The first of the roommates introduces himself saying, “Sorry about that, we just get a bit excited when this guy does anything other than sit at a computer all day. My name is Milo” With a smile he looks down at me. He is tall although he is easily two or three inches shorter than Cade. He was almost the complete opposite as well. Although Cade had black hair and blue eyes, Milo had blonde hair and brown eyes and looked like a typical surfer boy. As I look at him, he continues, “I have been his best friend since kindergarten and I was his first roommate.” Looking at me conspiratorially, he continues, “Which means that I have all of the embarrassing stories.”

“Next,’ Cade interjects as he elbows Milo in the stomach. 

“Hello, my name is Ella and I am Cade’s other roommate and Milo’s girlfriend. I am looking forward to having another girl around more often. The boys are great but sometimes they can be a bit too much.” Looking at her, I immediately felt relieved that she was already taken because the girl was gorgeous. She had beautiful curly brown hair and was the perfect height to compliment Milo. As she spoke, he wound his arm around her waist and she gave him a cute smile in response. 

With Cade’s expectant look, the next stranger says, “Hello, my name is Oli, short for Oliver. I am not an official roommate, although they are gracious enough to let me visit often. Although I suppose with your arrival, I’ll probably be getting kicked out. Unless  he plans to man up and take you to his bed tonight.” he barely finishes his sentence before erupting into full-blown laughter. 

His laughter was contagious and before long, we had all joined in. Looking at everyone, I say, “My name is Lila, although I’m sure you all know that by now. It is nice to meet all of you. You all seem like a really cool group of friends and I look forward to getting to know you all better.”

After I finished my end of the introductions, everyone jumped into action. The boys grabbed all of my things from the car and Ella led me into the house. As we entered the living room, she immediately asked, “Is there anything I can get you, food or something to drink?”

“Thanks for offering, but I don’t need anything right now and Cade promised that he would be cooking for me. I have had the opportunity to try his brother’s food, so I’m curious if he is able to cook as well as Chris.” As I finish my sentence, the boys come in and Milo and Oli begin defending Cade’s honor as a chef, praising his cooking as the best they ever had. With a teasing smile, I looked at Cade, before adding, “I’ll be the judge of that.”

After everyone gets out their laughs, Oli turns to all of us with a serious look on his face before continuing, “Seriously though you two, are you going to be sharing a room? If not, I suppose I’ll need to unpack all of my stuff in the guest room.”

As I turn to look over at Cade, I find him already looking at me. The look in his eyes says that it is up to me. Honestly after the scare with Kai last night, I didn’t like the idea of being alone somewhere unfamiliar surrounded by people that I didn’t know so it didn’t take long before I said, “The two of us can share. It’s not a big deal and I wouldn’t want to kick you out of the guest room when I could just stay in his room.” As I finished talking, I walked over to grab my gift bag and flowers before turning to Cade and saying, “Why don’t you show me to our room so I can get unpacked?”

At my question, the boys begin to whistle and Milo turns to Oli saying, “That was smooth right there. If I hadn’t already been dating Ella when we met, I would've had you be my wingman.”

With a small smile, Cade leads me upstairs. As we reach the top of the landing, I see only two doors on this floor. Inclining his head to the left, he said, “Through there is my office. It used to be another bedroom, but I had it converted to an office since I do work from home primarily.” As we entered the room to the right, I couldn’t believe how amazing it looked. Everything was decorated beautifully and I couldn’t believe that he had several plants in the room. The windows let in a ton of natural sunlight and brightened the whole room significantly. As he sat my luggage down, he said, “You can put your things away wherever you would like. The closet is the door next to the window and the bathroom is through the other door. You can use the dressers, closet, or whatever you’d like to put away your things.”

Turning to place my vase of flowers near the window, I respond, “Thank you, for everything. I didn’t expect them all to welcome me so warmly either. And I should probably let you know that I immediately got jealous when I saw how Ella came out to greet you. I was so relieved that she was already dating Milo. I can’t believe how quickly I have fallen for you already.” Realizing that I had said all of that out loud, I looked at the ground, afraid to see his reaction to my words. 

To my surprise, I could see his feet as he walked closer to me before saying, “I feel the same way. You heard everyone earlier. You’ve stolen my heart totally and completely and I don’t know what to do when I am around you. I know that we still have a lot to learn about each other and I want us to take things slow and do this right, but I am so glad to know that you feel the same way.” As he finishes his confession, he closes the rest of the distance in between us and wraps me in his arms. 

Immediately wrapping my arms around him in response, I say, “Thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for this time?” he murmurs in my hair muffling the teasing tone of his voice. 

“The reassurance and the fact that you are being vulnerable enough to tell me your feelings as well as acknowledging mine.” Enjoying the feeling of his arms wrapped around me but realizing that I should probably put my clothes away, I reluctantly pull away. “You really don’t mind where I put my stuff?” 

“Nope, I have an empty drawer in the dresser and plenty of space in the closet to store your clothes and shoes.” He responds as he walks over to open the closet door. Looking inside, I could see that he wasn’t lying. The closet was relatively large with enough room to walk in. Despite the fact that he had plenty of clothing, there was easily half of the closet that was still empty. 

Walking over to my suitcase, I began to sort through my things and the two of us worked together to get everything put away in the proper places. I had him hang all of my nice clothes in the closet to prevent wrinkles and I refolded and put away all of my pajamas, underwear and socks in the dresser. Within 30 minutes, the two of us had all of my things put away in the proper places. As we finish up, he looks over at me before saying, “Would you like a short house tour before I get started on lunch?”

“That sounds fantastic.”