99 Wallace Avenue Apt 29a.
“We’re neighbors?” I ask already knowing the answer. He doesn’t just live in my neighborhood. We live in the same building only on different floors.
Oliver
Fate. It has to be.
My grandpa told me the story of how he met my nana at least a hundred times over. Little details had changed as the years flew by. Small things fading from his memory, but the big picture had never changed. He had known from the moment he saw her that they were meant to be until the end.
I always thought it was an embellishment but now I finally understand.
She had taken my breath away when she got into my car. Stunned me nearly speechless and now I’m sure she has my heart too.
I barely know anything about her past or her family. But I know the way she looks down when she’s embarrassed. The way that she likes chivalrous gestures even though she’s hellbent on proving her independence as a woman.
She is holding her own in a strange city and that takes courage. Gumption as my grandpa would say. I think he would have liked her.
I was raised just outside of the same city where I now live and work. College was local too. I thought of moving away at eighteen like everyone else. Finally an adult, I wanted to get as far away from my old man as I could.
An apartment the town over was the ticket. Until the commute became unbearable.
But Gabi moved over eight hundred miles away from everything she had ever known. And it landed her right next to me. A sign if ever I saw one.
She is ballsy and prim in her tight little skirt that grips her thighs and her heels that make her legs look fantastic. She’s a fireball packed into a tiny package, and I’d be a fool not to see her for the gift she is.
After we leave the restaurant, I don’t give her the opportunity to call a rideshare. This is a date and I have always been a gentleman. I picked her up and I’ll drive her home.
Not to mention do my damned best to steal a kiss.
And secure a second date.
When I ask for her address, I choke back a laugh. She’s lived in my building for months and I’ve never seen her once. I could’ve had this woman in my life since July. I could’ve let my niece drag her out trick or treating on Halloween and brought her to Thanksgiving dinner to meet my mom. Fate may have handed her to me, but it sure had a long laugh first.
Gabriella
“What are the odds?” I murmur as I stare at the address printed right next to his picture.
He looks good even on his license and it’s not fair. Mine was taken on a rainy day and despite my best efforts my picture is sporting a frizzy halo. His hair is styled to perfection and his polite but bored smile still outshines the grin on mine. Rude.
“So low it’s ridiculous.” Oliver replies with a grin, “Also I don’t do math off the clock.”
Looking at him as he pulls into the parking garage, I can’t help but giggle. The little giggle turns into a full laugh and then I’m bent over wheezing. I can feel his eyes on me, and I just know he thinks I’m crazy now.
Finally, when I am able breathe, I turn back to him and find him looking at me with a warm smile.
“I know my joke wasn’t that funny.” He says.
“No. It’s just ridiculous that I moved away from a small town where I probably would’ve dated the boy next door. And yet here I am in a city with over six million people and the first guy I go on a date with is my neighbor.” I tell him.
His smile widens back into that grin. His teeth are straight and white but one of his canines overlaps its neighboring incisor. It makes him look more like a country boy than the CFO of a major company.
“You can take the girl from the small town but not the small town from the girl.” He says with a chuckle.
As I grab the handle he reaches over and swats my thigh.
“Wait.” He orders as he climbs out of the SUV and walks over to my side to open my door.
A shiver goes down my spine and I squeeze my thighs together.
