He didn’t feel hurt or heartbroken. He was angry. At her, and at himself. Because at this moment, a voice in his gut was saying he should’ve been the one to do this first.
Beth gave him a hug, which because he was a nice guy, he accepted. He breathed in her perfume one last time. She clicked the door shut, leaving Gideon alone with his fireplace, dishwasher, and in-unit washer and dryer.
Φ
A few hours later, Gideon’s best friend Seth came over with an air mattress and a pack of gluten-free beer. Seth didn’t follow the whole gluten-free craze to be cool. He had a gluten, tree nut, and peanut allergy. When they met as freshmen, he told Gideon that if he had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he would die, which Gideon thought made him sound bad-ass.
Seth kneeled on the bedroom floor and inflated the air mattress.
“Women,” Gideon said. “They appear so soft and innocent, but they can destroy you.”
“Just like almonds,” Seth said. He was from Rye, a few towns over from Gideon, but managed to have a Brooklyn accent.
“It’s never enough. You want to have fun and see where things go; they want a committed relationship. You give them a committed relationship, but it’s not the right type of committed. It’s never enough.” Gideon gagged on the beer. Gluten was apparently the magic ingredient.
“Plenty of fish, Gid. Plenty of fish.” Seth disappeared behind the growing air mattress. “And plenty of dating apps, too.”
Gideon had done his fair share of swiping left and right before Beth, and he would go back to that well soon. But now, he just needed to vent.
“What kills me is that as she was breaking up with me, I kept thinking how I wanted to do it first. I wasn’t crazy about her, and I know things weren’t perfect.”
“Then why’d you keep dating her?” Silence took over the bedroom. It was a valid point, but Gideon waved it away.
“I was being the good boyfriend. I was giving her what she wanted.” Gideon flopped onto the air mattress. It was far more comfortable than he was expecting. “Are you sure you want to live in the dorms for another year?”
“I finally got a single! No more awkward conversations with roommates about not keeping crackers and trail mix in the room. I already installed my dehumidifer.”
“Fair enough.” Gideon smirked. Seth had no shame in being excited to install a dehumidifer.
“I’ll ask around my dorm and my other friends to see if anyone is looking for a last minute apartment.”
“Whoever moves in here would get half the living room as their bedroom. Not exactly the best deal.” Gideon didn’t want to give this apartment up. He doubted he could find a quality apartment at an affordable price this late in the game. His only other option was to go back to the dorms. No offense to Seth and his single, but to Gideon, that was like taking a giant step back.
“You never know. There are a lot of students on campus. Undergrads, grad students, transfer students, even new professors. Browerton is a big place.”
As he promised, Seth put the word out. And it just so happened that a kid in his dorm had a friend who was friends with someone who knew a Browerton student from his Intro to Classics course last year who was in desperate need of an apartment. The news passed back through the chain to Seth, who told Gideon the student would stop over Monday night, after the first day of classes of the new school year.
In that time, Gideon scrambled to find decent furniture from Goodwill and Craigslist. His apartment had the bare essentials of a living space when his buzzer rang. Seconds later, the prospective roommate knocked on his door. Gideon recognized the short brown hair, twinkling eyes, and wide smile in a heartbeat.
Only that smile quickly turned into a scowl.
CHAPTER THREE
Mac
Mac should’ve known that out of all the Gideons at Browerton (which, to be fair, were probably less than ten), this one would need a roommate. He held out hope as he walked up the stairs that it would be someone else.
Nope.
“Hey.” Gideon put on his best polite smile. It was a crime against humanity that he was still attractive. He hadn’t been cursed with a beer gut like so many straight upperclassmen guys on campus.
“Yeah. A blast from the past.” Mac had spent his time at Browerton avoiding Gideon and pretending like that night never happened. But seeing him again brought back the memory in crystal clear Technicolor.
“You’re looking for a place to live?”
“Yeah.” Mac peeked behind Gideon. He loved the color of the walls. And was that a fireplace he saw in the reflection of the window?
“Here, come in.” He stepped aside.
