The Roommate Agreement
A. Akinosho
(The Agreement, #3)
Publication date: November 12th 2025
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
One apartment. One fake boyfriend. One agreement waiting to be broken.
Makayla:
I’m tired of my dad playing matchmaker.
As a music teacher juggling life with sickle cell disease, I don’t have time—or energy—for forced dinner dates with “eligible men.”
So, I come up with a plan: find a fake boyfriend, let him move in, and make it believable.
Daniel was never supposed to say yes.
He’s a grumpy, emotionally walled-off lawyer who hates chaos and clings to solitude.
But now he’s in my apartment—tall, brooding, infuriatingly neat—and fitting into my world way too easily.
I don’t believe in love. Not when life has taught me it rarely sticks around.
But something about him feels dangerously real.Daniel:
Something about her captured my attention the moment I met her.
I knew I was in trouble.
Controlled and always alone—that’s who I’ve been.
But I said yes before I could stop myself.
Because moving into her tea-scented, music-filled home was the only way I could be close to her.
She’s sunshine and sharp edges. She hums while stirring honey into her cup and smiles through pain like it’s nothing.
This was supposed to be pretend.
But with every stolen glance and late-night conversation, the line between real and fake keeps slipping.
She doesn’t believe in love.
I never thought it was possible.
But living with her is rewriting everything I thought I knew—
And walking away might not be an option.
—
EXCERPT:
I get to the corner and down a drink while waiting for him. My mind wavers in ways I can’t understand. It shouldn’t be hard to call her and explain I misspoke—a rare occurrence—, but it’s believable enough to scrap the whole idea of moving in with my niece’s music teacher.
A woman that has captivated me from the moment I saw her. I can break free from that hold and make sure our paths never again cross. I can move back to New York. Yeah, that will do it but… are you going to? I already helped her with the music program, and my niece got the extra time with her. Deals are closed and everyone is happy. I can move back to New York, forget about her and break this choke hold she has on me. The real question is, do you want to break the hold?
No! The answer is immediate. I like how I feel around her.
Luke arrives and grabs the seat next to me. “Hey,” he says, patting my shoulder. He sits and the bartender brings his drink. He turns to me.
“I have a problem,” I say to him.
“Do you need your brothers?” he asks. Our coded language to pull the fire alarm.
I shake my head.
“If the problem required my brothers, then it was solved. Unfortunately, the problem I have involves a twenty something year old black woman who’s oblivious to my feelings for her.” Luke laughs, takes his jacket off. Guess he realizes it’s going to be a long night, and takes a sip of his drink. “I can’t stop thinking about her.” I released a frustrated sigh.
“I have been there, and the advice Declan gave me was to do something about it, and I’m giving you the same right now: if your feelings are real, then make your move now.”
“She needs a male roommate; I don’t know how it happened, but soon as she mentioned that she was looking for a male roommate, I immediately volunteered to be her roommate just to be a step closer to her. But now, I’m scared.” Luke listens without a word. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. I can call her, she gave me the option to change my mind.” I pause “but I can’t bring myself to take the option of walking away, and at the same time, moving in with her, which really makes no sense but I’m doing it anyway, even though it scares me.” I make a quick confession as Luke chuckles.
“Well, if it’s any consolation, I made sure Dele moved in with me fast because she had moved in with my brother, Osei, and the thought of her falling for my brother was driving me crazy. So, I guess I should ask you, if you don’t want to move in with her as her roommate, would you be okay if another guy becomes her roommate? Last I checked you dropped a hundred and fifty thousand just to keep her in town. I know you are going to claim it’s for your niece but, deep down, you want her around.”
“I couldn’t live with the option of her leaving, and I highly doubt some guy moving in with her is an option I can live it either.” I answer in a firm tone. Bravo, you answered your own question.
“Then you better pack up your bag and move in with her before she finds another roommate. If my guess is right, you’re probably not the first person she mentioned her needs for a male roommate to.”
I down my drink right away, I already concluded that to myself, I just felt my decision was crazy, now I know it isn’t. “She has sickle cell disease,” I say to him. He’s stunned. “I have spent the last few hours reading up on the disease and I understand why she lives close to the hospital.”
“That’s tough. She probably has crisis a lot.”
“Do you know about the disease?” I’m surprised he’s not asking me what a Sickle cell disease is.
“Yes, Dele is AS and as she explained could have only being an issue if she married another AS and she didn’t plus, being a nurse, she has mentioned it to me about patients.”
I nod.
“I don’t know about her crisis, but I have this urge to be close to her and be there for her when she needs help.” I say
“Like I said: pack up your bags and let us know if you need any help.”
I nod. Knowing any of my brother’s when a decision is made, the next step is to execute, it’s pointless analyzing it further.
Luke and I talk for the next few hours before I head back to Maggie’s place for the night. Getting in bed, I close my eyes and all I can think about is her, her beautiful smile and how easily she makes me laugh.
Tomorrow, our Roommate Agreement will be drafted.
Author Bio:
A. Akinosho lives in her own little nest in Illinois. An avid reader and enjoy reading thrillers, suspense and romance novels (partial to romance genre). When, She's not reading or keeping up with life. She enjoys writing and creating twist to stories. She loves writing about diverse characters, friendship and overcoming challenges through, what is perceived as a weakness.
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