Page 20 of Roommates' Alpha

I was trying to decide if I wanted a shower, or to just pass out when there was a knock on my door.

Getting up was out of the question, so I grabbed my phone, squinted at it, opened the app that controlled the lock, and unlocked my door.

“It’s open,” I called, sitting up and sliding my glasses back on.

The door opened, and a moment later Crow walked through.

I sat up, noting the cautious expression on his face.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.”

“How are things going?”

He shuffled from one foot to the other, rubbing his forearms. “G-good. I-I called Raven.”

“That’s good.”

He nodded. “We talked for a while. We’re both still hurting, but I think we’ll be ok. We’re going out to eat this weekend—someplace where we can talk on neutral ground.”

“Did she seem more open to you questioning yourself?”

He bit his lip. “I think so. I think the way I responded rattled her. She said she’s been doing a lot of thinking.”

“It sounds like you’re both coming from a place of honesty then.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

I scooted to one side of my futon. “Want to sit?”

He stared at the space for a second, then shook his head. “It looks like you were about to go to bed.”

“I can stay up a bit longer.”

A pause, then he shook his head again. “I… I just wanted to thank you… for listening to me and urging me to call Raven.”

“You’d have got there yourself eventually.”

He gave me a weak smile. “Maybe, but I wonder how much worse the pain would have gotten before then.”

“I don’t think you’d have let it go that much longer.”

“You have more faith about that than I do.”

I smiled, tamping down my urge to reassure him like I would Ryan.

“There… there’s something else I wanted to thank you for too,” he mumbled.

“Hmm?”

“Th-thank you… for not taking me to bed that night. I was hurt and angry, but after I thought about it…” he paused and blew out a long breath. “I realized that you were right. I talked to my therapist about it, and he says I’ll probably be ready soon, but that jumping in like that could have ended badly. Everything is still too new, and I’ve got some work to do on myself—especially around those ideas forced onto me as a kid.”

I stood—wincing as my aching muscles protested—walked over, and set my hands on his shoulders. “It sounds like you know what you have to do.”

A pink blush crossed his cheeks. “I hope so.”

“You’ll get there,” I stated. “Sex can wait. It’s more important to know you’re going to enjoy it, rather than it become the cause of emotional pain.”