Roommate Wanted

Chapter 11

The next day

Karlie's Point of View

We got a call from the hospital this morning that my dad's recovery was going well and that he was being moved out of the ICU into a normal hospital room so he could still be monitored and start working on his physical therapy. Since he has been immobile for a few days and due to his age, he lost some of his strength so they were going to have to work with him to get that strength back while not straining his body. 

Now that he was out of the ICU, Shelby could come along for visits. She was really nice to my dad and he loved her, not that I'm surprised. In the time we have lived together she has had 4 different hospitals that she used to work at contact her to come work for them full time, so she must be an amazing nurse. It seemed like she was treating my dad more like family than a patient, but maybe she did that with everyone. Mom and I have struggled to talk to him the past few days and keep his mind off of being in the hospital, but Shelby had him cracking up laughing. I feel like this was the first time I was looking at my dad and not a hospital patient, he seemed more like his old happy go lucky self.

After spending the morning with my dad and grabbing lunch with my mom, I decided it was time to go back home to Denver. I had a big presentation for work in two days that I have not spent enough time preparing on. After we loaded up the truck, we set out on our trip back home.

"Thank you so much for coming with me, I don't feel like I would have held it together well if you weren't there to lean on, figuratively and literally speaking." I admitted. I noticed that I was blushing as I said this to Shelby.

"There was no way I would let you go through this alone." Shelby said, smiling. 

"I feel bad you had to take off work, I will make it up to you." I promised.

"It's really not a big deal, I just told my boss that I had a family emergency to attend to. My contract has a decent amount of flexibility in paid time off. I can pick up a weekend shift to earn it back if I really need the vacation. Or honestly, I could probably just take non paid time off, I think my landlord may give me a break on my rent" Shelby said winking.

"First of all, I am not your landlord. But yes, I would definitely cover you for rent. Second, you said it was a family emergency?" I asked. Maybe she does like me a little more than as just a friend.

"Of course, you have been an amazing friend, how could you not be like family to me at this point!" Shelby responded.

The way she said that made me feel more like her cousin or sister. My mom couldn't have been right. I think she was just trying to justify why I've never wanted to have a serious boyfriend. Could she be right though? The only encounter with a woman I had was with that one girl from work. Cece, which is what her name was, didn't feel any different than the men I had fooled around with. But just because she didn't feel different, didn't mean that women were off the table all together. I did like being close to Shelby, both emotionally and physically. 

"What are you thinking?" Shelby said interrupting my thoughts.

"Oh... nothing, just thinking about this presentation I have at work when we get back and all the things I need to do to prepare for it." I lied. 

A few hours later we were finally home.

A few days later

Shelby's Point of View

After we got back from Santa Fe, Karlie and I didn't see much of each other. She was super busy with a presentation at work, so she had been pulling some all-nighters working. I tried to give her some space, she just went through a lot after everything that happened with her dad and I am sure coming back to a lot of work was stressing her out. I decided to put off coming out to her until things calmed down a bit. I have been looking forward to this weekend though, Jenny's bachelorette party is Saturday night, which is tomorrow. It will be a great distraction for Karlie and I am looking forward to having some fun with her, Jenny, and Jenny's other friends.

When Karlie got home after work I had ordered a pizza and had a movie pulled up on Netflix so she could unwind after her big presentation today.

"So how did everything go at work today?" I asked.

"It went well! I am glad to have that behind me and that I get to focus on having an awesome weekend with my friends." She responded.

"Great! I'm glad it went well!" I said.

"Yeah, it's funny though, remember that girl I told you about at work, that I kissed?" Karlie mentioned.

How could I not forget that Karlie told me she made out with a girl. "Yeah I remember you telling me about that" I said casually.

"Well she was there today for the presentation. I noticed she was staring at me during the presentation, I was hoping it was just because she was paying attention to what I was saying, but afterwards she came back up to me and was hitting on me again." Karlie said.

"Oh... what did you do?" I asked.

"Thankfully my boss came over and interrupted the conversation and I was able to sneak out before she was able to talk to me again." Karlie laughed.

I am definitely not a fan of this girl, whoever she is, but I am glad that Karlie still doesn't seem interested. After we caught up we started eating pizza and turned on the movie. After dinner we went our separate ways and as I was getting ready for bed Karlie knocked on my door.

"Hey do you mind if we share a hotel room tomorrow night? I forgot to book mine with everything going on and I figured we could split the costs and have more money to spend on drinks tomorrow night." Karlie suggested.

"Of course! I just got a king bed though, hope that's okay." I responded.

"Yeah that's fine. I'm used to sleeping in beds with you at this point. Might as well downsize to a one bedroom at this point and save some money!" Karlie joked.

I realized she was joking, but the thought of sharing a bed with Karlie every night made me smile.