Roommate Wanted (Sharing Space #1) by Nina Perez

Chapter One
     
    What You Get For Chicken Noodle Soup and Good Intentions
     
    Chloe
     
     
    What am I going to do with all this soup?
     
    That was the first thought that leapt into my head upon finding my boyfriend of eight months in bed with another woman.
     
    What am I going to do with all this soup? 
     
    I suppose I could have reacted as if I were in a soap opera and flung the door open, my lower lip trembling, and asked, "What is the meaning of this?  What's going on here?" From the moaning, groaning, and absence of clothing, it was obvious what was going on.
     
    As Myra calls it, I could have gotten a little ghetto on him. "Oh no you didn’t!” Reminding Lawrence that I did grow up in Brooklyn and was capable of all kinds of shadiness: putting sugar in his gas tank, slashing his tires, and leaving dog poop in the mailbox. 
     
    My first response should have been an indication of where my priorities were.  Sure, I was upset that a man I thought to be true was now sweating and panting over another woman on a bedspread I’d purchased, but I was more concerned with who was going to eat the six-dollar bowl of soup I’d bought for him. I hated chicken noodle soup and I didn’t have money to waste. My credit card payment was not only due, it was late.
     
    It seemed my problems, like celebrity deaths, were rolling in threes. The cheating boyfriend was just the proverbial straw on my already-overburdened camel’s back, and before the maxed-out credit bill arrived there’d been the bombshell from my roommate. An aspiring actress, Grace had suddenly decided that Los Angeles was “the place to be” and left me with two weeks to find another roommate or come up with her half of the rent. So you can see where someone in my situation might be heartbroken, but also a little financially stressed over this betrayal.
     
    "How about I swing by your office today and take you to lunch?" That was me, earlier in the day, playing the role of the thoughtful girlfriend. 
     
    "Uh, nah babe, not today. I think I'm coming down with something. I’ll just stay home today and get some rest.” That was Lawrence, coughing and sneezing, playing the role of the flu-ridden boyfriend.
     
    Taking my thoughtfulness a step further I decided to take a long lunch, pick up a large chicken noodle vegetable soup for my ailing man and a chunky chicken Caesar salad for myself, hop in a cab, and surprise Lawrence with lunch. I learned it was not the flu that had kept my man home from work that day. As I stood there with my surprise lunch and good intentions, Lawrence panted over a big-booty sister with a busty chest.
     
    Had the fool forgotten he'd given me a key?
     
    I fumed as I strode through the lobby of his building, head held high à la Angela Bassett in What's Love Got To Do With It. Of course, I did so minus the fierce white pant suit and busted face. I hailed another cab to take me back to my office and considered watching the movie that night. I thought it might be exactly what I needed to remind myself that I was a proud black woman who didn’t have to take mess from anybody—or, at the very least, remind myself that it could always be a lot worse.  
     
    Coughing and sneezing my ass.
     
    ***
     
    "No he didn't!” exclaimed Myra Landon, slurping down a spoonful of soup.
     
    Myra and I were marketing assistants at Braxton and Lloyd Consulting Agency, and she was my best friend. Where I was tall and thin, she was short and thick with a behind to rival Serena Williams’. I wore my hair a little longer than shoulder length and Myra kept her unprocessed hair in a short cut. We were exact opposites in almost every way imaginable, yet she remained my girl. We'd seen each other through all kinds of drama. There were plenty of times when I had been the one yelling, "No he didn't!” Although, never while sucking down a bowl of soup that cost six bucks. Manhattan was too damn expensive. 
     
    "Yes, he did.” I replied for the third