You browse the shelves at Indigo, perusing the romance section for another enemies-to-lovers book to spice up your life. But you want something new…something exciting. You pick up a book titled The Roommate, already auto-filling the story in your head before you’ve even read the summary on the sleeve. Through some awful twist of circumstances, the protagonist has to find new housing. She skims posters on bulletin boards, Facebook posts, asks everyone she knows for guidance until she finally comes across an advertisement: Roommate wanted, 1k a month, furnished. To nobody’s surprise, the roommate unexpectedly turns out to be the hottest person under the sun, and the rest of the romance follows the protagonist’s struggle to keep things platonic.
While I can’t say I’m an avid romance novel reader, we’ve all encountered the roommates to lovers trope at some point in our lives. Sometimes, through personal experience. It’s an enthralling plot device: the forced proximity, the late-night chats, and the chance to see the side the public eye never sees.
Above all things, the trope makes relationship building convenient. Both parties don’t have to go out of their way to see each other, the constant proximity allows for deeper, vulnerable conversations, the shared personal space creates opportunities for physical and emotional intimacy. It’s easy to get carried away. It’s easy to fall.
Yet sometimes, proximity kills romance. Unwashed dishes strewn about, lights left on, trash overflowing, tension on the rise—and not the romantic kind. This popular trope leaves out the reality of adjusting to another person’s living style, and all the messiness that comes with it. Seeing the side the public never sees can reveal the underbelly of a relationship—bringing out the good, the bad, and the ugly. You slowly begin to realize how your roommate’s lack of care for a shared living space translates to a lack of care for you and your wellbeing. The rose-tinted glasses wilt, the close proximity becomes a curse, you spend more time away than at home. There is something about that breach of personal space that can both inspire love and take it away.
Thus, this Valentine’s season, I propose a new, fun, date idea better than any movie outing or midnight walk downtown that you could dream of: living with your person of interest. Why struggle to think of romantic settings for first or second dates when you could turn your very home life into a rom-com, love triangle and all? As an homage to the riveting romance adventure of a lifetime with the roommate I and my second roommate loved before, I present you with a list of things to consider to revive your roommates to lovers fantasy.
- Taking down the fire alarm: This person wants to set your soul on fire. They love grand gestures, and can’t withhold their burning passion.
- Leaving the lights on: This person wants to show you that you’re the light of their life. They are bright, cheery, and want their environment as bright as your smile.
- Complaining about waking up early for home repair: This person stayed up all night thinking about you.
- Rejecting to clean a designated area of the household: This person knows how much you love a challenge. They take every opportunity to turn conversations into productive, thoughtful debate, and to cultivate your argumentative skills.
- Forgetting to follow the chore chart: This person is too busy buying you flowers and chocolates to bother sweeping the floor. They’d much rather sweep you off your feet!
- Compressing the garbage instead of taking it out: This person knows and respects your love of cleaning, and hates to think about how much plastic goes to waste. Save the turtles, as they say.
- Never washing the dishes: This person cares deeply about the environment, and refuses to waste valuable water on dishes of all things.
- Leaving food to rot in the fridge: This person is fascinated by the life and death cycles of organic matter, and wants you to partake in their philosophical interests.
- Can’t stand the smell of your food: They prefer the smell of your perfume.
- Letting their roommates carry groceries alone: This person cares deeply about your physical health, and wants you to get that necessary exercise.
- Turning off the heat: You’re already too hot for them.
So next time you and your roommate, or roommates, are on the verge of war, the picture of your perfect enemies to lovers life shattering before your eyes, refer back to this list and pick those pieces back up. Make a list of all those roomie habits you adore, read between the lines, and find the love for all the roommates you loved before.
