Page 5

“Welcome to the building.”

For some reason, that landed differently than she expected. Not because it was meaningful. It was just a sentence. A normal sentence. But she had spent the last few weeks preparing for a fresh start that mostly felt like she was doing everything alone.

And here was a stranger in the hallway making her feel, somehow, slightly less alone.

Which was inconvenient.

Very inconvenient.

“Goodnight, Noah.”

“Goodnight, Claire.”

She watched him walk away.

“Noah, good to see you!” An elderly woman called out to him, as she came around the corner from the elevators.

“Mrs. Evelyn, good to see you too! I’ll stop by tomorrow to look at that faucet,” he told her.

The woman, apparently Mrs. Evelyn, came to a stop beside him and pinched his cheek. “It’s okay, I knew you wouldn’t forget. You’re a busy man. I’ll be home all day tomorrow. You come by whenever,” she instructed.

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied.

Mrs. Evelyn studied him. “You’re just too good to everybody, young man. I don’t understand why a young lady hasn’t come by and snatched you up yet. Just wait, it won’t be too much longer.”

Noah’s put-together composure cracked, only for a second, and he looked slightly embarrassed.

Claire realized she was smiling. She closed her door. Then she leaned against it.

Absolutely not. No.

She was not going to become one of those people who immediately liked their attractive neighbor because he returned their food and said something nice. Or because he was nice to old ladies and fixed their faucets.

She simply was not doing that. It would be ridiculous.

She had moved here for herself. For her career. For her independence.

Claire looked down at the bag of Chinese food in her hands. Then, against her better judgment, she smiled.

Which was annoying.

Because for some reason she already had a feeling Noah Carter was going to be a problem.

CHAPTER 2

The First Day

Claire was not having a very good morning.

First, she woke up late because she stayed up unpacking. Second, she hadn’t actually learned how to use her new espresso machine yet. She didn’t even know if she had the necessary ingredients to make her iced latte. Clearly, she hadn’t had time to get groceries yet.

She sighed. “I really need to get groceries,” she muttered to herself.

It would be a lot more efficient if food wasn’t needed to survive.

On the bright side, she might not have gotten up as early as she wanted to, but she wouldn’t be late. If she hurried, she could stop and grab an iced coffee on the way.

With the motivation of coffee, she quickly finished getting ready for her first day at her new job.