Page 5 of The One Where They Fall in Love

“Only when someone is chasing me,” she quips back, casually.

I take one more look at her, trying not to get distracted by the hitch of her hip that she has her hand placed on. I look her dead in the eyes, step into my apartment, and slam the door shut.

Three

Elle

“He is theworsthuman I’ve ever met!”

“So he’s nice, then?” Lucy says, mocking me from the other end of the FaceTime.

“Heislike the Beast. I was right. He is like a big, hairy beast that stomps around the castle roaring at innocent furniture that—”

“What do you meanyou were right? Did you call this man abeast?” Lucy asks, interrupting me with a concerned tone.

“I called himtheBeast, as inBeauty and the Beast,” I explain.

“Yeah, I know what Beast you mean, that doesn’t make it any better.” Lucy smacks her forehead and shakes her head in disbelief, like I’ve somehow stressed her out.

“Can I use this opportunity to chime in and request that you please not fall asleep in the hallway of your building in the middle of the night? You know, for like…safetyreasons?” comes Liam’s voice from the background. It’sSaturday morning, which means Liam, being the perfect man that he is, is in the kitchen of their house using his degree from the Culinary Institute to make some kind of delicious breakfast for Lucy.

Lucy is seated on the couch, and I can see the bar top behind her and beautiful wooden ceiling beams above her. Lucy lives in a lake house in upstate New York, in a small town called Hudson Hollow. Having been to the house several times, I know that she is positioned facing the wall-to-wall windows that overlook a gorgeous blue lake, which is probably covered in ice and snow right now.

“Liam, don’t take this moment to get all alpha hero on me, okay? Stay over there with your French toast,” I tease.

“They’re actually lemon ricotta pancakes,” he calls back.

“Lemon ricotta?” Lucy says, slightly turning her head toward the kitchen. She has an uneasy look on her face. “What happened to chocolate chip?”

“Lucy, I’m a chef. I can’t make chocolate chip pancakes every day. I need some creative liberty,” he replies in an exasperated voice.

“You own a restaurant. Be creative there. Your fiancé needs chocolate. It’s literally a requirement for marrying me.” Her voice is stern, but when she turns her attention back to the phone, she sticks her tongue between her teeth, silently laughing.

I own him, she mouths.

“Oh yeah, real alpha hero,” I say with a chuckle.

“I heard that and I know what it means!” Liam calls from the kitchen. “I am marrying a romance novelist, I’ve been brushing up on my terminology.”

Lucy met Liam when she was sent to Hudson Hollow for a work project. She moved in with him a few months ago. Lucy was not only my roommate, but my coworker at Heartwarming. She quit to become a writer. Her first book comes out in a few months.

“Then accept your beta hero status with pride and add some chocolate into that batter!” Lucy yells back, unable to hide the smile that forms on her face. She turns around, and I can tell she wants to make sure that our banter hasn’t actually offended Liam. He knows what he signed up for when he stole Lucy from me (as I frequently like to remind him). We come with baggage, and weekly FaceTime calls. “Love you, babe,” she coos.

“Love you, babe!” I shout around a mouthful of English muffin. I look down at my depressing breakfast. I would accept pancakes even if there was no chocolate right now.

“You two are weird,” Liam mumbles in the background.

“So, Liam, pop quiz. Elle’s got a jerk for an upstairs neighbor. What trope are we looking at?” Lucy asks, walking over to the bar in their kitchen. Liam’s frame comes into view, and I can’t help but chuckle when I see him in an apron that says “Property of a romance author.” Liam’s dog, Blue, is splayed out across pretty much the entire kitchen floor, so Liam doesn’t have much room to maneuver. Liam tosses him a blueberry before turning his attention to Lucy.

“Well,” he says, pretending to ponder the question by scratching his jaw. He flips a few locks of his blonde hair out of his face. “I would say neighbors-to-lovers, and from what it sounds like, some enemies-to-lovers as well.” Lucy gives him a high five.

“No!Nolovers.Justenemies,” I grunt back.

The image of Oliver standing over me last night flashes through my mind. I can’t deny that for a moment when I opened my eyes last night, I was mildly terrified. It took me a moment to get my bearings, given that I didn’t intend to fall asleep in the hallway and leave myself exposed to, well,anything. But when I saw Oliver standing over me, the only thing I could think was “Oh shit.” Because the man ishuge. And it wasn’t just because I was sitting down. He is a full head taller than me, and in the middle of arguing with him, I couldn’t help but notice the solid muscles on either side of his neck. Yes, I was standing there, fighting with a stranger, wondering how the hell this guy turns his head. He is literally the definition of tall, dark, and handsome—however much I hate to admit it. His brown hair looked like it had been cut short and was starting to grow back in waves. Dark stubble lined his face, and he looked about as tired as I feel now.

“You are very sassy today,” Lucy notes, sitting on a barstool and pulling her knee into her chest. She’s wearing one of Liam’s sweatshirts, and it drapes halfway off her shoulder in the effortlessly chic way that only men’s clothes do. I try to remember the last time I wore a guy’s sweatshirt, and a wave of sadness comes over me and settles in my chest when I realize I can’t. These calls with Lucy used to be a solace for me, but lately my brain likes to use them as an opportunity to point out everything Lucy has that Idon’t.

“I’m just tired,” I reply automatically.