To give a little background information, I met Theo the day I moved in. It was ninety-five degrees, and the movers were two hours late. My mother had been badgering me all morning, as if the delay were somehowmyfault, and the heat certainly hadn’t helped me keep a cool head.
I was watching two guys maneuver my overstuffed cream couch up the narrow staircase while trying very hard not to yellPivot!like Ross inFriends, when there was Theo, appearing out of the ether like the patron saint of five-story walk-ups. He immediately stepped in to help, barely even breaking a sweat. He joked with the movers, relating his own experiences carrying furniture up these tight quarters, and that was when I found out he lived right above me.
From that moment on, I’ve fantasized about showing up at his door for a cup of sugar,wink wink nudge nudge, while wearing tiny shorts and a see-through top with a lacy bra underneath. Never mind that I don’t own a lacy bra; for the purposes of this daydream, I’ve magically found one in the back of my underwear drawer.
Instead, I was wearing my Oscar the Grouch T-shirt, which is so symbolic of how I look like trash whenever I see him, I can’t even take it.
My grandmother used to style her hair and wear lipstick every day, no matter what,Because you never know who you’ll run into.If I told her about this, I know exactly what she’d say.
You see? ¡Te lo dije!
I’d give anything to hear her sayI told you soone more time.
But let’s return to the flashback at hand.
“You have a new bulb?” Theo had asked, and I’d quickly handed him the one that was sitting on the counter.
With deft movements, he swapped out the old incandescent bulb for an LED, and my attention was once again drawn to his butt as he descended the stepladder, folded it, and put it away.
I cleared my throat. “Thank you. Um, for changing the light bulb.”
“My pleasure,” he said. “I’m always happy to help, Evie.”
Then he glanced at my Christmas tree and smiled.
The tree stirs up another blush-inducing memory. I’d been coming home with groceries a few days earlier when I felt the urge to impulse-buy a Christmas tree from the vendor on Lexington. Even though it was a small tree, carrying it home was a lot more unwieldy than I’d expected, especially with a week’s worth of fridge staples weighing me down. Theo found me struggling to drag it upstairs by the trunk, and much as he had with the sofa, he swooped in to save the day. Before I knew it, Theo had the tree slung over one broad shoulder and the handles of all my reusable grocery bags looped in one big hand.
Days later, my tree was still as devoid of ornamentation as when he’d carried it upstairs for me. And even though he didn’t ask or offer up any sort of judgment, my mouth ran away from me in a rambling explanation.
“I’ve got a big deadline coming up for this comic I’m working on. It’s the last issue of this arc—sort of a big deal, possibly setting up for a crossover event, although that’s kind of a secret, so pretend I didn’t say anything—and I was the replacement artist because the previous one had, like, a family emergency or something and the publisher knows I can draw pretty fast.” Why was I telling him all this? Who fucking knows! But once I’d started, I couldn’t stop until I’d reached some kind of point. “Anyway, all my Christmas decorations are still in storage, because they—” I barely managed to cut myself off. It was bad enough that he was always helping me cart things up the stairs; he didn’t need to carry my emotional baggage too. “Um, I haven’t had time to go get them. Or do anything else, like wash dishes or do my laundry, clearly. And it feels silly to buy new ornaments when Idoown some. Somewhere. So yeah, I haven’t decorated the tree yet.”
And with that, I’dfinallyshut my mouth.
Theo was quiet for a moment before he nodded. “Well, I’ll let you get back to work. Sorry for interrupting.”
“Don’t apologize!” If I wished hard enough, maybe a portal would open and flingmeinto the far reaches of space, as had happened to Starsong. “Thanks for making sure there wasn’t any water damage.”
He sent me a crooked grin. “Just being a good neighbor.” And then he was gone, leaving me with the lingering scent of cedar and mint.
The second the door closed behind him, I tore into the bathroom, slapped on the light, and bit back a screech when Isaw my reflection. How could I let him see me like that? Why hadn’t I just asked him to come back later?
Because my crush-addled and sex-starved brain short-circuited whenever I encountered this gorgeous redwood of a man.
And now here we are, face-to-face at the top of the stairs, and unfortunately, I’m not doing much better. I’m clean, at least, but that’s about all I have going for me. I step back, hoping he doesn’t notice the dark, puffy circles under my eyes from weeks of all-nighters, and he finally releases his hold on my elbow and waist.
More’s the pity.
“On your way out?” He stuffs those big, warm hands into the pockets of his hoodie. I could feel the heat of them even through my coat, and I’m trying not to fixate on how they’d feel against my bare skin.
Warm hands on a cold night ... Heaven.
I clear my throat and scramble to answer. “Mm-hmm. Picking up takeout.”
His brows quirk with interest. “From where?”
“Yummy Thai, around the corner.”
“Oh, they have a great—”
