JENNIE
"You're joking, right?" Jisoo asked, gaping at me over her latte. I'd just recounted how my birthday hookup with Lisa had turned from dreamy to disastrous.
"I wish." I groaned, massaging my temples. Not only could I not get the image of her four-year-old daughter's horrified face out of my head, but I had a massive tequila-induced hangover. "I probably scarred that little girl for life. Is this what being thirty is like? All the guys have kids now?"
Jisoo put a hand over her mouth, unable to suppress a laugh.
"Come on, it's not funny," I said, but her laughter was infectious, and I couldn't help grinning. "Okay, it's kind of funny. Or it will be once my head stops feeling like it's going to explode."
"What did you do when she saw you?" Jisoo asked, composing herself.
"Well, after my less-than-ladylike dismount, I ran out of there as fast as I could." I shuddered at the memory, sipping my coffee. "Seriously, I probably broke some kind of Guinness world record."
"At least you're getting an apartment today," she said, her tone consoling.
I nodded, glad there was an upside to this day. "Thank God. I'm so sick of apartment hunting."
Before this one, I'd gone to see five other places, and they'd all been disasters. One had no windows, and another was basically the size of my current closet. If this place didn't work out, I was going to officially be in panic mode.
I glanced at my phone. "Speaking of the apartment, we should probably head over."
Jisoo had agreed to come with me to check out the space and meet the landlord. I'd binge-watched enough episodes of Law Order: SVU to know it wasn't a good idea to do things like this alone.
Twenty minutes later, we neared the address I'd read off the email from the property management company.
"This is cute." Jisoo smiled as we drove through the neighborhood, pointing out a craftsman-style home with a sprawling garden. "I love that everyone has a yard."
It was more suburban than what I was used to, but I didn't mind. Actually, that was a good thing as far as I was concerned. The apartment I'd picked out was above a garage, which was different, but I wasn't picky at this point. I'd heard a lot of young couples and new parents were moving to this area, which would make it a nice, quiet place for me to work.
As I watched the houses go by, an uneasy feeling crept over me. I felt strange, like I'd been on this street before. Everything looked oddly familiar, which didn't make any sense because I almost never came to this area.
"Do we know anyone who lives here?" I gazed out the window, having a major case of déjà vu.
Jisoo shook her head. "Not that I know of. The GPS says we're really close."
She eased into a spot at the curb. As we climbed from the car, I looked around again, bothered that I couldn't figure out when I'd been here before. We walked down the block and turned the corner, and then I saw it.
"It's not that house right there, is it?" I asked, a knot forming in the pit of my stomach.
"Yeah, it is." Jisoo glanced at the address on her GPS. "Why?"
My chest constricted, and my stomach dropped to my knees. I was having trouble breathing. Of course, this was just my luck. I wanted to turn and run, but my legs kept moving forward, my mind too stunned to do anything but follow Jisoo.
"Jen? What's wrong?" She gave me a strange look as we stopped in front of the house.
"Look, maybe we should just leave—" But before I could even finish my sentence, the front door opened.
It was Lisa.
Jisoo's mouth dropped open, and my heart stopped. I thought I might pass out.
This place, the apartment I'd put a deposit on, belonged to Lisa. The woman I had incredible birthday sex with—well, sort of, right until her daughter walked in on us—was the landlord, and I was silently freaking out.
The three of us stood gaping at each other for what felt like an eternity, Jisoo looking from me to Lisa and back again. Thankfully, she regained her composure quickly.
"Hi," she said, extending a hand to Lisa. "I'm Jisoo. I'm just here to help Jennie with the apartment."
Even as they shook hands, I could feel her watching me but refused to meet her eyes. How was this happening? I was way too hungover to deal with this. The property management company had only referred to her as the owner; I hadn't thought to ask for a name. So much for the good karma I'd thought I had.
"I'm Lisa," she told Jisoo, releasing her hand.
I took the opportunity to look her over. She was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. Her features looked even sharper in the sunlight, her jawline highlighted by her heart-melting smile. She had a messy dark hair like she'd pushed her hands through it.
But it was her eyes that got me. Deep and mocha-colored, and so incredibly expressive. If she'd been bothered by the events of the night before, she was great at hiding it. In fact, she looked like she'd just walked out of a photo shoot.
I tried not to think about how I looked in my laundry-day black leggings and bulky sweatshirt. I'd been too hungover to shower, so I probably still smelled like alcohol. Thank God I'd thought to swipe on some mascara before I left the house.
"So," she said, turning back to look at me, her mouth tilted in the slightest smile. "Did you want to see the apartment?"
Still speechless, I could only stare at her. Were we just going to pretend this wasn't a totally insane coincidence?
The worst part was that despite being absolutely mortified, I found my heart was doing a little happy dance just being around her. It couldn't forget what had happened before I was forced to flee her house in shame, the part where I'd been having the most mind-blowing sex of my life.
A memory flashed through my mind of her hands around my waist, pulling me against her, then her fingers gently pushing into my hair as she brought my mouth to her.
I sucked in a breath. For God's sake. I gave my head a little shake, forcing myself to return to the moment. I still hadn't answered Lisa's question, but luckily Jisoo had it more together than I did.
"Of course we want to see the apartment. It seems great," she said, smiling like a beauty pageant contestant. "Lead the way."
As she walked ahead of us, Jisoo gave me a look and mouthed get it together. I knew I was being totally awkward, but could she blame me? I was in a state of shock.
She led us over to the garage and unlocked a side door.
"This will be your private entrance," she said, heading up the stairs. "It's totally separate from the house, so you won't have to worry about us bothering you."
She smiled at me and I flashed an uncertain smile back, still not sold. The entrance might be separate, but we'd be living only a few yards away from each other, which meant seeing each other on a daily basis.
When we got to the top of the stairs, I almost forgot how much I didn't want to be there. The apartment was beautiful. It was small but well laid out and incredibly clean. There were dark wood floors, and huge windows that drenched the space in sunlight. A fully equipped kitchen had a little nook in front of the bay window that would be a perfect spot for my desk.
"I renovated the space myself," she said, running her hand along the kitchen's granite countertop.
"Really?" Jisoo asked. "That's amazing. Do you work in construction?"
"No." She shrugged. "I'm just good with my hands, I guess."
I could have told her that. Lisa could do a lot more with those hands than install wood floors.
Even though I wanted to hate it and rush out, my brain cataloged all the unique details—the crystal knobs on the cabinets, the built-in shelves in the living room. She'd really taken the time to make the apartment one of a kind. I walked over to the window and let out a little gasp of excitement when I saw a small pond in the backyard. It couldn't have been more perfect. I really wanted to live here. Fuck.
"I'll let you two look around," she said, excusing herself.
I couldn't look at her yet, so I mumbled something and nodded. How could I live here if I couldn't even look at my landlord, let alone have a conversation?
Once she was safely down the stairs, I grabbed Jisoo's arm. "Get me out of here," I begged.
"Come on, you know this is an amazing apartment," she said, pulling her arm away. "I wish I could live here. Look at that pond; it's adorable. And the kitchen is perfect for you to cook in. Have you seen this little wine cabinet she put in?" She walked over to it, motioning for me to follow.
I nodded, not budging. "I know. It's beautiful and perfect. But can we also talk about how her daughter saw my naked body bouncing on top of her very naked dada last night?"
"Okay, yes," Jisoo said seriously, nodding. "That's an issue. But memories fade. And you're never going to find another place this nice that's this affordable."
I didn't want to admit it, but she was right. If I wanted to live here, I'd need to forget everything that had happened between Lisa and me.
"Okay, I'll think about it." I sighed, then looked around again, already mentally planning how I'd arrange my furniture. "It's going to be really hard to pass up."
"Just talk to Lisa about it," Jisoo said as we headed down the stairs. "Maybe her daughter didn't even remember last night."
I raised an eyebrow at her. I seriously doubted the little girl would forget something so traumatic, especially after seeing the way she'd reacted. She probably didn't like the idea of some new woman in the picture, taking her dada away from her. And I got that, but it didn't make me feel any better about the situation. The last thing I needed was to get into some kind of turf war with a kid.
Lisa was waiting for us when we stepped back outside.
"I'll meet you at the car," Jisoo said quickly, waving good-bye to Lisa and heading back down the sidewalk.
Once Lisa and I were alone, I finally met her gaze, my heart frantically beating out of my chest. God, she was sexy. There was something about her eyes that made it impossible to look away. I swallowed, unable to shake the weird mix of embarrassment and desire.
Jesus, Jennie. I mentally slapped myself. Keep your pants on.
"So," I said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Last night was . . ."
"Yeah." I smiled awkwardly.
There was a beat of silence, and then we both started laughing.
"Listen, we're both adults," she said, holding up her hands. "If you like the place, it's yours. We can forget last night ever happened."
"I really love it," I admitted. "You did an amazing job on the renovations."
"Thank you. Look, I need a renter and you need an apartment. There's no reason this has to be weird," she said, smiling.
I hesitated. "Does your daughter hate me?"
She pushed her hands through her hair and laughed, but I could tell the humor in the situation was forced. I was sure there was nothing funny about her having to explain what had happened last night when she put her back to bed.
"No, she doesn't hate you. She's just not used to seeing women around."
I had a hard time believing Lisa had any trouble getting women into her bed. But in the interest of not being homeless, I decided to believe her.
"All right." I grinned, extending my hand. "Let's do it."
When she took my hand in her, my stomach flipped. A zing of electricity passed between us, almost like our bodies were remembering what we'd been doing not even twelve hours before.
I knew I wasn't only agreeing to move in because it was a perfect apartment; there was something about Lisa that made it impossible to say no to her.
I let go of her hand and followed her inside to fill out the paperwork, hoping I hadn't just made a huge mistake.