"Honey, I'm home!" I heard Matthew holler as he entered the apartment. I rolled my eyes from my seat on the couch, where I was working and watching another episode of Grey's Anatomy.
Matthew was my roommate of the past year. At first I had been kind of hesitant to live with a guy, but honestly he'd been pretty good to me. He was a super nerd, working at one of those startup tech companies. I never knew what he was talking about when he explained his job to me. I was a graphic designer and I typically worked from home. Even though Mathew could be annoying, I liked not being alone all the time.
He appeared beside the couch, clearing his throat loudly to get my attention. I continued looking at my computer.
"Well hello, darling, how was your day?" I asked dryly. The couch sunk as he sat down beside me. I knew he was waiting for me to give him my full attention to answer. I finally looked away from my computer to meet his brown eyes.
He reached out to pull me towards him. "Terrible. Horrible. I missed you," he said dramatically, plopping a kiss on my forehead.
"Whateverrr. Sorry I couldn't meet you for lunch," I said, leaning into him for a second.
"It's okay, honey. I know housewives have duties too," he said. I smacked his head away from me as he busted out laughing, even though I couldn't help but smile too.
"What are you making for dinner tonight? The boys are coming over."
I groaned. "The boys?"
"Oh come on, you love them," he said, rolling his eyes. He was kind of right. But it was more like I enjoyed the attention I got as the only girl in a group of boys. Tonight I wasn't really feeling it though.
"I was gonna do my hair tonight though. I'll just stay up in my room," I said, gesturing to my curls in their pineapple updo.
"I'll help you with it tomorrow. Just chill with us tonight," he insisted. I couldn't pass up the help, so I agreed.
Because I like to cook, I made a dinner of tacos, beans, and rice for them and then reclined on the couch beside Matthew while we waited for his friends to arrive.
Matthew tugged at the end of my soffee shorts. "Are these your pajamas?" he looked down at my bare legs.
"Yes..." I responded, not really giving him my full attention as I scrolled on my phone. If he asked me to change I would pack up the food to save for my lunch next week. He didn't say anything for a minute, and then just settled on, "they're cute."
I giggled, looking over at his face. "Sometimes I forget you're attracted to me."
It was something we'd talked about before, but it never went past us both acknowledging that we were good looking people. "Yes, and now all my friends will be too," he muttered, tugging a little at the hem of my shorts. "Well I mean, they're cute too so," I shrugged. He shot me an unamused look.
Later that night, once Matt's friends, Ethan, Ryan, and Jake had arrived, in all their typical white male glory, I was in the kitchen fixing myself a plate when I overheard some shit.
It was Ethan's voice. "Dude, do you think Kels would go out with me?" I was mildly intrigued by his question. Ethan was like a cute puppy to me, but I never knew he was interested in me.
However, Matthew's response was the real shocking part in all this.
"Fuck no. She's mine."
My jaw dropped. If I had pearls I would be clutching them.
"Wtf kind of possessive shit is that bro? I didn't know it was like that."
"Fuck you," Matthew replied. I could hear a little amusement in his voice, but not much.
I decided to re-appear before a friendship was ruined.
"What are we watching?" I purposely sat down on the floor, far from both Matthew and Ethan. I looked at Matthew from across the room as he sipped his beer. There was no evidence in his facial expression that he has just claimed me as his girl. I folded my arms across my chest, narrowing my eyes at his act.
"There's a Heat game on," Matthew said, flipping through channels to find it. I sucked my teeth. "Who here actually wants to watch basketball?" I asked, looking around at the guys.
They looked over at me, confused. "That's what we came over here for?" Ethan said, through a mouthful of tacos.
"What-ev-errr," I sighed, pulling out my phone to scroll through Instagram.
I sat there for a little bit, listening to them talk shit, but what Matthew said was really getting to me. I had to mess with him a little.
"Ethan!" I yelled across the room. "Yes, Kels?" he replied, eyes still on the TV screen.
"My computer's been glitching all day? Could you look at it for me?" I asked sweetly.
He looked confused, shifting his eyes to Matthew. "Yes...?"
Matthew rolled his eyes. "Kels, I'll look at it later."
"I have work to do tonight, though," I insisted, "Ethan, can you just come up to my room to look at it? It'll only take a few minutes."
"Then it can wait until later, Kels," Matthew cut in, looking visibly irritated. Like a whole child, I put up my hand. "No. Come on, Ethan," I said, tucking my hand into his arm to coax him off the couch. Matthew gave him a look like y'all better sit down but neither one of us are his kids so we both headed to my room. I kept my hand tucked into his arm.
"You're just fucking with him, aren't you?" Ethan said, shaking his head and smiling at me as he sat down on my bed. "Yep," I bounced onto the bed beside him. " You are cute though," I smiled over at him. He blushed a little. "Flirt," he said, poking me in my side. "Get at me when you're done with Matt."
" I'm not doing anything with Matt. The man treats me like his sister, then his child, then his live-in girlfriend, and I am none of those things," I said.
He shrugged. " Whatever you say. But the shit you overheard earlier, he's been saying since y'all moved in, so it's only a matter of time."
"But we can speed things up a little bit," he slid up to the head of the bed and opened his arms for me to lean up against him. "With a little friendly cuddling." I obliged, leaning my head on his chest. "You smell good."
"Shut up," he said into my hair. It felt good to be close to Ethan. As a single woman, I don't get much physical touch. Aside from Ethan, a few friends, and my mom and dad, it made me a little sad sometimes. I opened my phone to show Ethan a few twitter videos, just to pass the time.
"We should do this more often," I said. "I would agree if my ass wasn't on the line right now," he grumbled.
A while later, we were laughing at a Tik Tok when Matthew opened the door. He looked at his friend and I laid up in the bed with a "really?" expression.
Like a good friend (a punk), Ethan got up, patting me on the head. "See ya later, sweets. I'll let myself out."
Matthew just watched him leave the room.
"Hey boo," I said, turning on my side to look at him with a mocking smile.
"Kels, why are you messing with me?" he asked in a level voice.
"Why are you messing with me?" I screeched, escalating the situation by standing up on the bed in front of him.
He didn't take my bait. Instead he just looked around the room, eyes landing on my computer. "Your computer's just fine."
"Yes," I looked back down at my phone because he obviously wasn't trying to say shit. Men are so stupid.
"Do you fuck with Ethan?" he said finally, still standing in the door frame.
"Yes. On a friendly level. I like to cuddle with good men."
At that, he dropped onto the bed beside me.
"I meant what I said earlier. I know you were mad about it. But I meant it," he said, reaching out a hand to trace the side of my face.
"Matthew...you've never even said that you liked me," I said, turning to look into his eyes.
"I know," he grinned wickedly. " But I've been saying you're mine since day one. Who does your laundry? Who takes your car to get serviced? Who pays your phone bill?"
I looked at him incredulously. "First of all, I didn't know you paid my phone bill! I thought I just had it on automatic payments."
His eyes were amused as he continued. "Who deposits your part of the rent into a savings account?"
I tried to push him off the bed but he held his own.
"We go together, Kels," he said, finally letting out a laugh and pulling me into his side.
I was still in shock. "We're basically married," I thought aloud, looking up at his chin.
"Barely. There are quite a few marital benefits that we have not taken advantage of."
I knew he was saying that to make me laugh, but I was still processing everything. It's not that I've never thought about what it would be like to be with Matthew, but honestly, even with all of the things that he did for me, I thought we were just going to be really good friends-- so I'd always ignored my attraction to him.
"How do you know I like you though?" I asked him.
He smirked down at me. "I just do. You wouldn't even let me touch you right now if you didn't."
"Maybe I just don't want to make my sugar daddy mad," I said teasingly, pushing closer to him.
He scoffed. Too quickly for me to even think about it, he leaned down to kiss me on the lips, once, twice, and then I was mentally gone.
The more he touched me, I felt myself getting a little too hype so I tried to break away. He only let me pull a breath away from him. "Okay, okay, I like you,"I let out quickly. He smiled in satisfaction.
"I thought so," he said, then pulled me in again for another long kiss. Sweet Jesus.
He let me go and I promptly started to lose it. "What are you thinking about?" he asked, tracing my lips with his finger. I moved away from him so I could think straight.
"I'm drafting a list of boundaries now that I really am a live in girlfriend."
"Like?" he pressed, clearly not impressed by my statement.
"You cannot enter my room without knocking, you cannot use my bathroom, you cannot eat my leftovers. You cannot sleep in my bed more then 3 times a week."
"Hmm," he rubbed his chin as if deep in thought. "If I propose to you right now, can we forget those rules?"
My jaw dropped for the 89th time today. "You wouldn't," I whispered.
"I would," he said with a smile on his face. I honestly believed him. Lord, this man is crazy.
I guess he saw my wary expression, because he assured me he was sort of kidding.
"I'll be cool for now, you can have your little boundaries. We'll go slow. It doesn't change the truth though. You're mine and I'm yours. Okay?" His thumb was back to tracing my lips in a way that made me want to just say yes to everything.
"Okay, roomie- sugar daddy- boyfriend."