The Flatshare

by Beth O'Leary

Life is often simple, but you don’t notice how simple it was until it gets incredibly complicated, like how you never feel grateful for being well until you’re ill, or how you never appreciate your tights drawer until you rip a pair and have no spares.

“Look,” he says, “have you ever looked forward to reading a book so much you can’t actually start it?”

Getting one of those lopsided grins from him feels like winning at a game I wasn’t aware I was playing. “The door doesn’t lock, though. I thought you might walk in on me, but it seems Karma was busy elsewhere this morning.”

“Relationships like that stop being about ‘voluntarily’ very quickly. There’s lots of ways someone can make you stay with them, or think you want to.”