouse. It’s three bedrooms, one of which I use as an office. But the third room’s just sitting empty. It’s only me. And you’d be more than welcome for however long you’d like to stay. Being roommates could be fun.”
She blinked. “What?”
Malik grinned. “I don’t think I have too many strange quirks, except maybe that I’m a rabid Giants fan. And I pick the green M&Ms out of the bag first. And every once in a while, my family might invade. There are a lot of them.”
She blinked again. Malik…was offering. “Malik, tha
t’s amazingly generous of you but I can’t invade your home.”
He shrugged. “Why not? It’s a nice, safe place and we could work out rent and all that. We already know each other and know we’d get along.”
She shook her head, completely overwhelmed by how nice this offer was. “I don’t think I could afford my fair share of a three-bedroom rowhouse.” And it wouldn’t truly feel like she was on her feet if she was still accepting hand-outs from a friend, would it?
“Shayna, not to be gauche, but I made a lot of money on Wall Street. I don’t need a roommate or to share expenses. So, we can figure out what would be doable and fair.”
Dropping her fork to her plate, she sat there, kinda gobsmacked. Could she really do this? Was it possible that she’d just found her new roommate? Would it be weird to live with a colleague? Her head was spinning a little at the unexpected turn of events and all the questions that came with it.
“Oh, I guess I should tell you I’m gay, in case that matters. Not that there’s a boyfriend in the picture, but, you know, hopefully someday there will be.” He winked at her.
Shayna burst into tears.
“Oh, hell,” he said, reaching across the table to hand her a clean napkin. “I’ve had girls be disappointed before when I had to tell them I wasn’t interested, but this is new.”
She laughed through her tears. “No, no. Of course, I don’t mind that you’re gay. I’m crying because I didn’t realize how heavily this situation had been weighing on my shoulders until you just lifted it off for a moment. I…I don’t even know what to say.” She wiped her face.
“You don’t have to say anything right now. I’ll show you my place. We can negotiate rent. And you can think about it. I know you have some other places you were scheduled to see, right?”
She nodded.
