Emilia
“Ugh!”
If Emi could fling her laptop across the room, she would. But she couldn’t. She knew her options, but she didn’t like any of them.
She could go down to the building’s Internet cafe and use one of the computers there to type the damn paper due in just three days, but then she’d still have to deal with this stupid laptop. One of her favorite things about her one day of online courses a week was that she got to stay in her pj’s all day and not leave her apartment like with her all her other classes. If she was going to have to rely on the Internet cafe for her computer access, it defeated the whole purpose, and she’d have to get showered and dressed just to do homework.
Her second option was she could text her new friend, neighbor, and tech genius to see if maybe he could figure out what was wrong with the damn thing. She’d planned on texting him eventually to say hello, but she hadn’t planned on contacting him this soon after their unexpected weekend together. It had only been a week since they’d gotten back. She didn’t want him thinking she was making excuses to text him or hang out with him.
There was no doubt the man had it going on. She didn’t know a whole lot about him, but she knew all she needed to know. He was single, well off if he lived in this building, and a near genius from what Sarah had mentioned, not just at the party in front of him, but after he’d left for his hotel the night of the repast. Not just when it came to technology either. Sarah had gushed about his musical talent. Apparently, he played the saxophone and had once upon a time played in a symphony orchestra.
From the looks of him, the man likely had many a woman making excuses to see him—be around him. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was one of them.
That left her with her only other option, one she really didn’t want to do: call one of her brothers, who’d likely offer to buy her the latest and greatest most expensive laptop out there.
It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate her brothers and her sister. Emi loved them all dearly. As much as she complained about them being overbearing, she still missed them all the time. She missed the feeling of being surrounded by family. But she needed to stop being so dependent on them. It was part of the reason she insisted on coming back to school—alone—even after last year’s incident.
Being able to attend ESU without it being a financial burden on her family was a dream come true. They could more than afford to put her up in this building, pay for her tuition, and even asked her not to get a job because they wanted her to concentrate on school one hundred percent. She had an allowance for Christ’s sake, a generous one. They encouraged her to use it because she knew they feared she just might be tempted to get a job and that would mean her being out and about more. All the more chance that she might be abducted or attacked again—one of their biggest fears, given what they’d all been through already.
Emi got it. She understood the fear. She lived with the same fear for them. Two of her brothers were firefighters. Every time she watched a news story about a fallen or hurt firefighter, she’d switch the channel because she could hardly stand the thought of one of her brothers ever getting hurt. All three of her brothers had scary tempers. Nathan had already been in trouble for it once. A.J., famed as much for his rage as he was for being a triple threat in his sport, seemed to have the hardest time getting a handle on his. It was part of his celebrity now as a well-known baseball player. Of course, she worried that one day that rage would get the better of him.
Livi was the one she worried about the least. They’d had their major scare with her once, and Emi could only pray they’d never have to go through something like that with her again. Thankfully, she was now married to a man equally as protective as her brothers. She was more than well taken care of.
Deciding that she’d deal with this without calling her brothers, she bit the bullet and texted Sydney. Once he saw her laptop, he’d know it wasn’t something she was making up or using as an excuse. It really was all screwed up. She wouldn’t even stick around either if he agreed to look at it. Just drop it off and ask him when she should pick it up. She’d pay him when he was done, take her laptop, and be on her way.
Her text was simple enough. She was not going to over think this. He was an easy going guy. The idea of having a friend like him in the building was a pleasant one—like being around her brothers at home. It might even help with the overwhelming homesickness she felt too often.
Hey! I’m having issues with my laptop. Sarah said you used to fix computers on the side. Maybe you still do? I’d of course pay you.
Twenty minutes later she’d just about given up hearing from him when she got the text and clicked on it. She chided herself for the stupid butterflies just seeing his name on her screen gave her.
Sorry. I was at the gym. Sure, bring it by in a few. I’m in 1208. I’m just going to jump in the shower, but I should be out in about ten or fifteen minutes.
Pleased with herself for having handled that perfectly well all on her own without having to get her brothers involved, Emi walked into her bedroom to also take a shower. Her pajama day was over. But at least if Sydney fixed her laptop it wouldn’t be her last pajama day for a while as she’d feared.
Twenty minutes later she was at his door, freshly showered and dressed in jeans and a tank. He opened the door and invited her in. Emi walked in, trying not to fixate on how casual he looked compared to all the other times she’d been around him or seen him in the building. Even his casual appearance at the kids’ party that past weekend didn’t have anything on the basketball shorts and snug black T-shirt he wore now. His hair was still wet, and he wasn’t as clean-shaven as he normally was. Without all the layers of clothes he usually wore, Emi could now appreciate the impressive muscle he was packing. Okay, she’d admit it. The man was sexy as hell.
Still Emi was certain he had more than his share of women falling all over him. He didn’t need another one, and she didn’t want him to see her that way. It was a decision Emi had made almost as soon as she realized how wrong she’d been about him at the repast. It was further confirmed the next day at the kids’ party and again on their two-hour drive home.
She’d established a rule before she’d even met Sydney. She wasn’t going to date or even have a meaningless fling with anyone who lived in the same building. She didn’t want to spend her time avoiding anyone. And the last thing she needed was to have to explain to her brothers why she needed to move. With Sydney, it was a double whammy. Even as she’d stared at his kissable lips and perfect teeth at the repast and kids’ party, she couldn’t help but think of how awkward some family gatherings might get if she allowed so much as a fling.
What she had looked forward to almost immediately, after having such a pleasant time with him, was spending more time with him.
As friends.
Even though he wasn’t married, she was certain a man like Sydney was at least already seeing someone. But he’d already had a friend that was a girl for years. Obviously, the idea of being friends with a girl platonically was one he’d be open to. Hopefully. For now, she’d focus on one thing: getting her laptop fixed.
“Starts up fine,” she explained as she set it down on his countertop and hit the start button. “Then once everything is up and running, it just goes into this safe mode and I can’t do anything. I Googled on my tablet what the problem might be, went through all the troubleshooting steps, and nothing.”
“Did this just happen today?” he asked, glancing down at the screen that was starting up.
“No. This happened last week, but I hadn’t tried to fix it until the last couple of days because the due date for a paper I need to write is sneaking up on me now. I’d been doing everything else on my tablet, but I need this for my paper.”
Sydney hit a few keys on it, getting it to immediately go to another screen, a black one where he typed in a few words and numbers. It reminded her of the IT guys at her school who so easily figured out what she’d been trying to remedy for hours.
“Just tell me if you think it’s fried or if you think it’s fixable.”
“No, it’s definitely fixable.”
Sydney didn’t even look up. He typed a few more things, and that’s when Emi made her move. As much as she would’ve liked to stick around longer, she had to make it clear this was not an excuse to be around him.
“So I can let you be, if you think it’s gonna be a few minutes and come back for it,” she offered, hoping he might suggest she stick around. “I don’t wanna be in your way or anything.”
Now he looked up from the screen, his brow going up, and her eyes were instantly distracted by the swath of thick lashes over his eyes. “You’re not in my way,” he said, but just as she began to get her hopes up, he continued. “But, yeah, if you wanna go get something else done, you can come back for it. I should have it ready for you in an hour, hour and half tops.”
“Uh,” she said a bit unsure then decided to just do as she’d first planned and leave. “Okay, so do you charge by the hour or how does this work?”
His eyes narrowed and he shook his head. “I’m not gonna charge you. This is nothing. I gotta let it run its course, so it’ll be sitting here doing its thing on its own for the most part.”
“Well, I gotta repay you somehow.”
The moment she said it she felt her face warm. Their eyes met for a second without either saying anything. God that’s not how she meant for it to sound. “I know!” she said quickly then started to the door before he’d see her blush. “I’ll be back in an hour and a half. Or if it’s done sooner and you need to go somewhere or something text me, and I’ll run up for it.”
She didn’t even turn to look at him when he said he would. She just rushed out the door.
“Idiot!” she muttered to herself the moment she was far enough away from his door.
Once back at her apartment she decided she was doing way too much over thinking about this. She’d had friends who were guys before. It was a simple concept. You treat them just as you would any of your girlfriends. Easy peasy. The problem with Sydney was he was so damn good-looking. As laid-back as he was, being around him was still a bit daunting, not to mention breathtaking. She’d been silly enough to think that he’d be less intimidating out of his power suits despite how down-to-earth he was.
“Those muscles and lips and dreamy lashes, oh my. Alright,” she began one of the pep talks she often gave herself as she mixed the flour, poppy seeds, and the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. “Be yourself. Act just like you would when you’re around Livi or your brothers. Don’t look at him as a guy—an incredibly handsome guy—with yummy muscles and bedroom eyes that make you tingle in places you have no business tingling. Think of how easy it was to laugh and hang around him at the repast and the party. The drive home that seemed to be over in a flash. This is the same guy. Don’t ruin this.”
Her phone rang just as she was about to begin pouring the mixture into the muffin pan. She would’ve ignored it, but it was her sister, and she needed a reminder of how to have a normal conversation like the one she was hoping to be able to have with Sydney when she picked up her laptop.
“Hey, sissy,” she said, answering and putting her on speaker.
“You busy?” Livi asked.
“I’m making muffins, but I have you on speaker. What’s up?”
“Have you talked to A.J.?” Livi asked, sounding a little too excited.
“Not today. Why?”
“Guess who’s in negotiations to sign with the Padres next year when he’s a free agent?”
Emi thought about that for a moment, licking muffin mix off her finger. Who would have Livi this giddy? “Dave Wright?”
“No,” Livi said, lowering her voice. “Who were we just drooling over last time you were here and we were watching the game on TV?”
Emi laughed. “You’re gonna have to be more specific than that.”
“What were we saying the Padres need badly?”
“A shortstop,” Emi said then stopped and gasped. “Oh my God, Sylvester Sabian?”
“Double S for double the sizzle!” Livi squealed.
“Sssssss!” they both said at the same time then broke out laughing.
Emi leaned back against the counter, wiping her hands with a towel. “Are you serious? A.J. told you or did you hear this on TV or something?”
“I heard it on TV and called A.J. immediately afterward. He said they’re definitely negotiating with Sabian. Can you imagine?”
Their whole lives Emi and her siblings had all been big sports fans. It’d been customary for Emi and Livi to fall in love with the players. They each had picked out their fantasy husbands in high school, but Sly Sabian was a young recent standout both for his game and for his looks. Much like A.J. had been picking up sponsors in a lot of the sexier types of merchandise, so had Sabian. Sabian’s latest was a beer commercial that had him stranded on a desert island. In it, he wore a baseball uniform tattered in just the right places to show off his perfectly toned body. Emi and Livi had drooled over it the last time Emi had gone home and they’d been watching one of A.J.’s games on TV. A.J. had brought home fellow team members for the family to meet in the past. So a good possibility existed that they might be entertaining Double S himself one day.
“No, I can’t imagine,” Emi said, placing the muffin pan in the oven.
They gushed about it a bit more with Livi filling her in on some of the other gossip she’d read about Double S and the latest in the news about their own brother Rage. As usual, when she and her sister got on the phone, the time flew. It was nearly an hour later when they hung up, and the muffins were ready and cooling on her stove top.
Talking to Livi had taken a bit from the angst she’d been feeling after seeing Sydney again, something she hadn’t expected given how comfortable and easy it’d been to talk to him this weekend. As she carefully placed the still warm muffins in a small basket then covered them with a kitchen towel, she decided to shake it off. This was what she’d been most taken by with Sydney in the first place: her ability to just be herself around him without feeling the least bit self-conscious. She was ruining this by over thinking it.
A few minutes later she was out her door, basket in hand, and on her way to his place. When she got to his door, she took a deep breath and knocked. He opened it quickly, taking her breath away—again. Lifting the basket, she showed him the gift she came bearing.
“I made muffins.”
“Muffins?” he asked with a somewhat confused smile.
“Yeah,” she explained as she walked into his place. “I do a lot of baking when I’m at home. Cooking too. Comfort foods for my brothers and stuff. But I’m not good at proportioning down to cook for just me, so I rarely make any of the things I make back home here. Muffins are one of them. They only last so long unless you freeze them, and I don’t like freezing them.”
Emi realized she was rambling, but it was better than getting all tongue-tied and feeling uneasy.
“Now that I have a friend in the building, maybe I can cook more often and share.” She smiled, glad he was smiling now too as if he approved of her suggestion. “I haven’t made muffins in a long time. I hope I got it right.”
“They smell delicious,” Sydney said, leaning over the basket.
“They’re poppy seed,” Emi said, smiling proudly. “They’re my favorite, but”—she tapped the side of her behind—“if this bubble butt gets any bigger, I’m gonna have an even harder time finding jeans that are comfortable and don’t look like mom jeans. Not that I’m complaining about it. I like it just fine. My sister and I both inherited the big booty from our mom. She taught us early on to embrace it. In time, she said, we’d come to love the attention it got us.” She laughed softly, lifting the towel to peek in on the muffins. “I’m not there yet—the loving it part—but I won’t knock it either. I’m not one of those girls who dreams about a stick figure. I like a little junk in my trunk.”
Emi took one of the muffins and brought it to her nose. It did smell heavenly. When she glanced up at him, she wasn’t sure what to make of the strange expression on his face.
“Well?” she asked. His eyes widened, and she shook her head, confused. “Aren’t you going to try them?”
His expression softened a bit as his Adam’s apple moved with an apparent swallow, distracting her so easily.
“I will in a minute,” he said, turning his attention back to the laptop in front of him. “I think this is done. I just want to make sure it’s all good once it reboots again.”
“What was it?” she asked curiously.
“A virus,” he said. “I took the liberty of uploading a different type of virus and spyware protection software. The one you had was outdated, and this one I uploaded for you is as foolproof as you can get.”
Emi was back to feeling the way she had that past weekend, comfortable around him. She even bit into her muffin, smiling, relieved until he added one more thing.
“I should know.” He winked, making her swallow hard this time. “I designed it.”
“You did?” she covered her mouth, and he handed her a napkin.
“Well”—he lifted and dropped a shoulder—“it wasn’t all me, but it’s one designed by the previous company I worked for, and we all had a hand in perfecting it.”
Emi wished she wasn’t such a tech idiot. She might have more to say or add to that other than “that’s so cool.”
She watched as Sydney clicked the keys on her laptop like the obvious pro he was, and a few minutes later, he glanced up and smiled. “Good as new.”
“Oh, thank God,” Emi said as she glanced at her screen saver and smiled.
It was a photo of her and her siblings, Livi’s husband Lorenzo and baby Enzo included. In it, Emi was squatting in front of them all with one arm around Livi’s dog, King.
“That’s an awesome-looking dog,” Sydney commented as he picked up one of her muffins. “Is it yours?”
“No.” Emi shook her head. “He is awesome but way too high maintenance for me. He’s my sister’s. She’s a pet groomer, so she can more than handle him. Keeps him looking immaculate all the time.”
“I was gonna say,” Sydney said, glancing back down at the photo again, “he looks like it would take a ton of work to keep all those dreads from knotting up and becoming a mess.”
“It does”—she clicked on the photo gallery icon—“but Livi’s talented when it comes to what she does, and she trained his locks early on.” A window popped up with more photos and she smiled. “See. That’s what he looked like when he was a puppy.”
“Oh wow. I would’ve never thought that was the same dog.”
“Yeah, and he’s just the sweetest thing.” She clicked on another folder, blushing when a set of selfies popped up.
It was an old folder from when she was younger. Why she still had those stupid photos of her making pouty faces and trying to look sexy she didn’t know, but it annoyed her as much as it embarrassed her.
“That you?” he asked, and she turned to see him smirking as he bit into the muffin.
“Yes,” she admitted, unable to hide her own smirk. “A long time ago. I don’t even know why I still have those.”
“Couldn’t have been that long ago,” he said, standing up and off the breakfast stool he’d been sitting on. “You look the same.”
“I was very young,” she said, looking back at the photos.
“You are very young,” he pointed out. “You want something to drink? That muffin made me thirsty.” He opened the door to his fridge and studied its contents for a moment. “I’ve got milk, juice, water, and I could make you a cup of coffee if you want.”
“I’ll take water. Thank you.”
Emi closed out of the embarrassing photo file. He’d just handed her the bottled water when his phone rang. “Give me a sec,” he said, answering it and taking a few steps away.
Taking advantage that he wasn’t within view of her laptop, she clicked on that folder again to examine her old selfies. She didn’t remember how old she was, but she remembered she was in high school when she took them. Over two years ago. She did not look that ridiculously clueless still. Did she?
“I’ll meet you there in an hour. Sounds good.”
On that cue, Emi began shutting down her laptop. As soon as he was off the phone and her laptop had shut down, she started putting it away in the carrying case.
“I’ll get out of your way now.”
“No rush,” he said as he took a swig of his glass of milk. “That’s what’s cool about living in this area. Most of the time when I go out for drink like this, I don’t even have to drive. I’m meeting someone in an hour, but it’s a five-minute walk from here.”
“That’s what I like about living in this area too,” Emi agreed. “Of course, I can’t enjoy any of the trendy bars yet, but I can indulge in all the restaurants and shopping.”
“That’s right. You’re just a baby,” he teased, flashing a smile that showed off his perfect teeth, reminding her how right she’d been.
Emi’s place was a mess compared to Sydney’s. She could see now even his apartment was perfect. His car had been spotless too. Emi’s car was full of books, fast food wrappers, receipts, and cups. She wasn’t a slob. The junk in her car wasn’t much different from the junk in most people’s cars. Although at the moment her kitchen looked like a flour bomb had gone off in there. For the most part though, she was tidy enough. She just wasn’t anywhere near as organized as Sydney was.
“Don’t you start calling me that too.” She zipped up the computer bag, lifting a brow at him.
“Well, for a baby, you make some kick-ass muffins.” Sydney took another bite, nodding in approval. When he was done chewing, his brows lifted “You make these from scratch or out of a box?”
“I make everything from scratch.” She lifted the strap over her shoulder and smiled. “But thanks. I’m glad you liked them. I really appreciate you doing this for me. I just wish I could do more to pay you back.” She frowned, angry at herself that she’d gone there again. “Oh I know,” she added quickly, before he could put too much thought into what she’d just said. “I’ve been craving chicken dumpling soup. You like it?”
“Not sure I’ve ever had it,” Sydney said, shoving the last piece of muffin into his mouth.
“What?” Emi’s mouth fell open. “Oh, I’m making it now. I hadn’t because just like with the muffins I can never make just enough for myself. I’d make way too much, but now I can bring you some. I make a kick-ass chicken dumpling soup, adding my own Mexican flare to it. You’ll be begging for more.”
Sydney smiled sweetly, saying he’d look forward to it, and Emi left, feeling much more at ease than the first time she’d walked out of his place.
“See,” she said to herself, feeling very satisfied as she walked down the hall toward the elevator. “You have a new neighbor and friend and someone who can help you eat all that food you’ve been holding off making. A friend. Easy peasy.”