Until Alex Read Free Page A

in reality. And my reality didn’t include expensive gifts or happy endings.
     
    ALEX
    Twelve hours had passed since the stranger left me sitting alone on the picnic table. The same amount of time since I’d shed my last tear.
    Footsteps sounded in the hallway causing me to spring from my aunt’s loveseat and hurry to the front door. I lowered my eye to the peephole and instantly my cheeks heated and my heart thundered in my chest. It was refreshing to know it still worked. To know I was capable of feeling more than just anger, sadness, and guilt.
    The stranger’s eyes focused on the floor as he passed by with his head tucked down, stopping at the apartment diagonal to my aunt’s. His dark hair flipped at his ears and the back of his neck like he’d worn a ball cap all day and just removed it.
    A blonde in her early twenties stepped up beside him, hanging sloppily on his arm. Her barely-there skirt and too-tight black halter top left little to the imagination. Then, like a cat on a scratching post, she rubbed her overexposed body up his side as he unlocked the door.
    Classy .
    Her seductive eyes never left his as she slipped inside his apartment. Oh, he was definitely getting some. And he totally knew it. By the looks of the girl, the whole building knew it.
    “Watch out for that one.”
    My entire body jolted before I spun around.
    My aunt sat on the sofa with her eyes on her iPad. It had only been a month since our initial meeting, but her shoulder length dark hair, pouty lips, and green eyes still struck me speechless. She was the spitting image of my mother.
    I walked back to the loveseat and dropped down across from her, crossing my legs beneath me. “What do you mean?” I settled in, hoping she’d elaborate. Divulge information. Shed some light on the mysterious guy across the hall.
    “Hayden.”
    Hayden . I let the name and his image mesh in my mind. Yeah. I could see it.
    She lowered her iPad and lifted an all-knowing eyebrow. “It’s who you’ve been looking for, isn’t it?”
    Having no desire to deny it or explain it, I shrugged. Plus , I wasn’t really sure how to explain it. Hayden was a stranger. Someone I’d barely spoken to. Someone I knew nothing about. Someone whose mere presence comforted me in ways no one else’s had. 
    See?  I was a mess.
    “Well, allow me to tell you a little something about Hayden.”
    I leaned in, ready to absorb it all.
    “In the three years he’s lived here, I’ve never seen him bring home the same girl twice. It’s a different one all the time. And he never lets them stay. They’re always sneaking out an hour or two after they arrive.”
    A rush of disappointment washed over me. It was inexplicable. I didn’t even know him. “So why do you let him live here?”
    My aunt lifted a shoulder. “He pays his rent on time and doesn’t make any noise. That’s all I care about.”
    “I bet if he lived next door, you’d hear some noise.” I gasped as the words left my mouth. It had been a month. A long trying month since I felt the urge to spew sarcasm. And though it wasn’t delivered with the same oomph I normally used, it felt amazing to just exist in the moment with nothing else weighing me down. Not my sadness. Not my anger. Not my guilt.
    My aunt smiled. 
    Fighting back my own smile, I glanced around her living room. As if I’d been living in an unfocused microscope since arriving, everything twisted into focus. Holy red plaid . Sofas. Ottoman. Curtains.
    How had I not noticed?
    Little wooden trinkets sat atop her weathered maple furniture. Doilies rested below the light fixtures, fitting into the country motif. Our housekeeper back home would’ve been appalled by the fine layer of dust coating the furniture, but it worked for my aunt. And her taking me in when I had nowhere else to go, worked for me.
    “So he lives alone?” I looked back to Katherine, hoping she’d reveal more than just the specifics of Hayden’s sex life. But she only nodded.