The Runaway Roommate

By C.S. Mae

Casey Peters has a problem and that problem is the half-Korean hottie that moved in when her former roommate moved out.
Now her life has become like an episode from one of her favorite dramas, complete with: crazy exes, roommate shenanigans and confusing plot twists.

This story is a Naughty Niblet: the perfect amount of sexy to satisfy, but not make your hips big.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.S. Mae
• Release date: Jul 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301186860

Book preview

The Runaway Roommate

by

C.S. Mae

Casey Peters has a problem and that problem is the half Korean hottie that moved in when her former roommate moved out.

Now her life has become like an episode from one of her favorite dramas, complete with: crazy exes, roommate shenanigans and confusing plot twists.

This story is a Naughty Niblet: the perfect amount of sexy to satisfy, but not make your hips big.

Copyright

Text Copyright © 2012 by C.S. Mae

Cover Design © 2012 by Bethel Stoddard

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of the publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Smashwords Edition

Prologue: The Setup

Today's drama opens to a scene with four attractive ladies sitting together in front of a big screen TV. They are a wee bit tipsy from the drinking they've done and giddy with gossip.

Casey is putting in the DVD. Joan is flipping a long brown braid over her shoulder. Lola is kicking off her mile high stiletto shoes. Beth is tipping one last gulp of alcohol into her mouth.

The girls have come to watch their addictive Korean Dramas and ogle hot Asian men.

What they may or may not be aware of is how close their lives have begun to mirror their favorite Friday night entertainment.

Chapter 1. The Loan Shark Attack

"I don't understand why these girls always let themselves feel responsible for their parents' gambling debt."

"Maybe, it's because they all still live together? Have you noticed that in Korea it seems like children live with their parents long past 30?"

"Can you imagine? Ignore my shuddering over here."

"Remember the one where the girl's friends somehow managed to sell her house while she was on vacation? I still don't get how that's possible. Korea has weird home ownership laws."

"Seriously. Watch out, girl! You can run from those creditors, but you can't hide!"

It purely sucks to be 32 and still need a roommate—especially when the need for that roommate is your own darn fault. Sure there were plenty of us living in the Bay Area that required roommates, housing prices being what they were. But it wasn't like I was living in downtown San Francisco or anything. I should be able to live where I am without a roommate.

School loans, credit card debt, and living in the East Bay, I thought. Any of those separately might lead to financial problems, but I had to go for the debt trifecta.

I hung the roommate ad on the room's bulletin board, feeling more like a college student than a gainfully employed minion of Titan Games—the largest game company in northern California and one of the largest companies in the world, with divisions in Texas, Canada, Germany and Korea. My job there was as a programmer, more fondly known in the industry as a code monkey, and I thoroughly enjoyed the money, even if I didn't always enjoy the hours.

I headed over to the vending machine with the quarters I'd grabbed from the room's honey pot, which is what they called the large container of change the company provided us with for snackage while we put in our insanely long hours. Three Snickers bars later, I was munching my way through a string of code dedicated to making our lemmings—what we called the little characters a player could manipulate onscreen—line up in their queues properly.

This particular studio had two current projects close to the end of the development pipeline: the super-famous Call to War and Cyber Chef. The former was a shoot 'em up war game filled with blood and violence. I was happy to work on the latter, which made the company less money and was considered grade B gaming by many. Still, I didn't have to code physics for multiple ways to make blood splatter. That was good enough for me.

So what's with the notice? asked Greg as he came back to his seat. He was my cubicle neighbor and programming partner. Around here, we mostly worked alone, but if anyone got stuck, we always had another pair of eyes to help us figure out where we went wrong.

As posted, I'm looking for a roommate, I said, taking a swig of my soda.

"I thought you and Lola were, you know, BFFs or whatever."

Lola Lee was my former roommate and, yes, one of my best friends.

She's moving in with her boyfriend, I said. So I need a new roommate. Luxury apartments don't come cheap. And neither do credit card bills.

What do you need a fancy apartment for? I live in a studio.

Ever heard of a lease? Well, I've got one. Just renewed for another year, in fact. And there is no way I can cover 3k worth of rent on my own and still have enough to support my lavish lifestyle, I said.

Greg was quiet for a while, fingers clacking on keys.

You know, I might know someone who needs a room, he said, pursing his lips and glaring at his computer.

Who?

My cousin. He's a guy, but he has a girlfriend. Not that he'd try anything— Greg said, cutting off as he stared at my oversized clothes and the extra 45 pounds I was carrying around.

Yes, I'm a dumpy slob, I thought. So what? You're not too great either. But thanks for assuming no guy would ever look at me.

As with most in my profession, I didn't put a lot of stock in appearances. Thanks to the cool Bay Area weather and the freezing cold office, most of the time I wore sweatshirts and jeans. Along with a healthy portion of my coworkers. At least I showered every day, which was more than I can say for the rest of the guys I worked with.

You probably think it's an exaggeration that all computer programmers are dirty, greasy-haired caffeine freaks who download files illegally from the internet. So did I, until I went to school with them. That is when I realized that almost every gamer-geek stereotype is spot on. By the way, I think Greg has worn that shirt three days in a row.

I'm fine with guys, as long as they have good references, I said.

He's a great guy. He had the bad luck of renting an apartment in one of those complexes that got foreclosed on and now he has to be out in 30 days. I guess it was rent controlled, too. So he's really desperate for a decent place, Greg said.

My phone buzzed and I checked my texts.

Are we on for lunch? It was Lola, who also worked for Titan Games. Except she worked in the art department and was slightly more normal than I was.

~~~~~

A guy, huh? Are you sure about that? Lola studied me with her pencil thin black eyebrows raised. Her shoulder length black hair was perfectly straightened by a flatiron. I had personal knowledge of that fact, but the result was a gorgeous waterfall of hair that made me envious. My dishwater blonde locks were somewhere between wavy and straight.

Today she was dressed in one of her retro style outfits, a puff-sleeved white blouse with a tear-drop over the chest and a loosely-gathered knee length brown wool skirt. My hips would look a mile wide in something like that, but somehow she managed to pull it off with no problems.

I mulled over her words.

Well, I had four different roommates in college. The last one was a guy and he was by far the easiest to be around—even with all the girls coming over. Heck, we shared a bathroom with no problem.

Well, thank goodness, you wouldn't have to do that now, said Lola, wrinkling her perfect button nose.

Anyway, Greg is going to give him my number. He might not work for me, but I'm not ruling anything out at this point, I said and took a bite of my food.

I'm sorry, Casey. I feel bad, ditching you like that.

Not so sorry that it stopped you, though.

Hey! she said, and threw a sprout from her wrap at me. "It's not all my fault, or should I remind you of your big fat credit card bill?"

I sighed.

Speaking of money, how is your bid for that promotion going? Lola asked.

Well, I applied for the open position, if that's what you mean.

Do you think you'll get it?

I shrugged and continued eating. It's notoriously hard for programmers to break into development and design careers without some sort of experience in the field. The problem is that many of us go for the bottom rung job when we graduate and it's a slow build through the ranks from there. Maybe it's because we just want to code for cash, then go home and play more games. Most programmers aren't big on interpersonal communication or largely skilled in leading. Still, I had some hope that I could be one of the exceptions.

"They haven't said if they