Neighbors (Twin Estates #1)
Stylo Fantome
DEDICATION
To dreamers and weekend getaways and sunny shorelines and not giving a fuck.
Neighbors
A Twin Estates Novel
1
Describe Your Perfect Date.
“I mean, c'mon,” Katya grumbled, blowing a hank of hair out of her face. “What kind of question is that?”
“It's just to get an idea of the type of girl you are,” her roommate, Tori, tried to explain.
“If I had an idea of what the perfect date was, I wouldn't be making a profile for an online dating site.”
“Shut up and just say something generic, like long walks on the beach … or hand jobs in the backs of theatres.”
Katya burst out laughing and went with the long walks on the beach suggestion.
Online dating wasn't really her thing, but she was finally willing to admit that whatever her thing was, it wasn't working. She was twenty-three and had a good career, great friends, and a nice life. But zero love life to speak of – her boyfriend had dumped her eight months ago, and she'd barely spoken to another man since then.
She knew she was somewhat … vanilla. She'd grown up in the suburbs, with a normal family, and a normal life. Katya didn't mind boring. Boring was … secure.
Boring paid the rent.
Yeah, but boring doesn't get you laid.
And somewhere, deep in the darkest corners of her mind, she'd begun to admit to herself that boring simply wasn't good enough anymore. She wanted something different for herself, though she wasn't quite what she was looking for – someone who would let her escape her life a little bit. Someone who could open her eyes to new experiences. Someone who could make her feel comfortable in her own skin, and comfortable with stepping outside of it sometimes.
She might have been vanilla a good deal of the time, but there were other times when she wanted to be rainbow sherbet. With sprinkles on top, dammit.
“Okay, there, done,” Katya closed her laptop. “I am officially one of the sad and lonely many on the interwebs, desperately looking for love.”
“It's not so bad, Kat. Remember Jenna from high school? She met her husband online. So did Thad, the guy from downstairs – he met his boyfriend on some app. It'll be fine,” Tori assured her.
“I don't even think it's necessary. I have my work, my clients – I'm satisfied,” Katya tried to convince herself while she collected her belongings.
“Satisfied is lame. You want to be blown away. Knocked off your feet. Overwhelmed,” her roommate insisted.
“Just watch. Nothing will come of it. That profile will sit untouched. I'll probably forget I even have it. Byeeeee,” Katya sang as she waltzed out the door.
Tori sat there for a couple minutes, staring at the table top. Her bestie was a great girl, she just needed to live a little. Her idea of a good time was having a second Cosmo after dessert. She'd led a somewhat sheltered life, then had kept herself sheltered ever since high school.
She needs this, I'm helping her.
With that thought, Tori opened the laptop and was pleased to see when the screen came back on, Katya was still logged into the dating website. Smiling big the whole time, Tori decided “updating” the profile wouldn't hurt anything.
*
Holy shit. Is that …
Liam Edenhoff stared at his phone's screen. The happy face of a woman looked back at him. She had a big smile with great teeth, surrounded by full lips. Apple cheeks perfectly showed off a pair of soft blue eyes. She had dark hair, but the photo wasn't doing it justice – it was a deep auburn, he knew, and would shine like garnet when the sun hit it just right.
My frickin' adorable neighbor is on the Eros dating site.
He lived in the building next door to her and had noticed her, of course, because she was hot. But she dressed like a librarian and acted like a Sunday school teacher, so he'd ignored her for the most part.
Looking at her profile now, on a dating site he lurked about sometimes, he was shocked to read her bio. She'd listed her job as professional baker, which didn't exactly surprise him, but under hobbies “strip-aerobics and pole dancing classes” did throw him for a loop. Favorite past times? “Indulging in my kinky side” – before that day, he would've guessed she wouldn't have even known what that word meant.
“EDEN!”
The voice in Liam's ear was so loud, he gave a shout and launched his phone across the room.
“Christ, don't ever sneak up on me like that, Ricky!” he gasped for air, pressing a hand to his chest. “I nearly had a fucking heart attack.”
“Oh please. If I thought scaring you could kill you, I would've tried it a long time ago. You're fine, Eden.”
“Eden”, so nicknamed because of his last name, as well as the irony when juxtaposed with what he did for a living.
“Har dee har har,” Liam grumbled as he grabbed his phone off the ground. His business partner leaned over his shoulder.
“Online dating? Sad,” he made a tsk tsk sound with his tongue.
“Eh. Can't be any worse than the dates I've made in real life, I figure. Besides – see this chick? I know her. Kinda. She lives next door to me. This site cuts out the middle man,” Liam explained, holding up his phone so the other man could see Katya.
“Ah. She's gorgeous. Looks like a good time,” his partner's voice was low as he spoke, almost distracted sounding, but Liam didn't notice. He kept staring at his screen.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Yeah, I think she might be ...”
2
Katya was glaring down at her cell as she walked across the lobby of her building. Her phone was blowing up with notifications from that stupid dating site. She hadn't opened any of the messages, but there were some pretty interesting subject headings scrolling across her screen.
“Why would you do this, Tori!?” she mumbled to herself as she looked over her dating profile. Or really, her new dating profile – almost everything she'd typed was now gone, replaced by a bunch of sexy garbage.
She wasn't looking where she was going, so even the sound of someone shouting wasn't able to stop her in time before she practically ran a man over. Lucky for him, he was a lot bigger than her. She ricocheted off his chest and only his reflexes saved her from falling flat on her butt. His hands grabbed her upper arms, keeping her upright, while her phone and purse fell to the ground.
“Sorry!” she blurted out automatically. “So sorry, I wasn't looking.”
“That's alright, cause I was looking for you.”
Creepy statement to hear, that was for sure. She stared up at the man, trying to place him. Did she know him from work? The building? He seemed vaguely familiar. Oh god, had she forgotten a client's face? That wasn't good. Then again, neither was a client showing up at her place of residence. Oh god, was he a stalker!?