Mr. Roomate

by Kelli Callahan

  Brent

  One two—one two

  The punching bag in my garage was everything that haunted me when I taped up my fists and started hammering it. My ex-wife had agreed to let my daughter go to a birthday party for one of her friends and I wasn’t going to get to see her at all, despite the fact it was my weekend. It was a common practice for her to position me where I would be the asshole if I insisted on seeing my daughter, so I had to just let my frustrations out in other ways.

  I knew why she was doing it. She was going away the following weekend and my daughter would be staying with me. She just couldn’t handle letting me have two weekends in a row with Melody. Hitting the bag was easier than calling my lawyer and making a mess of things that would end up costing money I didn’t have, so I just kept on throwing punches. It was also a lot more therapeutic. I worked up a sweat and beat the bag until my knuckles hurt before finally going back inside to take a shower.

  I wonder if anyone has responded to my ad…

  I finished my shower and took a seat in my computer chair once I was dressed for the day. I had a number of responses—much more than I thought I would get. The first was a young executive at a big company who was also recently divorced. He was younger than me and it sounded like he was looking for something temporary, so I passed on his response. It might have been nice to have a man younger than me with money to burn serving as my wingman, but I didn’t want to be in the same situation searching for another roommate when he had enough money to get his own place. Based on his position, I didn’t think he would stick around for long. I needed someone who would be more dependable.

  This could be promising…

  The second one I clicked was an older lady. She looked old enough to be my grandmother and her reply stated she was looking for somewhere to live for a few years before she eventually went to a retirement home. I picked up my phone and called her, but after talking for a few minutes, I realized she wasn’t all there. She had no answer to how she would pay half the bills and rent drawing nothing but social security. I politely declined to let her come for a visit when she suggested she would have to take the bus and have me meet her there. I felt bad for her, but I wasn’t in a position to take on the role of her caregiver, which seemed to be what she was ultimately looking for.

  After I hung up with her, I scanned through a few more responses, mostly from younger guys looking for a cheap bachelor pad. It was clear that in a college town, I was going to get a lot of requests from students. That seemed a little bit outside of my comfort zone, but I still looked at each one hoping to find a gem in the middle of the slew of people that mentioned space in the refrigerator for their beer as a requirement.

  Hmm, this one is from a college… girl?

  I opened the next reply on my list and saw a generic response from someone named Hannah who was asking if she could stop by and see the place. I started to close it out, surprised to even get a response from a co-ed, but then I saw the link to her social media account at the bottom. I clicked it, and I was greeted by a vision of beauty with her face surrounded by auburn colored hair. The rest of her profile was private, but the picture was enough for me to reconsider my thoughts about shutting her down entirely. I flipped back to the page and typed a response, letting her know I was okay with her stopping by if she wanted. It was only a matter of minutes before she replied and said she would, and she would have her father with her. I didn’t blame her one bit for bringing him with her—for all she knew, I might want to slice her up and have her for dinner, even though my advertisement specifically said I wouldn’t.

  Hannah

  “I’m not sure I like any of these places…” My father let out a long sigh as we left our most recent attempt at finding me a place to live.

  “Nothing is going to be perfect.” I rolled my eyes and climbed into the passenger side of our rental car.

  “I’m not looking for something perfect, I’m just looking for something that doesn’t look like you’ll do more partying than studying.” He gave me a glare as he turned on the car.

  “You do realize that as a nineteen-year-old college student, I’m not going to spend every Friday and Saturday holed up in my room—you were a college student once.” I folded my arms as he started to drive.

  “I know, Hannah.” He sighed. “I don’t expect you to be a recluse, but if I can pretend you are, I’ll sleep easier at night.”

  “You could get me my own place?” I looked over at him and smiled. “Then you would know I was safe behind my own locked door.”

  “I wish I could afford that.” He shook his head. “Where are we headed next?”

  “Um, here—I’ll put the address in the GPS.” I leaned over and started punching the address for the guy named Brent into the screen.

  “So this is the single guy you added as a joke?” He stared at the address and looked at the paper in my hand. “Why are we even bothering to visit this place? You know I’m not going to agree to let you stay with a man you don’t know.”

  “You’ve said no to every other place. We might as well do him the courtesy of a nice rejection since I told him we were coming by.” I let out a sigh and stared at the paper. “We’re running out of options.”

  “There were a couple of maybes.” He started to laugh. “The old lady was pretty entertaining.”

  “She had like fifty cats!” I snapped back at him immediately.

  “You like cats.” He continued laughing and turned the car when the GPS said it was time.

  “I like one cat—she’s raising a petting zoo.” I started laughing as well.

  “After two, what’s the difference?” He shrugged.

  We drove up to a gate and we had to show our id to get in. After making a few turns, I pointed ahead to the right. “There’s the house.”

  “It isn’t bad looking…” He raised his eyebrows when he turned into the driveway. “The neighborhood is quiet. I like that it is gated. This would have been a good option if that nice girl downtown lived here.”

  “I don’t think she could afford this place.” I stepped out of the car as he put it in park.

  The house was pretty nice—I had to admit that. It wasn’t a mansion and it wasn’t fancy, but it looked to be a nice three-bedroom home. I could see a deck that wrapped around the back and there was a two-car garage open in front of us with an old Toyota parked inside of it. I didn’t know much about the guy who owned it, but his advertisement was pretty funny. He was the only one who specifically said he wasn’t going to kill the person that agreed to be his roommate. He either had a good sense of humor or he was the worst serial killer in history.

  We walked up to the door and my father knocked on it. A couple of seconds later, the door opened and I saw a man with a short brown beard smiling at us. He pushed the door open and I couldn’t help but notice that he was hot. His hair was combed over and styled, neatly trimmed like his beard, and the t-shirt he was wearing was covering a mountain of muscles.

  “Hello, you must be Mr. Smith. I’m Brent Davis.” He extended his hand to my father.

  “Nice to meet you.” My father took his hand.

  “And you must be Hannah.” Brent turned to me and extended his hand. “Come on inside and I’ll show you the place.”

  “He seems nice…” I whispered to my father once Brent had taken a few steps into the house.

  “Anthony seemed nice too.” My father shot me a glare and then stepped into the doorway of the house.

  Brent

  Hannah turned out to be as gorgeous as her profile picture and even more so in real life. She had curves that I couldn’t ignore, even if I wanted to. The way her jeans hugged her hips made them look like they were carved on her body. She looked around the house aimlessly while her father studied every inch of it with an intent curiosity. He stared at every photo as if he was trying to get them to speak to him and as he walked around the house he gave everything a gentle nod or a disapproving shake of his head. I really couldn’t read him
. It seemed strange that he would even consider letting his daughter move in with a man she didn’t know. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to do that with Melody, but we were many years away from that even being something I had to consider. After they had the grand tour, we all reconvened in the living room.

  “You have an alarm system, I see.” He pointed to a box on the wall. It was old, but it still worked.

  “I do.” I nodded. “This is a very safe neighborhood, though. I don’t think we’ve had as much as a random stranger walking the streets in years.”

  “I can believe that.” He nodded in approval. “The guard at the gate is a nice touch as well.”

  “Frank?” I chuckled. “Well, the gate does the work. Frank just waves most people through if he recognizes the car.”

  “Are you considering this place?” Hannah looked at her father and her tone reflected surprise.

  “Maybe.” He walked over to the liquor cabinet and picked up my bottle of Scotch. It was a gift from Steve, and I hadn’t opened it yet. “Is the girl in the photographs your daughter?”

  “Yes, that’s my Melody. She’s a handful.” I smiled and nodded.

  “She’s cute.” Hannah walked over to one of the photographs. “She doesn’t live with you?”

  “No, she lives with her mother. That’s actually why I need a roommate. My wife—well, ex-wife—stuck me with a mortgage I can’t easily afford while paying child support.” I let out a sigh. “Not that I would ever consider skipping a payment. I’d rather live on the streets.”

  “My daughter means as much to me as Melody means to you. You get that, right?” Her father put down the Scotch and turned towards me.

  “Well, of course.” I nodded quickly.

  “You’re a boxer?” He walked over to my trophy case that he had looked at intently during the tour.

  “I used to be, but I quit after I got married. Now I just beat up the bag in the garage.” I chuckled.

  “My daughter’s ex-boyfriend is a basket case. Even if we’re on the other side of the country, I wouldn’t put it past him to show up here.” He turned to me.

  “Dad!” Hannah snapped at her father angrily. “You don’t have to tell everyone about Anthony.”

  “I’m just saying—Brent here seems like the kind of guy that could handle things if that asshole shows up.” He tilted his head towards me.

  “Come on, he’s not going to show up here.” She glared at her father for a moment and then turned her head towards me. “We’ll be going now—I’m sorry we wasted your time.”

  “Hold on now.” Mr. Smith held his hand up. “I think I like this place.”

  “What?” Hannah’s mouth opened in shock. “You do?”

  “I wasn’t entirely convinced I could handle you living with a man you don’t know, but Brent seems like an honorable guy. I would feel good knowing you had someone like that around if anything went wrong.” He walked over and extended his hand to me. “If you want a roommate, I think this could work.”

  “Well…” I was a bit surprised, but I did need a roommate. I reached out and took his hand. “I definitely need a roommate.”

  “Excellent.” He shook my hand. “I’ll fly out when I can to visit, but I’m trusting you with my daughter—I hope you understand how much faith I’m putting in you.

  I’ll make sure her half of everything is covered—you just make sure she gets to class everyday when school starts—deal?” He released his grip on my hand and his arm fell to his side.

  “Deal…” I nodded.

  “I guess I could live here…” Hannah arched her eyebrow as if her opinion didn’t seem to matter.

  “You don’t have a choice. I’m paying your way.” He motioned for her to follow.

  “Yes, you keep reminding me of that.” Hannah emitted a light grumble between

  her lips and shook her head.

  Hannah

  I was shocked that my father had abruptly decided to trust Brent. There was definitely something about him that seemed fairly trustworthy; I just didn’t expect my father to agree to let me live with a random guy he didn’t know. We spent the rest of the day touring the campus and then we caught our flight back home. The next time I saw California again, I would be moving in with Brent and rushing off to class five days a week. When we got back home, I found out that my father still wasn’t entirely trusting of the man he shook hands with. He went online and bought background checks, criminal histories—the works. He seemed satisfied by what he found. Brent wasn’t a serial killer or a psychopath. He was just a guy down on his luck following his divorce. My father even got his hands-on Brent’s court case and scoured every detail of testimony from his ex-wife.

  “She didn’t have anything bad to say about him.” He nodded and closed his laptop. “That’s a good sign.”

  “So, I’m definitely living with him?” I picked up my cup of tea and took a sip.

  “Am I over the moon about it, no.” He shook his head. “If I could hire a bodyguard to protect you and put you in a tower somewhere, I would. This gets you away from Anthony, the price is reasonable, and you have a scholarship to go to college. As much as it pains me to admit it, I think this is for the best.”

  “Well, okay then.” I shrugged and sipped my tea again.

  Everything seemed to be moving in fast forward once I officially had a place in California. My father rented a U-Haul that my car could be towed behind and we started packing what I would need for four years of college. I wasn’t sure if I would end up staying with Brent the entire time. Four years was a long time and if he ended up finding someone new and wanted to get married, I would definitely be out on the curb. I also wasn’t sure how dating would work. Would I get the house to myself on the weekend if I had someone I wanted to bring back? Would I need to run for the hills if I saw a sock on a doorknob? I assumed we would figure all of that out once I was moved in, but things would have been a lot easier if I just lived with a group of girls. I understood why my father was nervous about that, but some of his fears were misplaced. Anthony definitely wasn’t going to follow me to California and the arrangement was going to make my life more complicated than it needed to be. Still, my father’s peace of mind was what I had to deal with, so I didn’t have much choice.

  “I think we’re ready…” I stared at the U-Haul as he closed the door.

  “One cross country trip, coming right up.” He climbed into my car and drove it over to the trailer so he could attach it to the U-Haul.

  I hated that Anthony had soured my hometown for me. Agreeing to our first date was the worst mistake I had ever made. If I hadn’t met him, I would be going to school somewhere close enough to drive back home on the weekends. Part of me was also worried about what would happen to my father if I stayed. If Anthony came near me again, I was certain he would make good on his threat to put him in the ground. I couldn’t stand the thought of him doing something stupid, so if I had to run, I had to go as far as I could get. California was definitely that—it was the other side of the world as far as I was concerned. We climbed into the U-Haul and started our journey. It would be a long one and we would have to stay in a couple of motels along the way, but it was the cheapest way to get me there with all of my things.

  Brent

  A couple of week later, I got the call that they were on their way. My mother agreed to watch Melody for the day and while I didn’t like being away from her, I also knew she would be in the way if we tried to move Hannah in while she was there. Word had gotten back to my ex-wife that a woman was moving in with me—likely from one of my nosy neighbors. She had questions, but I kept her in the dark outside of letting her know that Melody would not be in any danger. It wasn’t like she lived alone and I had to completely trust hot-dad without having a say in the matter. I waited outside when I saw the U-Haul approaching and then started helping Mr. Smith load all of her things into the bedroom at the end of the hall. She definitely had a lot of stuff—I wasn’t sure how it was all going to fit b
ut I was glad I never really bothered to furnish the bedroom outside of a bed and dresser.

  “This should just about do it…” I picked up a large box and started towards the house.

  “I’m going to grab a glass of water.” Mr. Smith wiped sweat off of his brow and followed me into the house.

  “I’ll start unpacking.” Melody walked ahead of me and dropped her purse on the bed when she entered the room.

  “You’ll be unpacking for weeks…” I laughed as I sat the box on the ground by her feet.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” She let out a sigh. “It didn’t look like so much stuff when it was in my room at home.”

  “I can help you unpack after your father is gone if you want.” I leaned against the door frame as she opened her purse. My eyes were quickly drawn to a pack of cigarettes peeking out from underneath her makeup. “If you’re going to smoke, you’ll have to do it outside—don’t even think about smoking in the house. I would also appreciate it if just took a walk if Melody is here and you need to do it.”

  “Keep your voice down.” She closed her purse quickly and glared at me. “My father doesn’t know about that—I’ll make sure your daughter never sees me.”

  “Thank you.” I nodded and walked back towards the living room. “Mr. Smith, what time is your flight?”

  “It’s late.” He sipped the glass of water in his hand. “Maybe I can get an earlier one if I get to the airport and they have something available.”

  “Why don’t you stay for dinner and then I can drive you?” I motioned to the kitchen. “I can make a mean pot of spaghetti.”

  “Sure, that would be nice.” He smiled.