The Roommate by Kiersten Modglin (best way to read books .TXT) 📕

grumbled, his wild, gray eyebrows dropping down to a furrowed expression. "Now, this is business, Wes. We're a business, and your friend is here doing his business and helping ours—"

"I know, but—"

"Which is very nice of him, especially in these hard economic times, and given what we had to fork over yesterday to find out the extent of the breach and what we were looking at to apply even more security to our servers. Wherever we can save a penny, well I'm certainly willing to do it, aren't you? Why snub our noses at such a lovely gift, Wes? Especially from your friend." He gave me a stern look.

"Oh, don’t mind him, Stewart. He's just being modest. That's what I like to call him. Ole shy, modest, serious Wes," Elias said, patting me on the head playfully. He winked at me. "Relax and let me do my job. I've cleared my day for this." He cracked his knuckles. “Elias is the name, destroyin’ malware is the game.”

With that, they broke out into another chorus of laughter. I groaned internally, forcing a smile when Elias winked at me.

"Elias, listen, it's really sweet of you to do this, but honestly, you don't have to—"

"I know I don't have to, silly goose. I want to. I like helping my friends, Wes. I like helping you." As he said it, even with the warm smile on his face, a sort of darkness swept over his eyes, and I felt a chill trail down my spine.

Something wasn't right about Elias.

Something wasn't right at all.

Chapter Nine

I spent all day in the office, which was rare for me. Usually, I searched for any excuse I could find to get out and about with clients, visiting venues and traveling the city. That day, though, you couldn't have pried me from my chair.

I watched Elias move through the office, laughing and chatting with each of my coworkers as he worked at their station. It didn't sit right with me. How was he able to charm them so easily? Why did they seem to like him, some of them even more than they liked me? How had he gotten rid of the eerie personality that was so front and center back home?

For someone who mostly worked from home by choice, I found it bizarre that he'd chosen to come to my place of work without being asked. I found it even more bizarre that he hadn't asked me before he did it. His words about wanting to climb a ladder and missing human connection rang in my ears. Surely he wasn’t going to try and get Oliver’s job… The thought was terrifying. I couldn’t handle him twenty-four hours a day. I wouldn’t survive it.

Perhaps the most bizarre part was how easily he seemed to be getting along with each of my coworkers. Before, he'd told me that he had trouble talking to people. That he didn't always fit in, and I thought I’d seen that firsthand. But here, he was fitting in just fine. He was like an entirely different person.

Stewart couldn't seem to get enough of him, our receptionist had hand-delivered him two coffees since he'd arrived, and everywhere he went, people seemed to follow, watching him work as if it were the most fascinating thing. Every so often, I’d hear bursts of laughter through the glass of my office, an unfamiliar sound in our usually quiet and busy workspace. Why was Stewart allowing this? Just to save a buck?

I couldn't explain the anger I felt toward Elias, but it seemed to be growing by the minute. As I watched him sit at a desk across the lobby, eyes focused on the computer with a goofy grin on his pale face, two of my coworkers leaned down over him, as if what he was doing were the most fascinating thing in the world. I’d never seen anyone react to Oliver that way.

Just then, my door opened slowly, and I jerked my head in that direction. Oliver stood in the doorway, a fist raised as he knocked on it while at the same time swinging it open. He ran a hand through his frizzy, black hair, his freckled face even paler than usual, somehow.

"Hey, man," I said, standing up and extending a hand for him to shake. "I'm sorry to hear about yesterday. How bad was it?"

"Hey, thanks," he said, shaking my hand back. "Well, obviously, we realized we were vastly unprotected. Nothing like that has ever happened, you know? We never really expected that we’d be the victims of such a large attack. We were protected from the basics, but this was…an attempt at a massive scale.” He sighed, shaking his head. “But, it’s handled and, luckily, thanks to you, I'm not going to be losing my job, so those are two giant-ass positives." He tucked his hands into his pockets with a chuckle.

"Thanks to me?"

"Thanks to you and your buddy, yeah," he said, nodding in Elias' direction. We watched him through the glass of my office.

"Oh, no, that wasn't… I mean…" I had no idea what I was trying to say.

"No, no. Don't be modest. Elias told Stewart he'd only do it if he didn't fire me. Since I don't know him from Adam, I can only assume that came from you. Stewart called me an hour ago and told me I had my job back." My jaw dropped at the news, and I looked at him, utterly shocked by what he'd said.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," he pointed back and forth between Elias and me, "you mean you didn't know?"

"No, I had no idea. I mean, I'd told him I was upset that you were going to get fired when I didn't think it was your fault, but I didn't even know he was coming in."

"Well, hell of a friend you've got there, bud. I owe you both a beer…" He chuckled. "Or ten."

"Yeah."

Now, guilt ate at me as I began to wonder if I'd judged Elias too