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Chapter One
Roxie
March
Exhausted and wired after a crunchweek at work, I finally make it to the lobby of my building. I’mhauling several bags of groceries, one of them filled withexpensive canned food meant for my feline overlords. Dinner islate, and they’ll be very displeased.
I sigh when I see the elevator isall the way up on the tenth floor. I press the button, then roundthe corner. Might as well get the mail while I wait.
There’s a guy standing by themailboxes. The one for unit 3F is open in front of him, and I feela pang of nostalgia. 3F used to belong to my favorite people in theworld—Liz and Joe, traitors extraordinaire, who decided they neededmore space than a two-bedroom condo in downtown Madison, Wisconsinfor their future soccer team of children, and moved out intosuburbia.
The guy is my age, early thirties,with auburn hair and reddish scruff. He’s dressed in dark blue,business casual.
And he looks familiar. Veryfamiliar.
Wait.
My eyes go wide.
No. Fucking. Way.
Even though I only see hisprofile, and even though he’s changed a lot since I last saw him,I’m pretty sure that my new neighbor is Chris Dunn—or DunnoyingChris, which is what I used to call him back when he dated mycollege roommate Amy over a decade ago.
While I do my best impression of adeer in the headlights, he turns around. There is a flicker ofconfusion before a broad grin spills across his face.
“Roxie? Roxie Nowak?” He opens hisarms, clearly expecting a hug. “I can’t believe it! You live here,too?”
“Hey, Chris.” I quickly shift allthe grocery bags into my left hand, and offer him the right one toshake. “Long time, no see.”
His face falls as he lowers hisarms, but then he grabs my hand and pumps it twice. “Seriously,Rox? No hug for an old friend?”
“More like an old pain-the-ass,” Isay, and Chris laughs. Back in college, he teased me about myinjured knee, my giant shoes, my computer science major, and mylack of social life. But he also stayed up with me all night whileI waited for my code to finish, and we played video games andgoofed around. For an Amy-induced nuisance, he was a welcomeone.
“So, how come you’re in Madison?”I ask. “I thought you’d go back to the West Coast aftergraduation.”
“I returned just to annoy you. Isit working?” He waggles his eyebrows and I can’t help butsnicker.
“Seriously now.” I put on my mostsomber face, the one I use to scold interns at work. “I thoughtyou’d moved back home.”
“I did, for a while. It’s a longstory.” He slides his hands into his pockets. “There was an openinghere for the type of job I wanted, and I was excited to come back.I’ve always loved Madison.”
I shift the bags between my hands.They’re getting heavy.
“Do you want help with that?”Chris asks.
“Nah, it’s fine. So, what kind ofjob did you get?”
“It’s with the University. Juststarted earlier this week. I’m an intellectual propertylawyer.”
“Oh, wow! I suppose that makessense. You were poli-sci in college, right?”
“Yeah. Good memory! And you werecomputer science?” I nod, and he continues. “So what do you donow?”
“Medical software development. I’ma manager at Qpik.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “Good foryou!”
I smile. “Look at us, havinggrown-up jobs and everything.”
