HIS ROOMMATE

ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH HER?

CHAPTER 40

ADRIAN'S POV

For a second I thought about arguing. About telling them my head was full of board meetings and four days of silence from Kai. But they weren’t asking. They were deciding.

And maybe that was the point. Maybe I needed them to decide for me.

“Fine,” I said. “One drink. But I’m driving.”

Ash clapped my shoulder. “That’s my guy. Come on, Mr. Reyes. Let’s remind you what fun feels like.”

I let them drag me out. Ash took my keys, Leo grabbed my jacket, and Mike was already calling ahead to the bartender. No vote. No debate. That was the point.

The elevator ride down was loud. Ash telling some story about his first week out of college, Mike heckling him, Leo laughing under his breath. I stood there with my hands in my pockets, quiet. For once I wasn’t the one steering the night.

Outside, the city air hit colder than I expected. Ash tossed me my keys back. “You’re driving. You’re the responsible one now, Mr. Reyes.”

I caught them. “Don’t start.”

We ended up at The Ledger. Old spot. Back when my dad ran the company and I was just Adrian, the guy who showed up late and stayed too long. The neon sign buzzed the same. The bouncer nodded at us like we never left.

Inside it smelled like whiskey and old wood. Music low enough to talk over, loud enough to drown your thoughts. Mike slid into the booth first, already ordering a round. Leo took the seat across from me, watching. Ash sat beside me and didn’t say anything for a full minute. That was how I knew he was serious.

The first drink landed in front of me. Amber. Ice. No questions asked.

“Drink it,” Ash said. “Then tell us what’s actually wrong.”

I swirled the glass. Didn’t drink yet. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just busy.”

“Bull,” Mike said. “Busy people don’t cancel every meeting after 3pm and stare at their phone like it insulted their mother.”

Leo didn’t join in. He just nudged the glass closer. “We’re not here to fix you, Adrian. We’re here so you don’t sit in that office alone.”

I finally took a sip. It burned. Clean.

The noise of the bar faded a little. Four days of silence. Kai powering her phone off. The sunset I didn’t know she was watching. Valerie at grandma’s table looking anywhere but at me.

I set the glass down. “She hasn’t called.”

Ash didn’t ask who. He didn’t need to.

“Four days?” Leo asked quietly.

I nodded.

Mike opened his mouth, then closed it. Even he knew when to shut up.

Ash leaned back, eyes on the glass in my hand. “You think space is what she needs?”

“I thought so,” I said. “Now I don’t know what to think.”

The bartender dropped off another round. Ash pushed one toward me, but he wasn’t pushing me. Not really. They just sat there. No advice. No speech. Just the three of them, same as always.

For the first time all day, the quiet didn’t feel so heavy.

I picked up the glass again. The ice clinked against the side. Cold, steady.

“Fine,” I said. “One more. Then I’m calling her.”

The words felt solid when I said them. But my phone was still off in my pocket. Heavy as a stone. I didn’t know if turning it on would bring her closer, or if the second I did, I’d scare her further away.

The bar noise kept going around us. Laughter. Glasses. Music. But at our table, something shifted.

Ash set his drink down slow. Too slow.

“Before you call her, Adrian... you should know she’s leaving tomorrow.”

The glass stopped halfway to my mouth.

I froze. “What are you talking about? She doesn’t leave till Tuesday. That’s three days away, right?”

No one answered right away. The table went quiet. Not the comfortable quiet from before. This was the kind of quiet that had weight. That meant someone was holding something back.

“Well,” Ash said finally, eyes not quite meeting mine. “She decided to leave earlier.”

The word hit harder than it should have. Earlier. Like she’d been planning it without me knowing. Like she’d already made the choice while I was sitting in board meetings pretending I had control.

“But why didn’t she tell me?” I set the glass down too hard. Whiskey sloshed over the rim. “I mean, Kai’s my friend too. If she’s leaving, she could’ve at least told me.”

It hurt. A dull, sharp hurt right under my ribs. The idea of her leaving without saying anything to me. Without a goodbye. Without letting me be part of it.

Mike leaned forward, elbows on the table. His usual smirk was gone.

“Are you seriously asking that?” he said. Quiet, but not soft. “You ghosted her, Adrian. Four days. No calls. No texts. You told yourself it was space. But from where she’s standing, it looked like you walked away.”

The music kept playing. Someone at the next table laughed. The bouncer carded someone at the door.

But at our table, the world went still.

My phone burned in my pocket. Off. Silent. Useless.

And somewhere in the city, Kai was probably packing a bag for a flight I didn’t even know existed.

Ash leaned forward, elbows on the table. His voice dropped low enough that only our booth could hear it.

“Adrian. Do you like Kai? I mean the real kind. Not the friend kind. Are you in love with her?”

The question hit like a fist to the chest.

Do I even have an answer?

Am I in love with Kai?

I didn’t know. God, I didn’t know. My heart still jumped when Valerie walked into a room. Still remembered the way she looked at me at grandma’s dinner, eyes everywhere but on me. That ache was familiar. Safe.

But with Kai... it was different. When she was near, my shoulders dropped. When she laughed, the noise in my head went quiet. When she rolled her eyes at my cooking, I felt happy. Comfortable. Like I could breathe.

I didn’t understand any of it.

Had I really fallen out of love with Valerie? Had I really let her go like Ash told me to?

And if I admitted I liked Kai, then what? That meant asking her to stay. That meant putting her in the position to choose between me and her dreams. Between a maybe and a plane ticket she’d already bought.

I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t. I said it months ago and I meant it: I’d never ask her to choose between her future and our friendship.

“It doesn’t matter if I love her anymore,” I said. My voice sounded distant, even to me. I tipped the glass back and let the whiskey burn all the way down. “She’s leaving. And... I’m happy for her.”

The table went dead silent.

Then Leo slammed his glass down. “You know you’re a piece of s**t, right? You’re really going to sit here and wallow in self pity and let her go?”

“Two years ago, when I first met Kai, I knew,” Ash cut in, voice sharp now, almost angry. “I knew you liked her, even while you were lying to everyone, lying to yourself, saying she was just a friend because you were still with Valerie. I get it. You had excuses then. But what about now? Valerie broke up with you. She’s gone. But you’re still hiding behind her, like she’s an excuse not to want what you actually want.”

He jabbed a finger at the table. “This is the same Valerie who rejected your proposal in front of the whole school and picked your cousin Marcus. Wake the hell up, Adrian.”

Mike didn’t yell. He didn’t have to. He just looked at me, steady and certain.

“If you like Kai. If you care about her at all. Then stop her from leaving tomorrow. Because if you don’t, you’re going to lose something rare. And you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”

The music kept playing. Glasses kept clinking. The city kept moving outside.

But inside that booth, everything narrowed down to three words I wouldn’t say out loud: I love her.

My phone was still off in my pocket. Kai’s flight was tomorrow. And for the first time, staying quiet felt like the wrong choice.

“What if she doesn’t feel the same way?” The words came out quieter than I meant them to. I stared at the whiskey melting in my glass. “I mean I don’t want to face another rejection. At least not from Kai. I don’t think I could take that.”

The table went still again. Ash looked away. Mike sighed. But Leo didn’t blink.

TBC