In May, my brother completed his general surgery residency in Tucson and had moved back to Denver for a job at Saint Joseph Hospital. All of his hard work—and thirteenyearsof school—had definitely paid off for him. He was living out his dream of following in our father’s footsteps, and my parents were beyond proud of him and his solid work ethic.
Not that I didn’t have a good one myself, but I would never in a million years have committed to that much school or student loan debt. I knew my father helped Adam with his tuition, but my brother had been responsible for most of it on his own.
I’d chosen a more creative route for my own career and graduated CU Denver with a degree in marketing and graphic design. I worked for a marketing agency downtown for two years after college before deciding to work as a freelancer for small businesses earlier in the year.
I was making decent money on my own, but it was the flexible schedule that I absolutely loved. At the agency, I’d hated sitting in an office all day. I wanted to work from coffee shops, libraries, or even from a restaurant patio when the weather was nice. I wanted to plan days off for long hikes in the mountains. I wanted to have extended vacation time during the holidays to be with my family. Agency life wasn’t really conducive to those desires, so I worked my ass off to build my own brand and after landing a few steady clients, I quit the agency.
Even though I certainly felt confident in my own successes, I knew Adam would have never chosen a path like mine. He was a straight shooter with a twenty-five-year plan. He worked hard, always pushing the bar higher and higher for himself. It was admirable, really, but I still wouldn’t trade lives with him.
I parked my car in an open spot close to the front doors and turned off the ignition. Glancing at the time on my phone, I saw that it was just after eight in the morning. I didn’t even know if Adam would be home, but he worked nights so chances were that if he wasn’t home now, he would be soon.
I decided to leave most of my stuff in the car and only grabbed my black leather tote bag. Aside from using it as a purse, it also held my laptop and charger, which pretty much went everywhere with me.
Locking the car, I walked through the parking lot toward the front door of the building. Charlie saw me approaching through the glass doors and gave me a bright smile as he opened one for me. “Good morning, Miss Campbell.” His blue eyes twinkled in the morning sun, and he smelled like aftershave.
“Good morning, Charlie. How are you?”
“Very good, dear. How about yourself?”
“You know, Charlie, I’ve been better.” I sighed.
His face turned to concern. “Is everything alright?”
“It will be. I caught my boyfriend—ex-boyfriendI should say, cheating on me last night.” I hadn’t told anyone about Noah yet, and it felt so weird to say the words out loud. Ex-boyfriend. I’d been cheated on. I was . . .single.
Charlie gasped as he shook his head. “Who on Earth would have the nerve to act so foolishly, especially with a girl like you?”
I shrugged and gave him a weak smile. “Yeah, he’s an asshole. I’ll be okay, though. Do you know if my brother’s home?”
“I haven’t seen Mr. Campbell leave today,” he said as his eyes flitted up toward the ceiling, as if he could see all the way up to the sixth floor.
“Thanks,” I said as I moved past him into the lobby. “I’ll head up.”
“I hope you have a better day, dear!” Charlie called after me.
“It can only go up from here,” I called back, my smile strengthening.
I turned toward the elevators at the far end of the lobby and pressed the button.
As I waited for the car, I took a quick peek at my work email on my cell phone. A couple new messages were listed at the top of my inbox from a new client that I’d signed earlier this week, but the elevator chimed before I could read them. When the doors opened, I stepped in and hit the button for the sixth floor on the selection panel.
Even the inside of the elevator was fancy. A small flatscreen TV was built into the metal wall, providing building residents with ample entertainment during their twenty second elevator ride.
When the doors opened again on Adam’s floor, I tore my eyes away from the news story that was splayed on the TV screen and came face-to-face with a beautiful woman who was waiting in the hall. She was dressed in gorgeous, pleated business slacks and a silk white shirt underneath a dark blazer. She eyed me up and down before her lips flattened into a thin line of disdain as we made eye contact.
“Good morning,” I said, smiling pleasantly.
She dipped her head in a curt acknowledgment, treating me to no further response, as if we were in high school and I was just some random nerd trying to make conversation with the most popular girl.Rude bitch, I thought to myself.
Dropping my smile, I moved out of the elevator and into the hall past her. As I walked toward my brother’s apartment, I could hear her heels echo on the floor as she stepped inside of the elevator, but I waited until I heard the doors close before I allowed myself to look down at my own outfit.
I was wearing an oversized white T-shirt that I’d gotten as a souvenir in Cabo during my college graduation trip, faded pink sweatpants and my faithful Birkenstocks. Okay, so maybe I didn’t exactly look like I belonged in this building.
Continuing my trek down the hall, I reached Adam’s door and gave it a quick knock. He wasn’t expecting me since I’d decided to just wait to tell him about Noah once I got here. I knew if I’d called him while I was still at the house, Adam would have raced over there to kick Noah’s ass. He’d always been a protective older brother and I had full expectations that he was going to be furious when he found out about everything that had gone down.
Hopefully he didn’t mind me staying here for a little while. At least until I could figure out what I was going to do next.
I heard shuffling on the other side of the door before it opened. Adam peeked his head out and saw me before opening the door wider, a worried expression lacing the lines on his face. “Amelia? Is everything okay?”
