My New Roommate

I double checked the address and the apartment number before knocking. When the door opened I had to look down to see the 5' 5" woman who opened it. I was immediately taken in by her deep green eyes, and her pixieish face framed by blonde hair. She smiled up at me.

"Hi, I'm Dave. I messaged you about the room for rent." I said.

She smiled and her whole face lit up. "Right, come on in, I'm Suzy."

She ushered me in, and I took a quick glance around the living area.

"I would have been here earlier, but the commute is a bitch this time of day." I said.

"Ah, it's okay," Suzy said, "I wasn't doing anything important, just watching TV. So let me show you the room." she said, leading me past the living room down a short hallway with two doors on each side, and one at the end of the hall. "This is it."

We stepped into the second room on the left hand side and she flicked on the light.

"Nice and big," I said, stepping inside. "Bigger than what I have now, that's for sure."

I was already mentally placing furniture. My bed could go over there, my dresser over there, my computer desk in the corner there, my bookcase in that other corner. I peeked inside the closet, it also was bigger than the one I had currently. Suzy just stood leaning against the doorframe watching me.

"I like it," I finally said, walking back over to her.

"Well let me give you a quick tour of the rest of the place." Suzy said, indicating the room at the very end of the hall. "That's the bathroom. This is my room next to yours." She then indicated the two doors on the other wall. "That's the utility room with a washer and dryer, and that other door is just a closet. This is the living room, and that's the kitchen over there."

"Nice," I said, "Definitely a lot more room than I have now."

"And you can afford what I'm asking, right?" Suzy asked, "It's half the rent and utilities."

"Oh yeah, that's no problem," I said.

"So if you don't mind me asking, why are you looking for a roommate?" Suzy asked.

"Well, my lease is up at the end of the month, and if I want to renew it for another year, my rent will go up $200." I said "That, on top of my bills would only leave me with a couple hundred bucks. When I told my friends about it they suggested I find a roommate, so here I am. I haven't had a roommate since I was in college. Anyway, I'm all up to date on my rent and bills, so I've got enough money to pay a security deposit if you need one."

"Sounds good," she said.

"So if you don't mind me asking," I said, "How did you afford a place like this on your own?"

"I used to live with my cousin, but she's getting married in a couple months, so of course she's moved in with her fiancé." Suzy said, "She insisted on paying her share of things through this month. She also suggested I get a roommate. So I turned to the internet and the same roommate finder website you used to find me. I do have one more person coming to take a look tomorrow, so give me your number and I'll give you a call tomorrow either way."

"Okay," I said, "I still have a couple of other places to check out, so I guess we'll wait to see how things work out. It was nice to meet you."

"You too." she said.

I gave her my number and headed out.

The next day I was heading to the second of the other two places I was looking into, when my phone rang.

"Hi, Dave, it's Suzy. You came to see the room I had for rent yesterday."

"Right," I said, recalling her face in my mind's eye.

"Well, it's yours if you're still interested." she said.

"Great!" I said, probably with a little too much enthusiasm. I calmed down, "I've got a couple of friends who said they'll help me move, and considering the end of the month is next week I'll move in then."

"Sure, in fact if you're in the neighborhood, you can swing by if you want so I can give you a copy of the keys." Suzy said.

"I'm actually all the way uptown right now," I said, "But I can swing by tomorrow."

"Okay," she said, she sounded a little excited herself, "I'll see you tomorrow."

I called to cancel the second appointment I was on my way to, and instead headed home, calling my friends to tell them I was taking them up on their offer to help me move. I got home and got in touch with my landlord, I had already told him I wouldn't be renewing my lease, and now I let him know I'd be gone by the end of the month.

When the next week rolled around, everything was set, all my things were packed up, I had sold or donated everything I didn't need. My friends showed up, and we got everything out in about two hours and over to Suzy's place, then we had to get everything up to the apartment. That took another two hours.

"Dude, you didn't tell us your roomie was a babe!" one of my friends said, when we were done and I was thanking them for their help.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Another one said, laughing.

"Get out of here you degenerates." I said, laughing as they drove off.

I headed back up to the apartment and started setting my room up. Suzy came in as I was putting my clothes away.

"Need any help?" she asked.

"Uh, sure, if you really wanna help, could you help me put the shelves on my bookshelf up?" I asked.

"Sure, I can do that."

We made small talk as Suzy helped me get settled in. She was 28 like I was, and we shared a few similar interests in music, movies and TV shows. However some of the stuff I liked she didn't, and vice versa but that was fine, it wasn't like we were married or anything, we were just living together to save money. After about an hour of getting things set up (I still had a couple of minor things left to do) Suzy told me about the neighborhood. It was a fairly quiet area. There was a supermarket two blocks away, a Starbucks across the street, a drugstore down the block, and a few good restaurants and fast food places within a five block radius. We both decided pizza sounded good as I realized I hadn't eaten since my quick breakfast that morning before my friends showed up.

About two weeks after moving in, I was sitting in my room watching Netflix when I felt my stomach grumbling so I paused the show to go to the kitchen to get something to eat. As I passed by Suzy on my way to the kitchen I realized she was watching the same show, although she was an episode behind me.

"Hey, you like this show too?" I asked when I saw what she was watching.

"I love this show," she said, pausing it.

"Do you mind if I watch with you?" I asked, "I mean I've already seen this episode, and I'm in the middle of the next one, but I don't mind watching this one again."

"All right," she said, smiling, "As long as you're not one of those people who likes to talk over the show. My cousin did that all the time, drove me nuts."

I laughed, "Don't worry, I hate that too. Go ahead and start it back up, I'm gonna fix myself something to eat, and join you."

We settled in and finished the one episode and watched the next one before we retired for the night since we both had to work the next day. Over the next few days we finished off the series and started on another show we both liked. In fact over the next several weeks we spent a few hours after we both got off work binging TV shows on one of the many streaming services she had. Sometimes Suzy would cook dinner for the two of us, sometimes I would cook, other times we'd fend for ourselves, and every now and then we'd order in.

One day, about three months later, I came home from work and Suzy came out of her room wearing a black dress with bright red roses on it.

"Oh good you're home." She said, "First I need you to zip me up, and secondly, I need your opinion as a guy."

She turned around so I could zip up the dress for her, then she turned around and said, "What do you think?"

"It looks good," I said as she turned around so I could see it from all sides, "But I think it's a bit much for sitting around watching TV."

She smirked, "Very funny. I have a blind date tonight, and I was thinking of wearing this, is it too much?"

"No, no, it's nice, it looks really good on you." I said, "I mean I'm no expert on women's fashion, but as a man I know what I like, and I like the way you look in that dress."

"Thanks," she said smiling and leaned up to give me a kiss on the cheek, "I gotta finish getting ready, he's gonna be here soon. So you're on your own tonight. No wild parties while I'm gone."

I laughed, "What are you, my mother? Go ahead and finish getting ready for your date, I'm gonna go get changed."

About a half hour later there was a knock on the door, Suzy was still in her room getting ready.

"Dave, could you get that? It's probably my date."

I opened the door to see a guy that looked like he just graduated high school.

"Uh, I'm looking for Suzanne," he said nervously, "I'm her date, Pete."

"You're in the right place," I said, "Come on in, I'm her roommate Dave. She's still getting ready. Have a seat, I'll check on her for ya."

I knocked on Suzy's door, "Suzy, you decent?"

"Yeah Dave, come on in."

I stepped into her room, she was putting the finishing touches on her hair and makeup.

"It's your date," I said, as she finished putting her hair up and spritzed on some perfume. "Have you met this guy before tonight?"

"No," she said, putting on a pair of earrings, "One of my girlfriends set me up with him. Why, is he hideous?"

"No, he's not hideous," I said laughing, "I mean I don't know what your type is, but he's not a bad looking kid. But that's the thing, this guy doesn't look like he's old enough to shave."

She turned to me as she put on a necklace. "What are you, my father?" she asked, laughing.

"I'm just saying he looks a little young." I said, "I mean there's nothing wrong with that, my dad's in his fifties, but you wouldn't know it by looking at him."

"How do I look?" she said, apparently finished.

I gave her a thumbs up. "Gorgeous."

She and Pete left a couple minutes later, I made myself a quick dinner, and watched some TV. About an hour and a half later, Suzy came home.

"So how'd the da -- oh." I said, seeing the look on her face, she didn't look happy. "That bad huh?"

"I'll tell you all about it after I change." she said disappearing into her room.

"You want a beer?" I asked.

"Please." she said as she closed the door to get changed.

I grabbed a couple of beers and sat on the couch, a few minutes later Suzy came out of her room, wearing a t-shirt and shorts. She plopped down on the couch next to me and drained half her beer in one shot and took a deep breath.

"I am NEVER letting my friends set me up on a date again!" she said, "We had literally NOTHING in common! No common interests in music or movies or hobbies or anything. And he didn't just look young! He was only 20! I mean I know I'm only eight years older than him, but I still felt like I was robbing the cradle! I knew after five minutes it wasn't going to work, but I stuck it out through dinner and then had him bring me home. He's a really sweet guy, just not for me."

"Sorry it didn't work out," I said after taking a sip of my beer, "But honestly, I'm surprised you don't already have a boyfriend."

She let out a humorless chuckle, "I have bad luck with men."

She then vented to me about her past boyfriends. She dated a guy in high school, but when they graduated they went their separate ways when they realized they'd be attending college on opposite sides of the country. Her next boyfriend, who she dated in college (and lost her virginity to), cheated on her with her best friend, so she broke up with him, and broke off her friendship with the girl he was cheating with. The guy she dated after that was, as she put it, "a controlling asshole". He tried to control every aspect of her life and he was emotionally abusive. She couldn't have any male friends, he had to know where she was seemingly every minute, in fact he called her every hour because he was convinced whenever she wasn't with him she was with another man. She eventually managed to get away from him with some help from her family. The guy she dated after that was the clingy type. Whenever they were together he always had to be touching her. If they were out in public together, he always wanted to hold her hand or put his arm around her. When they were alone, he would always offer her massages, or would insist on snuggling against her if they were sitting around watching TV, and pressured her into having sex with him. She broke that relationship off after a couple of months.

"I couldn't take it, it's like I couldn't take a fucking breath without him hovering over me." she said, sighing in exasperation and took another pull of her beer, "Then there was the guy I dated two years ago, James. For the first year and a half or so, things were great. He was good looking, he was nice, he was funny, he liked going out and doing things, and he was good in bed. Then one day he just shut down emotionally. He would barely talk, he didn't want to go out and do things anymore. It was like someone flipped a switch and turned off his personality. Then one day I try to call him but his phone is disconnected. I go to his apartment, but he's moved out. He deleted all of his social media. I got in touch with a few of his friends, and they didn't know what happened to him either. He just disappeared. I haven't seen or heard from him since. I just hope wherever he is, he's okay. Look at me, I'm sitting here running off at the mouth."

"It's okay," I said, offering her a smile, "I've been told I'm a really good listener."

"So am I," she said, "It's your turn, I know you go out with your buddies every now and then, but I've never seen you go out on a date. How come you don't have a girlfriend?"

I took another pull off my beer and took a deep breath, "You're not the only one who's had bad luck in relationships."

I told her about my high school girlfriend, it wasn't all that serious and we broke up after graduation since we'd both be going out of state for college. I had my first serious relationship in college. I met this beautiful girl, we got along great, we liked a lot of the same things, but her family HATED me. I still to this day have no idea why, and when she broke up with me, she told me her family didn't approve of me, and she didn't want to upset them. She went so far as to break off all contact with me, and even transferred to another school. Once I got over her and moved on I met another girl and things went great between us. We stayed together for the rest of our time at school, but after graduation she was moving back home to Colorado, and I was going back to New York. She's actually the only ex I still talk to since we didn't have a bad breakup.

I hadn't even told my friends as much as I was telling Suzy, but I felt like I could open up to her.

"Then we get to my last two girlfriends. First there was Leanne. Things started off great, until I found out she was cheating on me... with TWO other guys! So obviously I broke that shit right off. She seemed shocked and acted innocent, but my friends had seen her with those other guys and took pictures. She then tried to blame me, saying I never paid enough attention to her, which was bullshit, but I was already done with her. Then finally there was Alana. I met her at a friend's party, and the same thing, we hit it off and things seemed to be going great at first. Then one of my friends tells me that he saw her with some other guy. So I went to confront her about it, because I'd already been burned once and I wasn't gonna go through that shit again. So I get to her place, and she's there arguing with some guy that turns out to be her fucking boyfriend!"

"Wait," Suzy said, "She already had a boyfriend?"

"Yeah," I said, "Turns out she wasn't cheating ON me, she was cheating WITH me! I was the other man! Mind you we'd been "dating" for about six months at this point. So for six months she managed to juggle two men, lying to both of us. But here's the kicker, we both broke up with her, and became good friends! In fact, he was one of the guys who helped me move in!"

"Seriously?" Suzy asked, laughing.

"Yeah," I said, "The big bald guy? That was him."

"Funny how things work out," she said, yawning, "Ok, I think my body is trying to tell me something, so I'm gonna head off to bed."

"Yeah, I think I should hit the sheets myself," I said, polishing off my beer. "See ya in the morning."

We stood up and Suzy leaned up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for letting me vent. You know, I've never told anybody all that before."

"Neither have I," I said tossing our empty bottles into the trash, "But it felt to get all that off my chest."

"Yeah, it did."

We said our goodnights, retired to our rooms and went to bed.

A couple months later I was sitting on the couch waiting to start watching yet another one of the many shows we'd been binge watching, Suzy was in her room getting changed out of her work clothes. She finally came out of the bedroom wearing an oversized nightshirt that read "All this and brains too". When I first moved in Suzy used to walk around the house in a t-shirt and pajama bottoms, after a couple months she switched to wearing shorts and either a t-shirt or a tank top, I tried not to stare at her nipples poking against the material of her shirts (or down her shirt when she bent over). A few months later she switched to oversized nightshirts with just underwear underneath. She would sometimes sit in a way that allowed me to see between her legs, she didn't seem to realize and I always averted my eyes before she would notice me staring. As for me I had always worn t-shirts and shorts around the house.

She sat down next to me and grabbed the bowl of chips out of my lap.

"Hey!" I said, smirking at her. She laughed at me and popped a potato chip into her mouth and hit play on the remote.

That was another thing, when we first started watching shows together, we would often sit on opposite sides of the couch, me on the left and her on the right and we had our own snacks. After a while we sat closer together and started sharing snacks, until we were sitting next to each other sharing a bowl of popcorn or chips. After the first episode I went to the bathroom and came back to find Suzy with her legs up on the coffee table, frowning.

"I need to shave my legs again," she said rubbing her legs, "They're getting stubbly again, see?"

As I sat down she took my hand and had me rub one of her legs. I could feel the stubble on her legs, similar to the five o'clock shadow on my face.

"That's the great thing about being a man," I said, putting my somewhat hairy legs up on the table next to hers, "Don't have to worry about that shit."

"Well at least you don't have legs like a bear," she said, laughing, "My ex boyfriend, Marty, the touchy-feely one, was a hairy motherfucker. He looked like sasquatch."

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing.

"What's so damn funny?" she asked, looking at me like I was crazy.

"I'm sorry," I said, "But the word sasquatch always makes me laugh."

"You're weird," she said, "Let's just watch the show."

Suzy started up the next episode and leaned against me, this was the first time she'd ever done that. Feeling bold, I put my arm around her and she snuggled closer to me. She shifted a couple of times as we sat there forcing me to adjust my arm until it was hovering over her breast. I didn't realize it at first until she shifted again pushing her tit into my hand. I tried to move my hand but she again shifted to keep my hand in place. Well if she didn't want me to move my hand, then I wasn't gonna move my hand. Well that's not entirely true, I started to gently squeeze her breast to see how she would react. I heard her sigh, and flicked my thumb over her nipple, and I could feel a shudder run through her body. I felt her hand on my leg, and finally looked down at her, she was looking up at me with her soulful green eyes, she took my other hand and placed it on her leg, slowly moving it up her leg, until we reached the hem of her shirt. She slowly pulled the bottom of her shirt up to reveal she wasn't wearing panties, and for the first time I laid my eyes on her beautiful shaved pussy.