Chapter 2
Jenna
Present Day
“Did you see that we have new neighbors?” Misha asks as she hangs her keys on the hook next to the door.
“No, I didn’t notice earlier,” I reply. “Are they moving in now?”
“Yeah. Two guys I just briefly said hi to as they were carrying boxes inside.” She sits across the couch from me and waggles her eyebrows. “They’re cute.”
“Oh?”
Misha nods. “They look about our age. We should be good neighbors and offer them a beer or something.”
I chuckle. “That’s very neighborly of you.”
“They’re cute! Trust me.”
“You want to walk over there in the middle of them moving in and offer them beers?”
“Well, maybe a little later. Let them get settled first,” she says. “But trust me. We should introduce ourselves!”
I laugh at Misha. We’ve been friends for six years now, ever since fate had us become roommates our freshman year of college. She has always been the one to notice cute guys first and introduce herself. She’s a hopeless romantic, always thinking the next guy she meets could be the one.
Not necessarily the one she’ll marry, but maybe have a little fun with.
“How was work today?” I ask, changing the subject.
“Not bad,” she replies. Misha is the manager of a clothing store at the mall. She started working there in college and worked her way up in the company after she earned her business management degree. “I’m glad it’s Saturday, and I have the next two days off. How was your day?”
“Pretty good. I did laundry and binged Gilmore Girls.”
“Sounds like a good day,” she says before we’re interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Are you expecting someone?” Misha stands.
“No.” I shrug.
She walks to the door and looks through the peephole, then her head whips toward me, her eyes wide. “It’s our new neighbors,” she whispers. “The hot ones!”
I laugh. “Oh, they went from cute to hot pretty quickly.”
She rolls her eyes at me, then runs her fingers through her hair. “You’ll see what I mean in a second. How do I look?”
“Gorgeous,” I say with a smile and a wink.
Misha turns toward the door and opens it. “Hi,” she says.
“Hi,” a deep, sexy voice says. I can’t see them, but that voice gets my attention. “We just moved in next door and wanted to come over to introduce ourselves.”
“Oh! Come on in.” Misha opens the door wider to let them in.
I sit up straight, anticipation washing over me. Will they really be as good-looking as Misha made them out to be?
As they walk into our small apartment living room, I immediately see that she was right. Both guys are not only attractive, but their taut T-shirts also show off their well-built bodies.
I stand and give them a little wave. “Hi. I’m Jenna.”
“Hi,” they both say.
“And I’m Misha,” she says after closing the front door.
“I’m Joe,” the one with darker hair says.
“I’m Isaac,” the one with shorter, light brown hair says.
They’re both cute, but something about Isaac makes it impossible for me to look away from him. He seems familiar for some reason. I’ve met him before.
“You look familiar,” he says to me. “Have we met somewhere before?”
“Um…” I’m shocked. If he thinks I look familiar, too, then we must have met somewhere. “I don’t know, but I was thinking the same thing.”
Misha laughs. “That’s crazy. Did you guys go to CRU?”
“We did,” Isaac replies, his lips curling up. Of course, his smile only makes him more attractive, and my stomach flips. “Maybe we had classes together or something. What did you study?”
“Elementary education,” I reply, although I don’t think I recognize him from any classes.
Isaac chuckles. “Definitely not then, unless we had classes together freshman or sophomore year.”
“Oh, what did you study?” Misha asks him.
He drags his eyes away from mine to look at her. “Computer science.”
As the three of them continue to chat about their majors and what they do for a living now, I can’t stop racking my brain for how I know Isaac. Columbia River University isn’t a small school by any means, but maybe we crossed paths at some point.
I’m only half listening to their conversation when all three of them turn their attention to me. “Hmm?” I say, realizing I have no idea what any of them just said, and now they’re all staring at me, waiting for me to reply to something.
They all chuckle, and Isaac bites his bottom lip, an innocent gesture that exudes sex.
And that’s when I realize where I’ve met him before.
My stomach drops, and I suck in a breath.
My one-night stand.
My only one-night stand. That night two years ago was the craziest thing I’d ever done. Hooking up with a stranger I met at a fraternity party, having incredible sex with him, then never seeing him again.
Until now.
“Where do you teach?” Isaac asks, seemingly repeating the question I didn’t catch before.
“Oh,” I reply, trying to regain my composure without giving away the shock I’m feeling. “I teach third grade at Hazel Elementary.”
“That’s awesome,” Joe replies.
As I look at Isaac again, something changes in his eyes, as if he’s realizing where he knows me from. Joe and Misha continue talking about something, but Isaac and I are having a silent conversation—and he seems just as stunned as I do at the realization that we do, in fact, know each other.
I’ve thought about that night countless times since it happened, wondering what ever happened to that guy I had sex with.
Who was he? Would I ever see him again? After so much time had gone by, thoughts of ever running into him again became a distant fantasy.
But here he is, standing in my living room.
Isaac. His name is Isaac.
My new neighbor next door.
Isaac clears his throat and turns to Joe. “Did you, um, want to go get dinner now?”
Joe nods. “Yeah. We should. I’m starving after moving everything.” He looks at Misha and me. “Would you two like to join us?”
I’m frozen, my mind reeling. I don’t know what to think or say right now, and it’s taking all my energy to act normal.
“That’d be fun,” Misha says. “Do you want to go, Jenna?”
I look at her, still not sure what to say.
“Yeah, it’d be fun to have you join us,” Isaac says, pulling my attention back to him.
He smiles, and my stomach muscles twinge.
Does he actually remember me, or was I mistaking his subtle reaction before? Was it all in my head?
“Y-yeah, let’s go,” I reply.
“We can walk to Margarita Factory,” Misha suggests. “It’s our go-to restaurant, and luckily, it’s within walking distance.”
“Sounds good,” Joe replies. “We’ll meet you outside in, say, ten minutes?”
“Perfect!” Misha opens the door, and we say bye to them. As soon as she closes the door behind them, she turns to me with a what the fuck look on her face. “What’s going on with you? You were acting a little strange.”
“That guy, Isaac—”
“He’s hot, isn’t he?” Misha smiles widely as she interrupts me. “I mean, Joe is, too. If you want Isaac, I’d be happy to—”
“He was my one-night stand!”
Misha’s eyes widen, and her hand flies to her mouth. “He was?”
I nod. “I’m positive. I recognized him, but I couldn’t place where I knew him from at first. Then it dawned on me, and I think he recognized me eventually, too.”
She shakes her head. “Your one and only one-night stand just moved in next door. What are the chances? Unbelievable.”
“You’re telling me! And now we’re going out to dinner…” Reality begins to set in, and I can’t believe this is happening. “How am I supposed to act normal around him? He’s done things to my body… I’ve done things to his… This is weird, Mish!”
She shakes her head, then takes my hands in hers. “Everything will be fine. That was two years ago. You’re going to have to figure out a way to be friendly around him now that he’s living next door. And it was their idea to invite us, anyway.”
I nod and take a deep breath. She’s right. She’s always right. “Okay. Okay, I can do this.”
“Yes, you can.”
“Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever run into a one-night stand again?”
She laughs. “Well, yeah, a couple of times back in college. Not like this, more like seeing them in passing on campus. But it was definitely kind of weird.”
I roll my eyes. Of course, she’s never had a situation like this happen before. What are the chances this would happen to anyone but me?
Misha and I quickly freshen up, then grab our things and head outside to meet the guys.
Here goes nothing.