Page 134 of His Virgin Romance Series

JARED

SIX MONTHS LATER

“Here you go,” Rachel said, passing Marta the invitation that she’d stashed away in her bag.

Marta accepted the invitation curiously, and then her eyes lit up. “Wait, don’t tell me this is an invitation to your wedding?” she asked, looking between the two of us.

“Whoa, calm down,” Rachel said immediately before I could say a word. “It’s not… Jared and I aren’t engaged. It’s not what you think.”

Marta frowned and opened up the small ivory card. “Housewarming,” she read.

“Technically, it’s an apartment warming,” I said.

Rachel nodded. “But it’s a really beautiful apartment. It’s got this large open plan kitchen, modern architecture, and three bedrooms. Which is two more rooms than we actually need, but we got such an amazing deal on it that we couldn’t let it pass.”

“You’ve been looking for a new apartment for a while, though,” Marta pointed out.

“We wouldn’t have found something quite this nice if it weren’t for my amazing boyfriend and his heroism,” Rachel said, looking at me with obvious pride in her eyes.

“Do tell,” Marta said. “Sounds like quite the story.”

“Come on, Rachel,” I said, shaking my head at her. “Must we tell every single person we meet this story?”

She laughed. “Yes, we must. Just another day on the job for Jared,” I said. “Long story short, the landlord of this particular apartment complex was one of the two people that Jared pulled out of a burning wreck two months ago. The second person was his teenage daughter…and he was so grateful that when he became aware that Jared and I were looking for a new apartment, he offered to let us buy outright at a steal of a price.”

“Buy outright?” Marta said, in amazement.

“We still had to take out a loan from the bank,” I said. “But between our two salaries, we should be able to pay it back in five years.”

“Wow… lucky you.” Marta nodded. “Who knew saving lives could be so rewarding?”

Rachel and I laughed. Marta had become a quick favorite with me. She may have been decade older than Rachel and me, but she still had a youthful spirit that made her easy to talk to and fun to hang out with. Rachel met her for lunch or dinner once every month outside of work, and whenever I could, I joined them.

“Have you already moved?” Marta asked.

“We just started the process,” Rachel told her. “We’ve decided to take only the things that have sentimental value attached, there are some things we’ve been able to sell, and everything else is going to be donated.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Marta said. “By the way, nice invitations.”

“Rachel did them herself,” I said.

“Really?” Marta asked, looking towards Rachel.

“I was up all night making them.” She nodded, slightly shy as she spoke about her obvious talents. “I used to like working with my hands and doing creative projects in high school… after that though I guess I never really had time.”

“And you have time now?” Marta asked pointedly.

Rachel laughed. “Things have been a little hectic lately, what with moving and studying and working.”

“How is the studying going, by the way?” Marta asked.

“She’s doing amazing,” I said proudly. “She’s a regular Einstein.”

Rachel smiled. “He’s exaggerating, obviously. I’m nowhere close. But I did make a pretty big decision.”

“Which is?”

“Well, taking these courses through the company, reminded me how much I loved learning new things,” Rachel explained. “And, I realized that I really do want my degree. So I’m transferring my credits, and if I work hard, I should be able to graduate in under two years.”

---