I look hot, and also a little silly, which seems appropriate for a Christmas costume party with your neighbors. I wish I had red pants to complete the look, but that might be taking it too far. And with jeans, I can hold my phone, keys, and lipstick in the pockets, although just barely.
I snap a picture and text it to April. Her reply pops up immediately.
Genius!!!
Smiling, I slip my feet into low-heeled, black ankle boots and grab the narrow gift bag with a bottle of wine I picked up earlier. I leave, lock the door behind me, and climb the two flights of stairs to the fifth floor.
The door to 5B is open and live piano music floats out. Someone is playing “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”
Taking a deep breath, I step over the threshold.
And immediately spot Theo.
Chapter Four
Everything inside me squeezes when I look at Theo. He’s standing across the room, chatting with Mr. Kim from 4D—or, at least, I think it’s Mr. Kim beneath the fake white Santa beard.
Theo’s wearing a red-and-black-plaid flannel with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, showing off his tattoos and strong forearms. There’s a generic Santa hat on his head, the white trim stark against his black hair, and he has an honest-to-God tool belt filled withreal toolsslung around his hips.
He’s so fucking hot I want to scream.
Then he turns, and I can tell the exact moment when he sees me.
I wouldn’t say his expression is thunderstruck. That implies an almost comical level of shock and surprise. But everything about him stills, and his face goes blank, save for a burning intensity in his eyes. His lips part slightly as his jaw goes slack. After a long moment, he blinks, as if coming back to himself.
I imagine drawing him this way, then try to picture the kind of scenario where such a facial expression would be appropriate.
It’s the moment when the girl in the teen rom-com abandons her glasses and ponytail and descends the stairsin all her prom-ready glory. It’s the moment when her high school crush finally sees her for the beautiful twenty-six-year-old actress that she is.
I drew Starsong’s face like this the first time she met the woman who became her love interest.
I’m not a teen movie heroine or an actress or a superhero, but Ihavemanaged to strike my crush speechless, and it fills me with an immeasurable sense of power and triumph.
It’s such an improvement over how I’ve been feeling lately, it doesn’t take much effort to gather my courage to walk toward him.
I manage two steps before a Sam Elliott look-alike intercepts me.
“Hi there,” the man says. “I’m Nate Barnes.”
Mr. Barnes is an older white man with a full head of gray hair, a thick white mustache, and sweet eyes. He wears a sharp red suit, perfectly tailored to his lean frame. I shake his hand and pass him the wine.
“Hi, Mr. Barnes. I’m Evie. Thank you for inviting me.”
“Of course. You’re the new girl in 3A, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Nice to meet you. Loretta has only the kindest things to say about you.”
I smile. Loretta is Mrs. Greene. “I think she’s pretty great too.”
“I can already tell you’re a vast improvement over the man who lived there before you,” Mr. Barnes continues. “Absolutely horrid. Never came to a single one of my parties. Shame what happened to him, though.”
“Oh, no. Did he pass away?” I infuse my voice with an appropriate amount of horror and sympathy, but I mostly want to know whether he died in my apartment.
“Nothing like that. He moved to Florida.” Mr. Barnes shudders. “A worse fate I cannot imagine. And I say this as someone who was born in Jacksonville. Now, have you met young Theo here?”
He gestures, and before I have time to collect myself, Theo is at my side, so close and so handsome that I struggle to catch my breath.
