Page 40 of Roommate Wars

“He’s sweet,” I said. “I liked him a lot. I’m talking about his health.”

Jack froze as he reached to put away the cereal in the cupboard. That pause was quick, but I’d caught it. “He’s doing well.”

“Has he been ill?”

Jack’s chest rose and fell on what looked like a sigh, and he finally turned to me. “He was sick, but he’s recovering now.”

The words seemed to be pulled from somewhere deep, and I did not have a good feeling about this. “How sick?”

He crossed the kitchen and set the cereal bowl on the counter a little too loudly, then pulled out a barstool. “Don’t worry about it, Elise.”

I stood, walked over, and plopped onto the stool beside him, accidentally bumping his arm while he shoveled food in his mouth. He growled in annoyance. “Iwillworry about it, Jackson. I liked your dad, and he looked frail. What illness did he have?”

He set his spoon down and glared at me. “Will you back off, please?”

I considered it. But Jack was the bottle-it-up-and-suffer-in-silence type. I figured he could stand to unload. And if I was right about this, I didn’t think he’d even shared his dad’s illness with his best friend. Which seemed off. “No, I won’t back off.” I stole one of the strawberries he’d added to the top of his cereal.

His eyes delivered an absolute death glare.

I chewed the strawberry and waited.

He picked up his spoon and said, “He had cancer. But it’s gone now, and he’s getting his energy back.”

That was—well, yeah, as bad as I’d suspected. Tom hadn’t lost all his hair, but it was thinning in a way that didn’t seem natural. “I’m sorry, Jack. Does your dad need anything?”

He mumbled a thank you, then said, “He’s fine. I’m taking him out to dinner tonight.”

I nodded. “I’ll be out tonight too, but I’m serious: let me know if I can do anything. Drop off groceries—whatever. He’s not far from where I work.”

He glanced at me. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I can drop off stuff on my way home from work.”

“No, about tonight. Where are you going?”

“Oh, that,” I said and brightened. “I have another date with the deliveryman.”

Jack’s mouth compressed. “Waste of your time.” He dug back into his cereal.

I rested my chin on my hand. “This one isn’t pressuring me, and I like that.”

He studied my face. “He’s not good enough for you, Elise.”

That was an odd statement, coming from Jackson. “You don’t know that. We could be soul mates.”

He turned his attention back to his cereal. “He’s not your soul mate,” he said around a mouthful of food.

I stole another one of his strawberries and stood. “I guess I’ll find out.”

His devilish green eyes flared. “Dammit, Elise, get your own food.”

I hurried away before my grumpy roommate could catch me.

* * *

Jack

After Elisestrong-armed me into sharing my dad’s health situation, a weight lifted. All this time, I’d been keeping what was going on close to my chest, not wanting to make the unimaginable a reality. But now that Elise knew, I felt relieved. And maybe I didn’t need to keep it so secret anymore.