Hollywood Roommates

2

Parker ducks his head, like he expects me to throw something at it. “About two months now.”

“Two. Months.” My whole world has turned upside down. All this time I’ve been mentally planning our wedding while he’s been banging some other woman.

“It just happened. A dumb work fling, but then it turned into more. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” My voice is veering into screeching territory and I don’t give a single f**k. “You’ve been cheating on me for two whole months and you’re kicking me out of our apartment and you’re sorry?”

Parker glances around at the other diners, who are all staring at us. “Keep your voice down. Like I said, I never meant to hurt you, but I really need you out of my place by the end of the week.”

The absolute nerve of him. He knows how much this screws me over. I’m so upset I can’t even form words. Instead, I grab my wine and toss it in his face. For a second I savor his look of shocked horror that probably mirrors my own, and then I turn on my heel and storm out of the restaurant.

On the sidewalk two men are kissing, one in an expensive charcoal suit, the other in a beige delivery uniform. They break apart as I walk by, beaming at each other, and I catch the name Allen on the front of the uniform.

“Congrats,” I tell them, smiling through my tears. At least one of us is having a good day.

Chapter Two

ALLIE

Once I regain control of myself—which involves hiding in the bathroom of a drugstore until I finish ugly crying, then spending another five minutes fixing my makeup while cursing Parker’s name—I text my best friend Brooke and ask her to meet me.

“I can’t believe him,” Brooke says, twenty minutes later. I’m lucky I was near the law firm where she works and that she was able to meet me at a nearby coffee shop. She listened to my entire sob story while rage made her dark blue eyes look black. “That scumbag. I knew he wasn’t good enough for you.”

I fold my arms on the table and bury my face in them with a groan. My eyes are all dry and scratchy from crying and my heart aches. “Two months. Two. Freaking. Months.”

Brooke rubs my back in slow circles. “I’m going to murder him. Or at least sue his ass for all he’s worth.”

“I thought he was going to propose! I can’t believe I was such an idiot.”

“You’re not an i***t, but you should get a blood test. You don’t know how many people he stuck his d**k in.”

I sit up with a groan. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Sorry, I’m no good at this touchy-feely emotional stuff. But if you want realistic advice, I’m your girl.” She hands me a tissue from her black Coach purse. Brooke’s style is minimalistic chic, and she never wears any color other than black and white. The one exception is her nails, which she always paints in a dramatic color. Today they’re a deep, luxurious purple.

If we were in a movie, Brooke would be the gorgeous, workaholic heroine and I’d be her curvy, funny friend. But this isn’t a movie, and there’s no Hollywood ending for either of us in sight.

I wipe my face and blow my nose. “You can help by finding me a place to live. Parker said he wants me out by the end of the week.”

Brooke scoffs. “He can’t do that.”

“He can. Thanks to my stupidity I gave up my own apartment to move in with him and my name isn’t on the lease. I have nowhere to go, and since I’m on summer break, I’m too broke to afford a deposit on a new place. I’m screwed.”

“You can stay with me.”

“No thanks. Your place is so tiny I’m not sure it actually qualifies as an apartment. We’d murder each other after a week.” Her miniscule studio near her office costs a fortune anyway—one of the downsides of living in Los Angeles. Hence my dilemma. Anything I can afford on my tiny salary will be so far away from the private high school in Santa Monica where I teach that I’ll spend my entire life in traffic. Assuming I could somehow scrape together enough cash for a deposit plus first and last month’s rent, which seems unlikely. She lifts one shoulder. “It’s better than nothing.”

I scrunch my nose up. “Is it though?”

She tucks a strand of golden blond hair back into her tight bun. “Fine. What about your sister? Surely you can move in with her.”

I practically choke on my green tea. “No way. I’d never hear the end of it. Kristen would gloat forever about how her silly baby sister went and did some stupid thing again and needed her big sister to bail her out. Again. I can’t do that.”

Brooke taps her purple nails on the side off her coffee cup. “Hmm. I might have a solution for you, but it’s not ideal.”

“What is it? I’ll take just about anything at this point.”

“My brother has an empty guest room in his house in Malibu and he owes me a favor.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “The actor? You said he was a ‘cocky prick.’ Your words, not mine.”

“He is. But you know what he’s not? A random stranger from the internet who might end up making a suit out of your skin. Plus his house is big, and he’s ridiculously anal, so it’ll be clean at least. You’d just have to put up with the royal ass until you’re back on your feet again.”