Learning to Trust - M.A. Innes Page 0,7

do anything with the living room before I moved in, so it wasn’t likely.

But it was time to change that…one piece of furniture at a time.

As well as real groceries.

There was no reason to order pizza that many times in a week when we had a full kitchen. I might not be a four-star chef, but I’d been cooking dinner since I was fourteen and had a reasonable list of options to choose from.

Getting off the bed, I looked around the bedroom and started taking a mental inventory of everything I needed to keep an eye out for. Destin and his boyfriends had been incredibly generous, but there was still a list of things I needed to really be comfortable in the apartment.

Thankfully, I’d been getting a generous allowance from the college fund my parents had set up when I was little. I’d worked hard in high school and had obtained several scholarships that paid for the bulk of my freshman year. I’d done nearly as well paying for my sophomore year, so the college fund had been paying for living expenses beyond what I’d actually needed.

My generous savings account was going to come in handy now, even if the college was paying for my new apartment out of the dorm fees they’d been given. But considering the way everything had been handled, I didn’t feel bad about that.

With my mental list in place and a few pictures on my phone to help jog my memory if needed, I headed out of the room and knocked on Morgan’s door. It was always closed whether he was home or not, and he rarely left it.

Earlier he’d even taken a bowl of Froot Loops back to his room for lunch.

Froot Loops.

He wasn’t five. I’d even made sure to offer him some of the salad I’d brought back after class, but he’d looked at it like the Caesar salad was poisoned and gone back to his room. His eating habits were worse than Destin’s when he’d first gotten to college. At least he’d figured out how to use his dining account to get dessert and the occasional bowl of soup for some reason.

Well, if I could get Destin to eat better and to survive his first attempts at dating, Morgan couldn’t be that difficult.

When Morgan finally unlocked the door after several long moments, he peeked around it without opening it all the way. I wanted to sigh, but I did my best not to look frustrated or concerned.

I had to keep telling myself that he wasn’t hiding drugs in there, but I wasn’t at my most rational about roommates. Avery had made it very clear, though, that he trusted Morgan and wasn’t worried about his behavior.

Forcing what I hoped was a somewhat pleasant expression on my face, I pointed toward the living room. “I’m going to head out and look for some furniture, then grab groceries. I don’t expect you to pay; however, I was wondering if you wanted to come with Destin and me to walk through some used furniture stores.”

I thought it came out polite and nonthreatening enough to have him agreeing to come with us, but he shook his head. “No, thank you. I have a few things to work on and I’m sure whatever you find will be very useful.”

It was not a ringing endorsement of my taste, but I nodded. “Alright, then. Good luck on your work.”

Before I’d stepped away from the door, it was shut and locked again. I had to remind myself that from what Destin had said his last roommate hadn’t been easy to deal with, so he was probably a bit paranoid as well.

We were clearly a match made in heaven as far as roommates went.

****

“That is…an unfortunate color because I really like the leather.” I was trying to keep an open mind, but some of the furniture people sold in second-hand stores was…interesting.

Destin grinned. “But it’s yellow. That’s such a happy color.”

It was a yellow that was definitely not found in nature, and the neon quality to it was giving me a headache. “Yellow is a cheerful color, but I think something more subdued might be better for a shared living room.”

That logic had gotten me out of the plaid sofa and a pair of green chairs that looked like a toddler had thrown up on them.

Destin had interesting tastes, to say the least.

He sighed, rising off the couch. “You’re probably right. Morgan doesn’t seem like the type to appreciate something this happy.