Chapter 9

I forgot about that day pretty quickly.

Jake continued to keep his distance from me at work after that.

I could not say that I was not relieved by that.

Sometime later, my housemate decided to move out. The only thing was that she still had a few months left on her contract.

Not wanting to waste her money or the space, she tried to find a new tenant but to no avail. She asked me to post about it online for her.

I did as she asked, not thinking much of it.

I figured that I would not get a response since most of my friends were not looking for a place, yet my phone chimed not long after.

[Jake: I'd like to rent the room, Miss Johnson!]

I turned to face Jake from my cubicle. He looked up at the same time, and I met his eyes. He looked down immediately, sending me another text.

[Jake: Can I?]

[Avery: No.]

[Jake: Why not, Miss Johnson? I'd make a great housemate…]

I rubbed my temples. That probably was not the best conversation to have over text, so I got up and walked to his desk.

Jake was still on his phone typing away, oblivious to his surroundings.

I stood behind him, trying to think of a way to say 'Let it go, dude' when his chat background caught my eye.

It was a picture of me.

The picture was taken at the office entrance, probably when I had just begun working. I was smiling brightly.

I had never seen that picture before.

"Where did you get this picture of me?" I asked.

Jake flinched as he flipped his phone over with the screen facing down onto his desk. "Oh, this? Someone from the department sent it to me. I like using the photos of the people I'm talking as their chat backgrounds…"

I was a little curious. "Who sent it to you?"

Did anyone take my picture on the first day of my employment?

Whatever. I had forgotten.

Jake kept his head bowed. I could not be bothered to continue questioning him, so I circled back to the room for rent.

"The caption said 'Girls Only'. You should probably look for another place."

Jake continued to stare at the floor as he mumbled, "I could be a girl…"

I was baffled. "I'm sorry?"

He scrambled to explain himself. "What I meant was that I could be as easy to live with, just like a girl! You know, be clean and stuff. I can cook too. If you let me move in, I'll cook for you every day. How does that sound?"

Honestly, that last line was pretty tempting, but then again, living alone with a single man would make life rather difficult comfort-wise.

Jake piped up again. "My school is really far away, Miss Johnson. The commute takes me half an hour every day, and there are only three months left of my internship. Your housemate's contract expires in three months as well, right? Come on, Miss Johnson…"

I was not planning on letting Jake move in at all. Something told me he had other intentions, yet, he was pretty convincing. Aside from him not being a girl, all the other factors were completely fine.

I swallowed down the rejection at the tip of my tongue. "I'll think about it."

If my housemate could not find a tenant in time, I suppose letting Jake move in for just three months would be fine.

After all, my room came with an ensuite toilet. The only common area would be the living room. I guessed that was not too bad.

I guess.