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Jen is standingin the hallway when I get home from work, surrounded by bags and suitcases and holding a pillow under her arm. Two guys stand beside her, one of whom I recognize as Trey from the club, and the other wears navy coveralls and looks like he works in maintenance. My mouth goes dry. What the hell happened?
Jen shakes her head, and Trey puts a comforting arm around her shoulder as I jog down the hallway. “Hey, what’s happened? Is everything okay?”
Jen turns to me, her eyes wide. “Roaches, Lil.” She wrinkles her nose.
I peer inside the apartment, and a shudder runs the length of my spine. “In your apartment?”
She shivers and leans against Trey for support. “So this guy says.” She nods at the stranger.
“And you are?”
“Carl.” He points to the name badge sewn into his uniform.
“And you think we have roaches?”
“Yep. Got a complaint from a neighbor. The super let me in so I could take a look around, and this is where the nest is.”
Bile surges up my throat. “Nest?”
Jen places her hand over her mouth. “I know. It’s gross. How will we ever go back in there?”
“Give me a few weeks and it’ll all be cleared. Like they’ve never been here,” Carl says with a smile.
I gape at him. “A few weeks?”
“To make sure they’re all gone. Yeah.” He nods, rubbing his meaty hand through his hair.
“But…” I look between him and the apartment, then down the hallway. “Where are we supposed to go in the meantime?”
Carl shrugs. “You got any friends? Family you can stay with?”
I glance at Jen. She’s my only friend. My only person. She bites her lip and glances at Trey, who now has his arm slung around her neck. “Trey has a sofa.”
“Yeah. You can both stay with me. My place is small, but it’s clean. No roaches,” he adds with a wink. “The sofa’s a two-seater, and the living room is also kind of the kitchen, but I’m sure you can squeeze on. Sometimes my buddy, Razor, crashes on it. He’s like five foot ten, so you should fit. He’ll just sleep on the floor if you’re on the couch.”
I close my eyes and take a moment to think. Just two more paychecks and I might have enough to put down a deposit for my own place. But until then, do I really want to sleep on a tiny sofa in Trey’s apartment, listening to him and Jen bang all the time while a guy called Razor keeps me company?
I look down at my meager belongings which Jen kindly packed up for me. I’m beyond grateful that they’re not sitting in the roach-infested apartment.
She places a hand on my forearm. “I think I got all your essentials, girl.”
I nod. I’ll take her word for it because now that I know what’s beyond that door, I can’t imagine stepping foot inside her apartment ever again. Not that Trey’s sofa sounds all that much more appealing.
“So, my place?” Trey asks.
I fish my phone out of my pocket. Am I really going to do this? Because accepting their offer doesn’t only mean accepting a room, albeit a room in the lap of luxury that’s bigger than Jen’s whole apartment. It means I’m dating them. All three of them. But damn if a thrill of excitement doesn’t shoot through me at the prospect. It’s been two days since they made their indecent proposal, and I’ve thought of little else in that time. I want to be all in, but something has been holding me back. Maybe this is exactly the push I need.
“It’s okay. I think I have somewhere I can crash.”
Jen’s face breaks into a huge smile. “You do? Where?”
“With that guy I told you about.” I give her a look that I hope conveys what I’m thinking—please don’t ask me about all the juicy details right now in front of Trey. And Carl, the roach guy.
“The guy from your date on Saturday?” She reads me so well. “Th—I mean, he said you could stay there?”
My face heats, but I nod.
