Somehow, I had become a gypsy, and I hadn’t even realized it. Each morning I woke up it took me a moment to remember where exactly I was. Was I at mom’s place, was I at Seth’s place… was I back with Devlin? The sad truth was that I missed him. We had a great connection, and the only real barrier to our living together was the fact that Devlin seemed to need to party all the time and I just couldn’t abide that lifestyle.

It might have been different if he just took the party somewhere else. Then our apartment would be quiet and I could stay put. But when I really thought about it, I realized that my attraction to him would end up screwing that set up as well. I would probably end up obsessing over what he was doing at each party, who he was with and what he was doing. I’d probably work myself up into a jealous frenzy, and that would seep into the relationship anyway.

I knew he wanted me. That was obvious from the kiss we had shared when I had left the apartment. But my feelings on the matter were more complicated. I had been the one who had pushed for a platonic relationship. I had been the one who had taken any romantic entanglements off the table, so why couldn’t I stop picturing the two of us together? I knew there were differences, and I had no idea if we would make it long-term, but I just couldn’t help but wonder.

I had spent the first night at mom’s place. Despite our last fight, she had been gracious about my appearance on her doorstep. But there was still residual tension left, and because of it, I had found myself opting to spend the second night at Seth’s. I had been so eager to get off mom’s couch that I had failed to take into account Cory. It was obvious from the minute she saw me that she wasn’t happy with the fact that I was back on her couch… again.

I was in the kitchen pouring myself a cup of coffee when Seth walked in. “Hey kiddo,” he said warmly. “Slept well?”

“I did,” I replied. “Off to work?”

“Yup,” he nodded.

“Thanks for making dinner last night,” I said. “I could have done it.”

“You realize that you don’t have to do all the work around here every time you sleep on my couch right?” Seth told me.

“I feel bad—”

“Well don’t,” Seth said. “You’re my sister, and if you ever need a place to crash, then you have every right to show up at my door. Also, I had the evening off yesterday after like a million years, and cooking is my way of relaxing.”

I smiled. “You are weird.”

“So I’ve been told,” Seth nodded.

I poured Seth a cup of coffee too and passed it to him. “Where’s all your stuff by the way?” Seth asked. “This can’t be it?”

“Oh, it’s not,” I said. “Most of my stuff is still at the apartment. I haven’t really moved out yet. I just needed a little breather. I needed some peace and quiet so that I could get some rest and get some work done.”

“When are you moving out?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I told… uh… my new roommate that I would give him time to find someone else…”

“That was nice of you,” Seth said, pursing his lips in the way that told me he didn’t think I needed to be that nice.

I smiled. “He’s a good guy, you know,” I said. “I really like him; we actually became good friends. The only problem is that he parties hard and he hosts these parties in the apartment. It’s a little more than I can handle, especially with my workload.”

“What’s his name again?” Seth asked.

I had avoided using Devlin’s name this whole time, and since Seth was asking me a direct question I didn’t want to lie, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to admit to him that I was living with one of his colleagues.

“Dave,” I said, picking a name a name at random.

“Last name?” Seth asked.

I tensed a little but laughed to cover over my deception. “Are you trying to check him out or something?”

“A little background check never hurt anyone.”

“He’s a good guy,” I said, putting my foot down. “You’re not getting involved. You promised.”

Seth sighed. “Fine…”

“Thank you.”

“Now I’ve gotta go… duty calls.”

“Have a good day,” I said. “Be safe.”

“Always am,” Seth replied.

A few minutes after Seth had left, I was just clearing up in the kitchen before heading in to work when Cory emerged from her bedroom. I knew she had been working late last night, so she hadn’t joined Seth and me for dinner. I had been vaguely aware when she had come home last night, but I had been too exhausted to register anything else.

“Oh,” Cory said when she saw me in the kitchen. “You’re here.” Her tone was not subtle at all. She was clearly annoyed to see me. “Where’s Seth?”

“He just left,” I said.

“Where’s the coffee?” Cory asked, turning to me with the empty pot in her hand.

“Ah… sorry, I poured the last of it for Seth.”

Cory slammed the coffee pot down on the kitchen table. “Fuck.”

I flinched at her raised tone, but I kept calm. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can go out and get you some coffee.”

“Don’t fucking bother,” Cory said, in a dark tone. “I’ll get it myself.”

“Cory,” I said, not wanting my presence to cause problems between her and Seth. “I’m sorry about this. I know my being here is an imposition—”

“And yet you keep coming back here,” Cory said before I could finish.

I paused for a moment, struggling to rise above and be the bigger person. “I won’t be here for very long.”

“Maybe not,” Cory responded. “But you’ll end up on our couch again at some point, am I right? Apparently, no one can stand to live with you for very long.”

I stared at her for a moment, imagining how nice it would be to clock her right now. Of course I would never do that… to anyone, but it was nice to think I could sometimes.

“I’ll get my things, and I’ll be out of your hair,” I said, in a clipped voice. “And don’t worry; I won’t ever crash on your couch again.”

“Can I have that in writing?” Cory asked, in a snarky voice.

I just ignored her as I headed into the living room to collect my stuff. My only options now were my mother’s place and Devlin’s. I had to head into work now too with my two carry-ons. Luckily, they were the kind you could wheel places, so it wasn’t like I had to carry two heavy bags all the way to the ice cream parlor.

I didn’t bother saying goodbye to Cory. She watched me leave in silence, and I didn’t even look back at her as I left. My head was a fog of worry as I headed to the ice cream parlor. Thankfully, when I got there, Jordan, the senior staff member at the parlor, allowed me to store my stuff at the back before putting on my apron and heading to the front of the house.

Two hours into my shift, I was still thinking about the fight with Cory and wondering what she would tell Seth. Would he be angry with me? Would she spin the story to make it seem like I had started something with her? I didn’t want to have to worry about that… I had enough to worry about with my schoolwork and my limbo living situation. I really hoped that Seth didn’t end up marrying Cory. If that happened, I wasn’t sure what I would do. Object at the wedding? It was a thought.

As my shift wound down, I heard my phone beep with a message alert and when I had a free moment I checked my screen and saw that Devlin had written to me.

“Hey, you,” he wrote. “The apartment feels empty with you gone. I know we haven’t lived together for that long, but I miss my roommate.”

I felt myself soften instantly and I sighed. I missed him too, and I wished that things were just simpler. Why did everything have to be so damn complicated? Before I could reply, I got another text from him.

“By the way… you look cute in that apron. Bubble-gum pink suits you.”

Frowning, I turned around and saw that Devlin was standing on the other side of the counter. “Hi,” he said.

I shook my head at him and smiled. “Hi,” I replied.

“Hope you don’t mind me showing up here,” Devlin said. “I just wanted to…”

“Get some ice cream?” I asked, cutting in before he could finish his sentence.

His smile grew a little wider. “Exactly,” he nodded. “What do you recommend?”

“One scoop of everything,” I teased.

“Tempting,” Devlin replied. “But I’ll stick with one flavor for now. Will you join me?”

I nodded. “I’d be happy to join you,” I said. “Jordan can cover the last few minutes of my shift.”

We both ended up choosing the salted caramel ice cream, and then I led Devlin outside to the quaint little benches set up outside the parlor. We sat down together and enjoyed a couple of minutes of silence while we finished off the top of our cones before the ice cream melted. It was funny because we hadn’t really known each other long enough, but even the silence between us was comfortable.

“So… how’ve you been?” Devlin asked.

“That’s a loaded question,” I replied.

“Why?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “It’s just… been a hectic couple of days.”

“Managed to get some work done without me around to distract you huh?” Devlin asked.

I smiled but didn’t say anything. I was starting to wonder if telling Devlin to look for another roommate had been a bad idea. Maybe I had jumped the gun without thinking things through.

“I did,” I nodded. “But moving from place to place hasn’t been easy.”

“All the more reason to come back,” Devlin said abruptly. “Come on, Zoey… I know we hit a road bump, but I’ll try and slow down the partying… I’ll try to be considerate of the fact that you live there too. Because other than that, you have to admit, we work well together. And I really, really don’t want to have to look for another roommate.”

I paused. “Well…”

“Admit it.”

I smiled. “Ok, we do get along well.”

“See?” Devlin said. “I just assumed you were ok with the parties. If you had just told me—”

“I didn’t want you to have to change everything for me.”

“I’m not talking about changing everything,” Devlin clarified. “I’m just talking about… compromising… that’s part of living together right?”

“Right,” I nodded.

“Then… you’ll try this again and come back to the apartment?” Devlin asked.

The kiss we had shared stood between us though, and I wondered if I should address it. He had chosen to ignore it, and so I decided to do the same.

I nodded slowly. “Sure,” I said. “I’ll give it another go.”

Devlin smiled, and I realized I was cautiously optimistic. But the bottom line was really… what other options did I have?