Flatmates With Benefits

Chapter three: No strings attached

Mia didn't see Adrian again until evening. She'd spent most of the day hiding in her room, unpacking boxes and taking an unnecessary trip to the campus bookstore just to have somewhere else to be. By the time she came out for dinner, she had almost convinced herself that morning had never happened.

The apartment was quiet when she walked out, except the low hum of the fridge and the soft clack of a keyboard from somewhere in the apartment. Adrian sat at the kitchen table, typing away on his laptop, a mug of coffee gone cold beside him. He looked normal, like a guy doing homework, not a guy who'd had his hands all over her a few hours earlier. Looking at him, she felt her anger rise. What happened that morning had wrecked her whole day, and here he was, acting like nothing had happened at all.

Mia stood in the doorway for a few minutes before he noticed her.

“We should talk,” he said, not even looking up from his laptop.

“About what?”

“You know what I mean,” he finally glanced up. “This morning.”

Mia crossed her arms over her chest and stayed where she was to keep a distance between them. “It was a mistake.”

“Was it?” He arched an eyebrow. “I don't recall it feeling like one at the time."

Her cheeks warmed. “It doesn’t matter how it felt to you. It can't happen again. We have to live together, remember? There's still a year left on this lease and if we start doing that …” she gestured vaguely, unwilling to use the word. “ . . .it's going to complicate things."

“It won't,” he said, shutting his laptop and setting it aside to give her his full attention. “Hear me out. No strings attached. No relationship. No jealousy, no expectations. Both of us are busy and neither of us wants something that serious. If it does happen again, then fine. It means nothing more than that.

Mia weighed it over in her mind, already hating the idea. “If we are doing this, we cannot just have rules. They have to be real ones”.

“What do you propose?”

“First of all, condoms are a must,” she said, raising a finger before he could stop her. Second, no coupling outside this type of arrangement”.

“Such as?”

“Cuddling. Hugging. If you're not going to sleep with me afterward, no kissing. Basically anything romantic." She raised another finger before he could respond. “No one sleeps over.

One of us must leave bed after, every single time”.

“Okay, I guess I can work with that.”

“We do not hang out outside our apartment. This is not a friendship situation,” she said, holding up another finger. “No one should find out about this arrangement. That includes your friends, my friends, or anyone in the world”.

“No touching in public. Outside the bedroom, no touching unless it's … you know, leading to s*x”.

She felt her cheeks flush at the thought. “And no nicknames, unless it's in the moment.”

“Okay”.

“One more condition.”

“Mia paused, meeting his eyes. “If either of us finds someone that we want to date, this ends immediately and there will not be any discussions or questions.”

Adrian studied her for a moment, weighing the conditions. “For someone who called it a mistake, you have thought this through a lot.”

“Someone has to think it through. Clearly it wasn't going to be you”. Mia crossed her arms, daring him to argue. He didn't. “Fine, I'm in,” he said, giving a small smile that revealed his

dimple.

Mia blinked, surprised he agreed without putting up an argument.

“What?”

“I said I accept all terms,” Adrian repeated.

“You surprised me, you know.”

“I don't think that's a good idea,” Mia said, already regretting every word.

Adrian tilted his head. “You're talking as if you haven't given it a lot of consideration.”

“I haven't,” Mia lied.

Adrian chuckled. “You don't have to accept it if you don't want to.”

“I do want to,” Mia admitted. “It's just—”

“I'm listening,” Adrian said.

“I don't do relationships,” he said suddenly, as if reading her mind.

Mia frowned. “You don't—”

“I don't want one, and I certainly don't intend to get into one. So you don't have to worry about me thinking of this as anything more than it is or getting possessive.” Something about the way he said it made Mia's stomach flutter in an uncomfortable way, though she didn't know why.

“Good,” she said, “The same goes for you. I've had enough drama without having to add a boyfriend to the mix”.

“Good,” Adrian said, and Mia realized they had been standing in the kitchen, staring each other down, ever since the discussion had begun. So much for keeping a distance between them.

“We can consider this an agreement.”

He smiled, the dimple in his cheek appearing as he did. “Dinner? I make pretty good stir-fry pasta”.

Mia exhaled, already forgetting the details of the conversation as she followed him into the kitchen.

“Just to be clear, this is strictly for hospitality purposes," Adrian added over his shoulders as he reached for a pan.

Mia tried to assure herself that she meant every word of the agreement she had just made with Adrian.