Roommates with Complicated Benefits - J. S. Cooper Page 0,3
the family money.” Harry rolled his eyes. “But the family needs you, okay?”
“It’s not about the money. I don’t care about money.”
“Sure you don’t.” Harry chuckled. “You love money. You wear Rolexes, you’ve got Tom Ford suits. Don’t think I didn’t see that Maserati you pulled up in.”
“Well, I like nice cars. Doesn’t everyone?”
“Dude, you couldn’t survive a minute without money.”
“Really? You don’t think I could survive without money?”
“Dude, you live in a penthouse, you drive a Maserati. You have never had to worry about money.”
“Yeah, and I could still survive without it.”
“No, you couldn’t! Imagine if you had roommates.” Harry started laughing. “There’s just no way.”
“You don’t think that I can live with a roommate? I had roommates in college.”
“Okay, and that was because you were in a frat, and you guys partied all the time.”
“So? I could do roommates now.”
“Okay,” Harry said with a small smile. “Let’s see.”
“What do you mean, let’s see?”
“I dare you to live in an apartment with a roommate for the next six months.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you said you could do it.”
“Yeah, I don’t need to prove it to you.”
“I bet you $100.”
“$100? That’s it?”
“Well, you said you don’t care about money, and it’s about more than money anyway. It’s about the principle of the situation. Can you or can you not survive in a world without money?”
“You don’t think I could?”
“No. Let’s make this interesting,” he said. “Find an apartment with a roommate and live only on the salary that you make as an investigator for six months. Then I won’t bother you with any help with the family business ever again.”
“Really? You will never mention it again, and Dad will never mention it again?”
“I promise.”
“Fine, sounds good to me.”
“Fine.”
Harry nodded as if he’d gotten everything that he wanted, and I stared at him suspiciously.
Why did I feel like I’d just fallen into a trap?
Chapter 2
Molly
“Henrietta, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I think I should just come home. What do you think?” I knew I was whining, but if you can’t whine to your best friend, then who can you whine to?
“Molly, it’s going to be fine. I promise. You’ve only been in New York for a few months. It’s going to get better.”
“I have the roommate from hell, girl, and I have the worst job in the world, and nothing seems like it’s going to be getting better.”
“Well, she’s not literally the roommate from hell. Your apartment’s not burning up, is it?”
“It might as well be. I told you what she did last week, right? I came home. She wasn’t in, and the pot was still on the stovetop, burning. She nearly started a fire!”
“Yeah … That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not good. And when she finally came home and I showed her the burnt pot of rice, do you know what she said to me?”
“No. What did she say?”
“She said to me, ‘Looks like you burnt your rice, Molly. Maybe you should pay more attention.’ Maybe I should pay more attention? I was like, bitch, please!”
“You did not call her a bitch, did you?” Henri sounded excited.
“No, of course I didn’t actually call her a bitch. I mean, I wanted to, but I’m too nice.”
“You’re not too nice to call her a bitch.”
“Yes, I am. Well, at least I’m nice in New York because I don’t want to get stabbed or anything.”
“You’re not going to get stabbed, Molly.”
“You don’t know that, Henrietta. This is New York City, I’m not in Herne Hill anymore.”
“I wish you were. Why don’t you just come home?”
“Because how am I going to make it on Broadway if I’m not here?”
“You could make it in Dulwich.”
I made a rude noise. “Are you seriously comparing Dulwich Village to New York City?”
“Well, I guess it’s not exactly the same.” She laughed. “So what did your roommate say then?”
“She just looked at me, shook her head, rolled her eyes, and went to her side of the apartment.”
“I still don’t know how that works,” Henrietta said. “How do you have a roommate, but you only have a one-bedroom apartment?”
“Girl, it’s not even a one-bedroom apartment. It’s a studio.”
“You have a roommate, and you live in a studio. What?”
“We have a little curtain that divides the room in half.” I sighed. “Girl, trust me. And you know this because I’ve told you so many times already. This is not what I envisioned when I decided to move here. She totally lied in her ad.”
“Well, you couldn’t have envisioned much,” she