The Roommate's Rival
A Forbidden Desire, Betrayal RomantasyBy Robin Vale
Length8h 5m
About this audiobook
*Friday evenings were for decompressing, not for apartment hunting.*
The sublet fell through on Tuesday, which leaves Leo six days and a savings account doing a convincing impression of a leaky faucet. So here he is, parked outside a building that looks like it was designed by somebody who hated windows, watching a man in a stained t-shirt stagger out with a recycling bin full of empties.
The Hawthorne. Old red brick, mortar crumbling like bad dental work, a laurel hedge eating the ground-floor windows, a brass sign gone murky green.
Gary the landlord smells of mint gum and stale cigarette smoke and delivers his warning on the landing, voice dropped. The tenant up there has been in the building three years. Pays on time, keeps to himself. But he is particular. About where the mail goes. About the thermostat. About the recycling schedule. Just out of a long relationship. Very private. Don't take it personally.
The door opens onto a showroom: white plates stacked square in the cabinet, spices alphabetized in a rack on the wall, utensils in a drawer sorted by function, an espresso machine worth more than Leo's car. One framed print above the sofa and no other trace of a person anywhere.
Leo takes the top floor anyway, and the walls at The Hawthorne turn out to be thin enough that Julian can hear a phone buzzing on the other side.
What follows is a truce at the farmers market, twelve sunflowers carried up three flights of stairs and stems trimmed on a diagonal under running water, a tomato seed left on a counter, a bathroom converted into a darkroom, pizza with an indefensible topping, and a kiss neither of them has planned.
Then Evan comes back. Julian's ex is easy and smiling in the doorway and something entirely different at a table with his knuckles gone white, and the thing he finally says out loud is worse than anything Julian was braced for.
And Maya, who makes Leo's coffee black exactly the way he takes it, who has a spare key somewhere and a couch and a corner where he could set up his gear, tells him that what he has with Julian is not a relationship but a rescue mission, and that her offer has always been open.
An MM contemporary romance about thin walls, controlled lives, and learning that needing somebody is not a weakness. The romance is closed-door.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance, Biography and Memoir
Length8 hrs 5 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 15, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
2Chapter 1 - The Last Place I Want to Be
3Chapter 2 - Uninvited Intruder
4Chapter 3 - Moving Day Wreck
5Chapter 4 - The Rules
Mostrar todos os capítulosVer menos
6Chapter 5 - Beer and Bad Decisions
7Chapter 6 - Evan’s Return
8Chapter 7 - The Ex Files
9Chapter 8 - Farmers Market Truce
10Chapter 9 - Sunflowers and Spin
11Chapter 10 - Pushing Back
12Chapter 11 - The Photograph
13Chapter 12 - Invasion of Privacy
14Chapter 13 - Apology Accepted
15Chapter 14 - Pizza and Promises
16Chapter 15 - Gatecrasher
17Chapter 16 - First Kiss Fallout
18Chapter 17 - The Ex and the Elephant
19Chapter 18 - Closure Coffee
20Chapter 19 - Waiting
21Chapter 20 - The Lie Wins
22Chapter 21 - Wreckage
23Chapter 22 - Making It Worse
24Chapter 23 - Betrayed
25Chapter 24 - The Grand Gesture Prep
26Chapter 25 - The Gallery Opening
27Chapter 26 - The Cost
28Chapter 27 - Rebuilding
29Chapter 28 - The New Rules
30The End
31About the Author
32Also by Robin Vale
33Acknowledgements
34A Note from the Author
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