“Hi, you,” I said, picking up the phone.

“Hi,” Devlin replied. He sounded a little off.

“Is everything ok?” I asked.

“Everything’s fine,” he nodded. “I just… what are our plans for tonight?”

“We didn’t really have major plans,” I admitted. “I thought we’d order in some food and watch a movie? Is that ok with you?”

“Sure,” Devlin replied distractedly. “I just… before that… can we talk?”

“Oh… sure,” I nodded. “You sound nervous.”

There was a small pause. “I am.”

I smiled, realizing that it probably had something to do with the dinner tomorrow with his parents. He had been a little shaky the whole of today, and I knew this was a big deal to him. I had promised myself that I would do whatever it took to make him feel calm and supported. I had picked out my dress for the dinner. I wanted to make an impression, and I wanted Devlin to be proud of me.

“Don’t worry,” I said softly. “Everything’s going to be fine. I’m right here with you.”

“I love you so much, Zoey,” Devlin said, and his voice was pregnant with emotion.

I smiled. “I love you too.”

After he hung up, I ordered some pizza and then put on some classical music. I was tidying up the living room when the doorbell rang.

“That can’t be the pizza already,” I said frowning.

I went to the door and opened it to find mom and Seth standing there with smiles on their faces. “Surprise!” Seth said. “We’re crashing.”

“Oh my God,” I said, taken completely by surprise. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We realized that we weren’t going to get an invitation to come see your apartment or your roommate,” mom said, wagging her eyebrows at me. “So we invited ourselves… and we brought Chinese takeout.”

“I just ordered pizza.”

“Great,” Seth said. “We’ll have a choice.”

I knew it had been a mistake giving mum and Seth my address, but it was also unavoidable. I sighed, smiled and shook my head at both of them. “I was planning on inviting you guys over,” I said. “It’s just that things have been a bit hectic with finals and work.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Seth said teasingly.

“So,” mom said, cutting in. “Where’s the boyfriend slash roommate?”

“That’s the real reason you’re here, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Duh.”

I laughed. “Oh, mom, no one says ‘duh’ anymore.”

“I just did,” she retorted. “So that’s obviously not true.”

I shook my head at her and smiled. “He’s at work right now, but he should be back soon.”

Just then I remembered what Devlin had told me about Seth and the fact that he might not be too happy to learn that Devlin was my roommate and that we were dating now. I still found that odd, but I decided that since we had discussed waiting to tell my family, I should at least give him a heads up before he got home. So while Seth and mom got comfortable in the living room, I snuck into my bedroom and dialed Devlin’s number. I waited for a while, but he didn’t answer. I tried again, and this time the dial tone was different. I frowned, but the line went dead, and I realized that his phone had probably died on him. I sighed and headed back to the living room.

“I must say… the apartment’s nice,” Seth said, looking around.

“Isn’t it?” I nodded.

“I like what you’ve done with the place too,” Seth said, looking around at all Devlin’s paintings hanging around the walls. “Are these his or yours?”

“His,” I replied. “And by his, I mean that he painted them.”

“No way,” Seth said, looking impressed. “He’s an artist.”

I smiled. “He is.”

“Huh… there was a guy who volunteered at the station who was an artist too,” Seth said, in an off-handed way.

He had to be talking about Devlin, but why would he say that Devlin had volunteered to be a firefighter?

“He volunteered?” I asked.

“Yeah… well not exactly,” Seth corrected himself. “Volunteering implies he had a choice. It was community service.”

I felt a little spasm of shock for a moment, and then I reminded myself not to panic unnecessarily. “What was his name?” I asked.

Seth looked at my face and paused. “Why… Zo… are you alright?”

“What was this guy’s name, Seth?” I asked.

“Devlin,” he replied. “Why?”

I felt nauseous instantly and then a second later, I felt a wave of anger. He wasn’t a firefighter. He never had been. He had lied to me for months.

“Oh God,” I breathed.

Seth and mom were both looking at me with worry. Seth took a step forward and put his hand on my shoulder. “Zo… is everything alright?”

“Why was he required to do community service?” I asked.

Seth looked at me in surprise, but he didn’t push to get his own questions answered just yet. “He was caught dealing drugs,” he replied. “From what I heard of his case the judge presiding gave him a lenient sentence because he didn’t want Devlin to end up in the system.”

My knees gave way, and I sank to the sofa just behind me. Mom came and sat down next to me, and Seth sat down on the coffee table so that he was face to face.

“Zo—”

“My boyfriend’s name is not Dave,” I said before he could finish talking. “It’s Devlin.”

Seth was silent for a second, but I knew he understood what I was telling him. “Why did you lie?”

“Because I thought that you worked with him and I thought you’d freak out and be the protective big brother and I wanted to feel… independent and in control and… I wanted to handle things on my own. I just wanted to figure out what Devlin and I had before I told anyone… I… I had no idea—”

“How did you even meet him?” Seth asked.

“At the station,” I said.

“The day you brought over those cupcakes,” Seth sighed, nodding with remembrance.

“It was just the one meeting… and then I didn’t see him again until weeks later when I came to this apartment to try and see if I could move in.”

“And he never told you why he was really at the station?”

“No,” I said. “I assumed he was a fireman and he never corrected me. He never told me about the community service or the… drugs.”

Seth shook his head and sighed. “I expected more from him… he seemed like such a good guy.”

“Hold on,” mom said, rubbing my back soothingly. “We don’t know the whole story. Maybe he has a good reason for keeping this from you—”

“For this long?” I demanded. “He had months and months to come clean with me. He had plenty of opportunities to tell me the truth. But he never did and—”

I heard the key turn in the lock, and I realized with a start that Devlin had just arrived. Seth jumped to his feet and turned in the direction of the door, and mom and I both froze in place. Devlin walked in and stopped short as he caught sight of all of us. Then his eyes fell on Seth, and he paled visibly.

I got to my feet slowly, and I looked at him with accusing eyes. “Do you know how stupid I feel right now?” I asked him. “For having believed you all this time.”

Devlin took a step towards me. “Zoey—”

“I wanted to introduce you to my mother and brother,” I said, raising my voice above his. “But I think my brother knows you better than I do.”

Devlin sighed, and I saw his gaze turn to Seth’s. “I know how this looks,” he said, with a shaky voice.

Seth shook his head at Devlin. “I thought you were a good guy.”

“I am,” Devlin insisted. “I just… I’m so sorry… I made a mistake.”

“You’re a piece of—”

“Seth!” I said, interrupting him and stepping in between Devlin and Seth. “Please… Devlin and I need to talk. Can we do this another day please?”

Mom got up and grabbed Seth by the arm. “Come on.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about leaving you alone with him,” Seth said.

“I can take care of myself, Seth,” I said. “If I need you, I’ll call.”

Seth looked at me for a moment and then nodded. “Ok…”

The moment the door shut on mom and Seth, Devlin turned to me with pleading eyes. “Please, Zoey… just let me explain.”

“Good, because that’s exactly what I want,” I said. “An explanation.”

Devlin sighed. “The day you came to the station… you were this beautiful, bright, amazing woman who I wanted to impress. I was too ashamed to tell you about my past so… when you just assumed I was a fireman, I went along with it… and I shouldn’t have, I know that. It was completely wrong, but I just kept making excuses for myself.

“Then you showed up at my door asking to be my roommate and again I should have told you the truth but again… I was just so desperate to impress you that I held my tongue. I told myself that I would become the man you deserved and then I would tell you everything. I told myself I would get a real job; I would clean up my act, I would… be better than I was… and then I could come to you, the new me and show you that everything I was telling you was a part of my past.

“I was going to tell you everything tonight—”

“Bullshit,” I snapped immediately. “You honestly expect me to believe that after all this time you were going to tell me the truth tonight?”

“I told you I wanted to talk—”

“That could have been about anything.”

“It was about this,” Devlin insisted. “I wanted you to know everything before my parents’ party tomorrow night. I didn’t want either one of them telling you inadvertently. I wanted you to hear it from me.”

He came forward and took my hand, and even though I tried to flinch away, I didn’t fight him too hard. “I never wanted to hurt you or deceive you, Zoey,” Devlin said, with desperate eyes. “I’m just… I’m so in love with you, and I wanted to be better before I told you about my past. I thought that if I presented you with the new and improved version of me you’d have a better reason to stay.”

I shook my head at him and pulled my hand out of his grasp. “I can’t believe you.”

“You’re the one that told me not long ago that people have their stories… their own baggage and that everyone deserves a second chance… right?”

“Urgh,” I said, walking away from him. “That’s low… using my own words against me.”

“I love you, Zoey, and I want you to understand where I was coming from when I made my mistakes,” Devlin insisted. “I started selling drugs because my parents cut me off and I needed to support my work. Selling pot was the only thing that gave me a degree of autonomy and flexibility. I could support myself, and I could focus on my art. I’m not saying it was a smart choice… but it was the only option I had available to me. I didn’t think giving up on my dream was an option.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling strangely off balance.

“Zoey,” Devlin said, coming forward.

“Don’t,” I said, holding up my hand to keep him from coming closer. “I’m going to my room now,” I said coldly. “Please don’t follow me. I want to be alone.”

I was at my door when Devlin called out my name. I had half a mind to ignore him, but at the last second, I turned around and made eye contact. It hurt… it hurt because I loved him so much and everything I had just heard had done nothing to change that.

“Yes?”

“Are we going to be ok?” Devlin asked.

There were five long seconds of silence. I could almost feel my heartbeat. I wondered if Devlin could hear it too.

“I can’t answer that tonight,” I told him.

Then I walked into my room and shut the door on him.