Six weeks into living here and it wasn’t quite a home yet. The bed certainly didn’t feel like much. But I didn’t really care. It was a nice, spacious enough apartment, but it was a rental. I had plans to work at this agency for at least the next year, but beyond that, I didn’t know what was happening.
All I knew was that I wasn’t giving up on her.
“Alright… alright,” I groaned, stretching in bed when I processed that I’d woken up to the sound of “Barbie Girl” playing on my phone.
Fuckin’ Holland.
“I’m going to change this goddamned ringtone today, and you’re not going to guilt me about it,” I said when I picked up.
“Do whatever you want!” she huffed. “I’m just calling to ask if I left my umbrella outside your door yesterday.”
Umbrella? She had an umbrella with her yesterday?
Since I was only an hour drive from Manhattan, Holland and Iain had visited yesterday. They took a tour of my new office, and my new colleagues further wondered what the hell I was doing working at GL Sports in Stamford, Connecticut when I was best friends with Iain Thorn. The fact that I was coming from an agency like Engelman in Los Angeles only confused everyone more. But they were all good, nice-enough people, and both Holland and Iain understood why I’d chosen to be here.
My career was important, and I’d obviously chosen this path for a reason. But I had a good number of clients and ninety-five percent of them were going to stay with me no matter where I went. Beyond that, I already made enough money to take care of all the people I loved if they so needed, so I didn’t think twice about coming here.
Neither did my mom.
Gizzy’s was still alive and well in Santa Monica, but she’d gotten someone to replace her in the kitchen. As soon as I mentioned the idea of moving to the East Coast, she jumped right on board. “If both my sons are there, why would I stay here?” she’d asked with a laugh during our last breakfast at my corner table with the dogs at our feet.
Since
moving here, we still saw each other the same amount. And she got to see Cole even more.
“Yeah, I don’t know if your umbrella is outside my door, Holland,” I said, rubbing my face as I opened my eyes.
“Well, go check.”
“No. I just woke up and I’m not dressed.”
“Who cares? You’re at home.”
“Yeah. But you met my neighbor,” I said, making Holland snort.
“Oh yeah.”
I had two other neighbors on the top floor of this building. A married couple and a single woman. Both women seemed to open the door as soon as they heard me open mine. Neither was subtle about their interest, which more than amused my sister yesterday.
“Well, then put some pants on, Adam. I don’t know what to tell you,” she said.
“Alright, fine,” I grumbled, rolling out of bed and pulling on a pair of sweats as I made my way out of the bedroom, crossing the living room to get to the front door. When I opened it, I looked down and saw nothing. “No umbrella,” I said just as the elevator dinged on my floor.
Great, I thought, expecting one or both of my sexually aggressive neighbors.
But when the elevator opened, I just stood there for a second. And then I heard Holland laugh.
“Bye,” she said before hanging up and leaving me staring at the vision from my every fucking dream this month. Last month, too. However long it’d been since that night in Palm Beach.
“Hi,” AJ said, a crooked little smile wiggling onto her lips as she stepped out of the elevator looking like an angel in a white sundress so perfect on her body I forgot what the fuck blinking was. I was honestly afraid that if I blinked, she’d either disappear or I’d wake up from my dream.
“Hey,” I finally said, unable to tear my eyes off her, even as I heard the sound of one of my neighbors opening her door. AJ briefly turned to look, but I didn’t, and whichever neighbor it was, she got an eyeful of thick morning wood twitching under my sweats as I devoured AJ with my eyes.
There, I thought, figuring that would get the message across that I didn’t have any interest. A Cali girl in New York still owned every inch of my mind and that wasn’t going to change.
Ever.
“You gonna let me come in?” AJ teased as I brought my roving stare back up from her lips to those big, brown eyes I missed so much.