Page 9 of The New Guy
I am, though. I’m just staring up at this attractive man and watching my night go up in flames. “So we’re neighbors?”
“Across the hall,” he barks. “Fuck.”
“Is that so bad?” I have to ask. I’m still clinging to the possibility that my new neighbor doesn’t care that much about our unlucky proximity. “I mean, think of the commute.”
But it’s no good. I can tell by the way his shoulders tense up. And by the way he looks up at the sky and yells “FUCK,” and not in a fun way.
“No need to get ragey,” I mumble. “I guess I’ll just be going.”
He lets out a sigh that carries the weight of total disappointment. I guess I should be flattered. “Look, I’m sorry. But I don’t do pickups. Ever. For so many reasons. But we’re gonna have to forget this happened.”
“Yeah, I picked up on that,” I grumble.
“Okay. Sorry.” He grimaces and looks away. “Fuck,” he says one more time.
And then he abruptly walks off, heading back the way we came. Away from his own home, and away from me.
Stunned at the turn of events, all I can do is watch his muscular ass power walk away from me, up the sidewalk.
* * *
“Okay,” Reggie whispers. “Why do you look so flustered?”
We’re seated side by side on my sofa, and Jordyn is finally in bed. She was almost too hyper to sleep. I guess moving to a new city can do that to a girl.
“Well…” I glance at her bedroom door. It’s closed. “I almost did it. I met a guy in a bar. Agreatguy. And I was three quarters of the way to a hookup.”
Her eyes light up. “Omigod, really? What do you mean almost?”
“He bailed,” I whisper. “It turns out that he lives in this building. On thisfloor.”
My sister’s mouth flops open so far that I can see her tongue piercing. “Get out of here. Really? There’s only one other apartment on this floor.”
I nod violently. “When we both realized it, he freaked. I mean—hooking up with your neighbor is not super cool, right? Because you have to see each other every time you take out the recycling.” I scrub my hands through my hair. “But his reaction was a little oversized.”
“Oh shit,” she whispers.
“Yeah,” I breathe. “Maybe he’s involved with someone. I really doubt it though. He must be, like, super deep in the closet?”
Reggie shakes her head. “I have another theory. That broker you rented from? She wrote something in her note with the keys. Hang on…” My sister pops off the couch and crosses to our messy dining table. We’re at that ugly stage of unpacking where everything is chaos. “Oh, here.” She plucks a sheet of paper out of the mess and returns it to me.
Gavin, welcome to the neighborhood.The Henry Street building houses several Brooklyn Hockey associates already. I’m sure you’ll get a warm welcome!
“Oh yeah.” When I’d been scouting apartments, the broker had told me that the power couple who owns the hockey teams also owns several neighborhood buildings. They only rent them out to people who work for one of their organizations. If you’re on a budget, they’re the best deal in town.
Since I’m most certainly on a budget, I’d asked to see anything in those buildings first. That’s how we ended up here, in a three bedroom apartment that was priced the same as two bedrooms elsewhere.
“I guess it wasn’t as warm a welcome as you’d been hoping for,” Reggie says. And then she snort-laughs.
“Yeah, yeah. This could be bad.” Really bad. I have a prickly feeling at the back of my neck. Are Hudson and I going to work together? Is that the reason he was so horrified to learn that we’re neighbors?
Honestly, it would make me feel better. Hooking up with coworkers is a terrible idea. Maybe he’d figured this out before I did.
It’s better than my other theories—that he’s a cheater. Or that he’s ashamed of his attraction to men.
But now I have to know. I get up and grab my laptop off my bed. Back on the sofa, I open a Google window and search “Hudson Brooklyn Hockey,” since he never told me his last name.
The news article comes up immediately on a sports website, complete with a photo of the guy I was making out with an hour ago.Chicago trades defenseman Hudson Newgate to Brooklyn.
