Page 38 of The Roommate Subtext

“OK, refresh me.” Maggie gestured at the screen with a piece of pizza. “Sandra left Juan after the ultimatum, right?”

“You expect me to remember all this?” Marigold Murders was as much soap opera as it was crime thriller. He leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to recall the season finale.

“You remember everything.” She nudged him with her elbow. “Don’t sleep.”

“I’m not sleeping. I’m remembering. And I don’t remember everything.”

“You remember every one of those plants and what you need to do to take care of them.” She waved her hand toward the wall of plants.

Blake looked up at them as if seeing them for the first time. “No, that’s why I have the binder. Because I don’t remember.”

“You never use the binder.” She bit into her pizza and pulled it away from her mouth, a long string of mozzarella keeping them tethered until she wrapped it around her finger and popped that finger between her lips. He tried not to look at her lips. What was she saying? Right, the plants.

“The binder is in case I need to instruct someone else. Like when you need to take care of them.” The television screen refreshed, listing the first episode of the new season. “OK, it’s up.”

“You didn’t review anything!” She tried to snatch the remote out of his hand as he started the episode.

“They always do a recap of the previous season before they start. Now shush.” He held the remote out of her reach and took a bite of his own pizza.

Sure enough, the season started with a recap. And yes, Sandra left Juan after the ultimatum, where she told him that he had to stop trying to pursue his degree at the same time as working two jobs or she would leave him.

“She shouldn’t have done that,” Maggie said, shaking her head. “He’s only trying to better himself.”

“He’s not paying any attention to her, though. I see her point.” The next scene recaps played out, and Blake’s memories came back to him as they did. “I forgot about Pauline and the baby.”

“Nobody cares about that baby.” Maggie wrinkled her nose and said the next line through a mouthful of pizza. “Pauline should go back to Richard.”

“What? No. Richard probably killed Finnegan and his associates at that meeting. Don’t you remember how they edited the scene? It was obvious.” Finnegan’s murder was one of the biggest cliffhangers of the previous season.

“Finnegan deserved it. He was selling drugs to those kids, remember? And trying to get Lee to start dealing, even though Lee was out of the business? Finnegan was trying to keep him back in.” Maggie got more animated as the title screen came on. “Look, new opening title card.”

“You seem to remember everything pretty well without my help.” Blake couldn’t help smiling. None of his other friends watched this show, and it was a ridiculous show, but he loved it.

“It’s coming back, it’s coming back.” Maggie nodded, eyes glued to the screen. She ate her pizza without looking away as the opening scene started.

Twenty minutes in, Blake was as hooked as ever. Finnegan had faked his death, and Richard was trying to prove his innocence while Finnegan was taunting him with messages that couldn’t possibly be traced back to their source. And Tyrone, Finnegan’s younger brother who didn’t want anything to do with the family organized crime business, wound up in bed with Neveah, Pauline’s younger sister and the lead detective on Richard’s case.

“There’s no way she would really sleep with him. He’s Finnegan’s brother.” Blake gestured to the screen, where Neveah was getting very naked very quickly.

“She doesn’t know it’s Finnegan’s brother. He changed his name, remember? And he doesn’t look anything like Finnegan.” Maggie took a long sip from her beer. Her cheeks were flushed in the light of the television, and maybe it was excitement from the show or the alcohol, but she looked alive and beautiful, and Blake stared at her for a good ten seconds before his brain caught up to him. When he looked back at the screen, Neveah had her head thrown back as Tyrone went down on her, and heat crept up the back of Blake’s neck.

“At least he seems to be good at that,” Maggie said, drink held up to the screen. “Any guy with that amount of enthusiasm is worth at least a second date.”

Blake laughed. “Every guy should be that enthusiastic about getting the opportunity.”

Maggie inclined her head, acknowledging his point. “Too bad the real world doesn’t work that way.”

Blake made a noise that hopefully sounded like acknowledgment.

Maggie set her drink down on the coffee table (on a coaster, as usual, because clearly somebody had raised her right) and turned to face him more directly. “You’re not bothered by all the sex in this show?”

He wasn’t sure if he should take her comment personally. “Why would I be?”

“I always thought, you know, that you weren’t that into sex.” Maggie shrugged. “You’re so wholesome.”

“I can be wholesome and also into sex.” Blake tried not to sound offended, but he was probably failing, since he was somewhat offended. “Sex isn’t necessarily the opposite of wholesome.” Of course, it wasn’t wholesome the way he did it, but he didn’t need to bring that up.

“Right, but I mean, none of the sex on this show is wholesome. And it’s also, just …” She faded off, and he didn’t interrupt the silence. He wanted to hear what she was going to say. Eventually, she continued. “You don’t make crude jokes like a lot of people do. You don’t bring up sex unless someone else brings it up.”