Chapter 1

Abigail

I trudged slowly up the stairs to my fourth-floor apartment, desperately hoping I didn’t run into my landlord. My rent was a week late, and he had already threatened to evict me if I didn’t pay up immediately.

I wiped sweat from my forehead. It had been warm all day, but nowhere could you feel it like you could in my building. The place was old, and the stairwells weren’t air conditioned. Even my apartment relied on fans to keep the air circulating. I’d never really liked the place, but it was cheap and I was able to have my own studio. That was why I’d jumped on it.

Cheap as it was, I had no clue how I was going to pay rent this month.

I jiggled my key in the doorknob and kicked the heavy wood in just the right place to make the door open. Then I noticed the crisp envelope that had been pushed through the mail slot. I picked it up and set it on the hall table for a moment. I needed a drink before I could face that.

Unfortunately, all I had was water, but at least it was cool.

I sat on the couch near the window, sipping my water slowly while staring at the envelope in my hand. Finally, I tore it open. As expected, it was from my prick of a landlord. My rent was late, but I couldn’t help it. I’d been unemployed for just over four weeks now. It wasn’t like I was just sitting on my ass, either. I’d been looking for a job all day, every day for weeks now.

At first, I’d scoured online jobs lists. Then I’d moved on to the newspapers. At this point, I’d resorted to walking into businesses with my resume in hand and calling up friends from college who I knew were in managerial roles at their workplaces.

But still, nothing had panned out.

I stared down at the letter from my landlord and choked on my water. This wasn’t just a request for my rent money like I’d expected. Instead, it was a lot more serious.

Evicted. The word stared up at me from the paper in big red letters. No matter how many times I blinked my eyes, it was there, just the same. Evicted.

I had seven days to get my ass out before they threw me out.

After the initial shock wore off, I started to get pissed. Sure, I understood I owed the money to the owners of the building. They weren’t running a charity, and I didn’t expect to live here for free. I was sure the upkeep for a building this size wasn’t cheap, either. But what had they ever done for me? They had taken a lot longer than seven days to fix the lightbulbs that were broken in the stairwell, and the elevator looked like it hadn’t been in service for years.

Besides, it wasn’t as though I was habitually late with rent. I was a great tenant. There had been one time I was late a few months ago, and it had been only one day late. And I’d had a good reason for it, too: The bank had screwed up routing one of my incoming paychecks and the money I’d been planning to pay my rent with had been deposited into the wrong account. I’d gotten it all straightened out as quickly as possible, making sure to keep my landlord in the loop during the process. No harm, no foul. And certainly, not my fault.

But apparently, that mistake earned me my one and only warning, and now they were done with me.

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. What was I going to do?

I took a deep, quavering breath to calm my emotions before they got out of control. I wasn’t going to get upset about this. I was going to fight it.

I quickly called Brittany, my best friend since sixth grade. If anyone could help me brainstorm ideas, she was the one.

“What’s up, Abby?” she asked when she picked up the phone.

“I’ve had a terrible day.” I sighed. “Can we get coffee? Or something?”

“Of course!” she said immediately. “I just put the finishing touches on the Gilligan party. I can’t believe that’s tomorrow already; feels like I’ve been planning it forever now. But anyway, I’m free all afternoon. How about that little place with the colorful seats? What was it called? You know, the one in your neighborhood?”

“Fiona’s,” I said. “That would be great.” I hated to drag her all the way out to my neighborhood when she lived on the other side of the city, but I’d been walking around all day and I didn’t know how much more commuting my feet could take.

“All right. I’m pretty close because of the venue the Gilligan’s chose, so I can be there in twenty minutes. Does that work?”

“Perfect,” I said. I kicked off my shoes and rubbed my feet after hanging up, staring miserably down at the eviction notice. I looked over at my folder with the last resumes I hadn’t had a chance to hand out. I had made nearly a hundred copies over at the library, and still I hadn’t gotten a single phone call from a prospective employer.

What was I doing wrong? It wasn’t as though I were particular about the job I wanted. At this point, I would take anything.

***

“All right, what happened?” Brittany asked a little while later as she set my coffee down in front of me. I automatically reached for my purse. “Oh no, it’s on me,” she said, smiling at me.

I smiled wearily back at her. “Thanks,” I said. “One of these days, I really will pay you back for all these drinks and things.”

“You’re good, seriously,” Brittany said. “Not to be a bitch, because I know you’re having a hard time getting a job at the moment, but I just got a raise at the party planning gig, so I can afford to splurge a little.”

I smiled even though I could tell it was a little thin. “Congratulations,” I said. “That’s really great for you.”

“Thanks,” Brittany said, overlooking my lack of enthusiasm. “But come on, what happened today? Did you have a bad interview?”

“I wish,” I said, groaning. “I still haven’t managed to land a single interview—unless you count the one at the coffee shop where I turned up only to find out the dude had forgotten about me and decided not to come into work that day!”

Brittany grimaced. “I’m sure something will work out for you soon,” she said. “Maybe the universe is just waiting until you’re really desperate, and then you’ll get the absolute best job!”

“If that’s true, then I hope the universe knows just how desperate I am right now,” I grumbled. I sipped my drink and then took a deep breath. “I’m being evicted. At the end of the week.”

“What?” Brittany said in shock. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “What am I going to do?”

“God, I wish you could move in with me,” Brittany said. “But I have no room. You know that. And Brenda would flip. She’s already not cool when I have guys stay over. Like, I have my own room. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal. It’s not like I do it every night.”

“No, I know you’d help me out if you could,” I said, shaking my head. “But even then, I wouldn’t want to impose on you.”

Brittany gave me a pitying look. “So, do you know what you’re going to do? Are you going to go back to living with your parents?”

“You know I can’t do that,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “I won’t do that. I thought things with Mom would get better once I moved out, but I think they’ve actually managed to get worse.”

“Yikes,” Brittany said. “I didn’t think that was possible.”

I laughed bitterly. “Yeah. I’m just lucky that way. So, back home is right out.”

“Still, it’s not like you have many options,” Brittany said slowly. “Right?”

“Hey!” I said. “I was hoping for some positive energy here, brainstorming and all that.” But I couldn’t help grinning at her. Then I shook my head. “The thing is, even if I wanted to move back in with my parents, which I really, really don’t, it’s not really an option. They live out in the suburbs, and I need a job. Unless I managed to snag one at the mall or something within walking distance of their house, I’d have to either get a car or buy a bus pass, and both of those things are out of my budget at the moment. Not to mention the fact that I’d have to factor transportation costs into what I’m making.”

“Right. I get that,” Brittany said. She frowned, looking thoughtful. “What about your brother? Didn’t he just move into a bigger place?”

“Zach?” I said. “Yeah, he did, but he moved in there because he and his girlfriend are living together now and they needed more space for all their shit. They’ve got a spare bedroom, but I’m not even sure that they have furniture in there yet. I’m sure Zach would let me crash on the couch if I really needed to, but I couldn’t do that for long. I don’t want to be the third wheel, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to find a job.”

I paused and then shook my head. “Plus, he’s my older brother, and he’s charming and smart and driven. He could get five jobs in a day if he needed one. If I tell him I’m broke and getting evicted, he’ll probably just give me a lecture on how I shouldn’t have gone on that trip to Vegas last year—as though a few hundred dollars back when I actually had a steady source of income was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“Hmm,” Brittany said. “How much are you paying right now? Could you find somewhere cheaper? I know you love having your own place, but if you got a place with roommates, maybe you could save a little more money.”

“I know,” I said. “But at the moment, I could barely scrape together enough for the deposit on most places, and then I would have to get a job in the first month or else I’d be right back to this eviction stuff again.”

“Maybe I can help you find a job,” Brittany suggested. “I think we might be hiring.” She grinned slyly at me. “Or maybe I need to buy some billboard space and tell everyone in the city about how my best friend is the best.”

I laughed. “Don’t you dare!” I said.

“Okay,” Brittany said. Suddenly, she frowned, looking over my shoulder. “Hey, isn’t that…?” She trailed off, like she didn’t even dare to say his name.

I immediately clenched my teeth when I saw who she had noticed. He was in line to get a drink, scanning the board as though he were there completely by accident. But I knew it was no accident.

“Jason,” I muttered.

“Shit, it’s really him, isn’t it?” Brittany asked. “What do you want to do? Should we make a run for it while he’s ordering?”

“No. I do not want to run from my ex-boyfriend,” I said, holding tight to my coffee mug. “God, what an asshole. I can’t believe he’s back.” I shook my head. “This really has been the worst day ever.”

I had thought I had loved Jason once. We were together for nearly two years after our college graduation. It was long enough that I’d pictured a future with him. Long enough that I’d never expected I would be with anyone else for the rest of my life. Then I found out he’d been cheating on me nearly the whole time we’d been together. He told me it was all meaningless, that he didn’t even know their names. Like that made it any better.

The worst part was, once we broke up, Jason was everywhere. He found out where my new place was and showed up there to walk me to work, bringing flowers and begging my forgiveness. I had to get a new cell phone number and everything. I just couldn’t get him to leave me alone. He said that losing me was the worst thing he’d ever had to go through.

Like it had been easy for me to lose him.

I didn’t want to get the police involved. Somewhere deep down, I still clung to the image I had of Jason when I was first dating him, the idea that he was a good guy. I didn’t want to think he was some creepy stalker dude. But he refused to leave me alone, and when my parents found out through Zach that he was calling me and following me nearly constantly, my lawyer dad sat me down in his study for a long talk about what constituted harassment and when a person was justified in getting a restraining order.

We came to the conclusion that I probably could get a restraining order against Jason if I wanted to. The things he was doing were downright weird to say the least. But I stubbornly wanted to handle it on my own. It was about a year ago that things finally died down. I found out through a mutual friend that Jason had moved away, having found a job on the other side of the country. I’d been able to breathe a little easier, but now it seemed he was back.

Not just back, though. He was walking over to our table. I stared at Brittany, not sure what to do. At least we were in public, and at least I had Brittany with me. That was the thing that bothered me most about the whole situation: I just couldn’t predict what he might do.

Would he kidnap me? I doubted it. I didn’t think he seriously wanted to harm me. But he might pin me up against a wall and forcibly kiss me if he had the chance. I didn’t want that.

“Listen, you creep,” Brittany said as he walked up to the table.

“Whoa, now,” Jason said, smiling easily at her. “I thought that was Abigail Foley I saw over here. You look good as ever, sweetheart.”

“She’s not your sweetheart,” Brittany said icily. “I suggest you leave.”

“Or you’ll what?” Jason asked innocently. He turned toward me. “You don’t want me to leave, do you?”

I stared up at him. He looked just as good as ever, I had to admit. Tall, dark, handsome. I had a type, and Jason Dean was definitely it. Too bad he was a terrible person. I wouldn’t make the mistake of falling for his tricks again.

“Honestly, Jason, I think it’s best if you leave,” I told him.

Jason’s eyebrows crept up toward his hairline. “Wow, really?” he asked. “We haven’t seen each other in a year. I know we have a difficult history, but I thought we could put that aside and catch up a little. I want to know all about what you’ve been up to.”

“Then you should know that I’m engaged.” I didn’t know where the words came from. They definitely weren’t true. Then again, what better way to get Jason to quit bugging me than to tell him I was engaged? It would give him a concrete reason for why things couldn’t work out between us and why we could never get back together.

I glanced at Brittany, silently pleading with her to play along. I could see the shock on her face, and the last thing I needed was for her to give the lie away. I gave her a little kick under the table, and she immediately schooled her features before Jason could notice anything strange about her reaction.

“You’re engaged?” Jason asked, looking just as shocked as Brittany had a moment before.

“Yup,” I said, shrugging like it was no big deal. “I know I’m not wearing the ring right now; we sent it away to be resized. I’m definitely engaged, though. He’s met my parents and everything.” I stared up at Jason with a challenging look. “I think it would be better if you just left.”