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Jinny was a romantic, but Esther didn’t buy into any of that crap. She didn’t believe in fate or love at first sight or happily-ever-afters. There was no such thing as soul mates, no fairy godparents watching over anyone, and no prince coming to sweep you off your feet. She reserved her faith for things that could be measured with empirical evidence and behaved predictably, according to the laws of nature.
Fairy tales were all well and good in books, but it was dangerous to put your faith in fiction. Look what had happened to Esther’s mother. She’d thought she was living a perfect, fairy-tale life until her prince had up and left her, and she’d been completely unprepared to cope with reality. Fifteen years later, she was still drifting along, waiting for the next prince to show up and save her.
Forget princes. You had to make your own luck in life. If you wanted something, you couldn’t sit back and wait for it to fall into your lap. You had to go out and make it happen.
Chapter Three
Two days later, Jinny was still waffling on Stuart. Esther knew she was still texting with him. Who knew how much longer she’d be able to hold out with Stuart wheedling her and tempting her with the power of his magical dick? Esther had a sinking feeling they’d be back together by the weekend.
She’d been racking her brain for a way to keep them apart, but so far she’d come up empty. If she pushed too hard, Jinny might get pissed and dig her heels in. That was what had happened the last time Esther had tried to talk some sense into her about Stuart. It needed to be handled delicately—and quickly, before it was too late.
Esther was still musing on it when she got home from work on Wednesday. As she walked past Jonathan’s apartment, she heard his deadbolt unlock and quickened her steps, digging around in her bag for her keys. Maybe she could get inside before he came out and tried to start up another conversation—
“Hey,” he said, stepping out of his apartment behind her.
Dammit.
Esther threw a polite smile over her shoulder. “Hi.”
Was it too much to hope that he had somewhere to be and no interest in chatting? She fumbled for the key on her key ring and shoved it into the lock.
“Hey, I’ve got something for you,” he said.
She froze with her hand on the doorknob. So close.
Pasting a smile on her face, she turned around. “Oh, yeah?”
“Hang on,” he said, holding up a finger, and disappeared inside his apartment.
Great. What was this about? She couldn’t think of anything he might have that she wanted. And how long was she supposed to stand out here in the breezeway waiting on him anyway? All she wanted to do was go inside her apartment, kick off her clunky oxfords, peel off the tights she’d been wearing all day, and drink a beer. Was that too much to ask at the end of a long, annoying work day?
He had another five seconds, and then she was going inside.
Five…four…three…two…
Jonathan reappeared, holding a handful of envelopes and a magazine. “Here, the mailman put some of your stuff in my box by mistake.”
Oh. He was actually being neighborly.
“Thanks.” Feeling a little ashamed, Esther shuffled forward to accept the mislaid mail. She’d been wondering where this month’s Astronomy magazine had gotten to. It was nice of him to hang on to her mail for her; plenty of assholes would have dumped it in the trash to save themselves the trouble of redelivering it.
“Not exactly light reading.” He shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. “Are you like an astronomer or something?”
“Aerospace engineer. Astronomy’s just for fun.”
He nodded. “That’s cool. You must know a lot of science, then.”
“A little, yeah.”
He nodded again and shifted his weight. “Could I ask you favor?”
Nooooo.
“So, you know how I’m a screenwriter…”
Please, no.
“I’ve been working on this sci-fi script for one of my classes, and I’ve got the essence of the story all laid out, but I could really use some help with the science aspects. Just to make it more realistic—well, not realistic, exactly, but plausible, at least.”
