Oh god.
I’ve made a terrible mistake.
“I only moved here recently, if you’re wondering why you’ve never seen me around before,” he explains. “I live in 112, right over there.” He points to the ground floor of my building.
Fucking shit.We don’t just live in the same apartment complex—we’reneighbors.
“I’m not a creep, Leti, I promise you.”
“Oh.” It’s the only word that comes out of my mouth. I try again, but nothing comes. Finally, I have the good sense to say, “I…believe you. I may have overreacted.”
His mouth quirks up at the corners a smidge, as if he’s trying to hold back a grin. When he raises a hand to cover his mouth, it’s to stifle a laugh. I just wrongly accused the man of stalking, and now he’slaughingat me. I should be relieved he’s not angry—he’d be well within his rights to be—but instead, I’m mortified.
“Be on your way, good sir.” I wave a hand as if I can wave away this entire conversation from existence. If only it were that easy. As it is, I have no idea how I’ll live this night down.Accidentally dates a guy twice and then accuses him of stalking. Nice going, Leti.
“Good night, Leti.” His voice is a rumble of held-back laughter. It’s inconvenient how attractive that sound is to me. As are the shivers that run through my body at the sound of it.
“Night.” My voice is a high-pitched chirp I don’t recognize. I’ve already turned my back on him, rushing up the stairs as fast as my legs will carry me. By the time I reach my door, I’m nothing more than a ball of burning shame. And to make matters worse, this isn’t a memory I’ll be able to safely repress knowing I’ll never see him again.
With my luck, this is far from the last time we’ll see each other.
My best friend has a good, long laugh at my ordeal.
“Wow,” Bella exclaims. “This is going straight to the top of worst dates you’ve ever been on. Maybe even in history.”
“Thanks a lot, that gives me so much comfort.” My voice comes out muffled, as my face is currently buried in a throw pillow. She has the nerve to laugh harder, and I burst up from the cushion withrenewed anger. “I can’t believe this is happening! What if I run into him again? It’s bound to happen. He lives—” And then the worst part of this whole ordeal finally hits me.
No…it’s not possible.
He said he recently moved in. I haven’t met my brother’s roommate and the only thing I know about him is that they met two years ago. I’m just disengaged enough with my brother’s life that it’s entirely possible I could have missed something big.
“I have to check something.” Bella gives me a curious look as I grab my phone off the coffee table. Julian said he lives in 112. That’s right downstairs from me…where my brother lives.No.I’m about to shake my head, thinking my luck can’t possibly be that bad. I scroll through my past messages with Andrew. The last time I visited, his door was already open. He texted his room number a couple weeks ago when I was supposed to help him move in. Then I find it. Confirmation of my newest fear realized.
“Oh my god.” I put a hand over my mouth, horrified. Bella immediately stops laughing when she sees the look on my face.
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“He’s Andrew’s roommate.”
“Wait,what?” She squints. “How do you know?”
“When I yelled at him about stalking me, he told me his apartment number,” I say quickly. “He’s in 112.”
“Guess your luck is twice as terrible,” she says through another bout of giggles. “You think he knows who you are?”
“There’s no way. I didn’t mention having a brother anyway.” A sigh of relief deflates my shoulders as I recall the split-second decision I made to omit mentioning a younger brother. “Weirdly, it makes sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“He went on and on about people getting married and having kids too young. Heliterallycompared it to throwing your life away.”
“Oh, that man would so not get away without a slap to the face if it were me on that date.” She sucks in a breath, shaking her head as she stares at her bedroom door where Mari is inside, asleep. Most roommates would hate living with someone with a kid, but I love Bella’s daughter like she’s my own.
“Yeah, my palms were itching to on more than once occasion, believe me,” I say. “But Andrew said something eerily similar the last time I saw him: ‘I’m gonna need four or five more years before I end my life before it starts.’”
Bella scoffs and shakes her head at my dead-on impression.
“I sure hope Kayla knows what she’s in for,” I say.
