Page 22 of Too Good to Be True

“I’ll come with you.”

He seemed pleased with her answer, and they got out of the car and entered the building together.

They were greeted by a cheerful young receptionist who looked doe-eyed at Nick and ignored Stacy completely.

“Hi. I’m Nick Perez, and I’m here to look at the apartment for lease.”

“Right. I spoke to you on the phone earlier.”

He smiled and nodded.

The woman reached into a drawer and pulled out a set of keys. “We’re short-handed today; otherwise, I would show it to you myself.”

“No problem,” he said, taking the keys from her.

She explained that one key was for the door to the building and the other was for the unit. After she gave him directions to the building, they went back out to the car.

“Michiganders are really nice,” he said as Stacy drove them away from the office.

She nodded, electing not to share her theory that the women he’d met had been especially nice. “As opposed to Floridians?”

“Florida has a lot of crabby old people.”

Define old. “I assumed the sunshine would make everyone happier.”

“Sunshine doesn’t cure everything,” he said as she pulled up to the building with the vacancy.

Soon they were standing outside of unit 212. He unlocked the door and motioned her to go in first. Then he followed, closing the door behind him.

It almost felt like a date, like he’d brought her to his place for the first time. A tingle ran up her spine, and she suddenly felt overly warm, though she wasn’t wearing a coat.

“It looks just like it did online,” Nick said as they walked into the living room.

The apartment was small, yet it didn’t feel cramped. It was also clean and freshly painted in light, neutral colors. She followed him into the kitchen, which boasted modern appliances and white cabinets and connected to a small dining room.

“Not bad,” he commented as he looked around.

She agreed, but she kept quiet since he hadn’t asked for her opinion. Then they went down the short hall to the bedrooms.

They entered the larger of the two rooms first, which was obviously considered the main bedroom. She envisioned the room with furniture in it, his bed against the longest wall. From there, he’d have a view out the sizable window that overlooked a courtyard. It was a sunny spring day, and birds were chirping merrily in the tree outside the window.

“This is really nice,” she said, breaking her vow of silence.

“I’m glad you think so.”

She smiled, although she wasn’t sure why her opinion mattered. “Do you have furniture?”

“Fran’s going to loan me a few pieces, but I plan on buying most of it myself. Right now, I’m sleeping on a twin bed in my cousin’s old room. It’s still decorated like it was when we were teenagers, and it smells like sweaty socks.”

She laughed, but then it struck her that his teenage years hadn’t been as long ago as hers had.

“This room isn’t very big, but it’ll fit a double bed, maybe even a queen. Not that I need a huge bed, but…”

His sentence drifted off as if he’d realized they were discussing beds, a personal subject if ever there was one. Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just a piece of furniture. Still, there was a difference between beds and, say, sofas, unless it was a sofa bed.

She moved over to the window and pretended to be fascinated by the bird activity outside. “I love this time of year, when all the birds return.”

He came up behind her and peered outside. He stood a couple steps back, but she felt his heat as if he were pressed up against her. Her olfactory nerve was working overtime, and with no other smells in the empty room, his cologne was especially potent.