I loved the townhouse community I lived in with its small matching houses and community center and pool, but it wasn’t easy to avoid people when all the houses had no space between them and no private backyards. Not that it was a bad thing. Because of this, I had made friends with a bunch of my neighbors, Bo being one of them.
Soon after moving in, he and I bonded over the fact that we were the only people our age in the development who didn’t have kids or weren’t trying to conceive them. It was a great place for building lasting friendships. But it was not a good place for love, unless awkward run-ins with an ex-lover were your thing.
I looked back at Bo, and he was still staring at me with big puppy dog eyes. I couldn’t help but smile at his persistence. “Fine. I’ll check her out with you. Are you happy?”
“Very,” he said, hopping off the bed.
When I stood up, he gave me a once-over and grimaced, waving a hand in front of me. “You need to do something about all of this though.”
I looked down at my wrinkled pj’s and could only imagine the mess that my dirty blonde hair was right now. Still, I had no interest in getting dolled up for the straight, dark, and mysterious single mother next door. Not that I had a problem with kids. The kid wouldn’t be the issue. It would be my stupid heart that never seemed to want to give anyone a chance. That and the fact that she was most likely straight, just like almost everyone else in this small town.
I stared at Bo and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Contrary to what you might think, I don’t care how good looking this girl is. I’m not trying to get with her, so it really doesn’t matter how I look.”
Bo grabbed me by the shoulders and directed me to the bathroom. “At least brush your teeth. It’s called having a little pride. Sheesh.”
Once I was standing in front of my bathroom mirror with my toothbrush in my mouth, I realized Bo was right. I hadn’t taken the time to wash off my makeup the night before, and my hair was now sticking in every direction. I sighed, then washed my face, put on a little eyeliner, and pulled my hair back into a messy bun.
When I walked out of the bathroom, Bo let out a low whistle. “See. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now get changed, so we can go meet this bombshell.”
I did as he said, and within a few minutes, I was following him as he skipped down the stairs and out my front door. I shielded my eyes from the bright August sun and looked to my left where a big U-Haul sat in the driveway. I walked a few more steps across my short sidewalk and spotted a little girl sitting on the back of the truck, staring down at an iPad. As we approached, her head shot up and she smiled over at us, waving excitedly. “Bonjour! Hola! Guten Tag! Are you my new neighbors?”
Bo chuckled, not trying to hide his amusement over our young neighbor’s multilingual greeting. He bent down so he was at her level. “I’m Bo. I live on the other side of the neighborhood, but this is Kari. She lives right next door.”
Her dark brown eyes lit up when she looked over at me, and there was something about her smile that seemed familiar. Then a voice that was also strangely familiar came from the front of the house. “Bailey, what did I tell you about talking to…”
The words were cut short when those big dark eyes latched onto mine. The eyes I hadn’t seen in a decade, but never forgot. My mind immediately flashed back to the first night I saw them.
It was the weekend following our first week of classes and like any good college freshman, I was sufficiently drunk. After spending most of high school as the closeted girl, I had vowed to be my authentic self in college and was celebrating this newfound freedom by partying with my floormates who hadn’t even flinched when I told them I was a lesbian. The only problem was, unlike most of them, I could count the amount of times I had drank on one hand.
Walking out of my dorm room where we’d been pregaming, I realized I was already way too drunk. That’s when I saw her. She walked out of the bathroom at the same moment I was stumbling by. Her long dark hair was soaking wet from the shower. She was holding a bathroom tote and was wearing tight cotton shorts and a black tank top that showed off her ripped biceps, one that had a large tattoo of some sort of symbol. My eyes not-so-subtly traced the length of her whole body, but it was her eyes that stopped me in my tracks.
I stopped so quickly that my roommate ran into me from behind, pushing me forward right into the pretty girl. Her strong arms grabbing my shoulders helped break my fall, but my eyes never left hers. I giggled uncontrollably as I stared up at the girl who was just a couple inches taller than me. “Your eyes are really pretty. Like, really, really pretty. What color are they?”
To my surprise, the girl in front of me, still holding onto my arms, chuckled softly. “Dark brown, I guess. You could probably give me a better idea though. I don’t think I’ve ever stared at them as much as you are right now.”
Her joke brought me back to reality, sobering me enough to realize I was embarrassing myself. “Shit. Sorry. I’m being weird, right?”
My embarrassment didn’t stop me from giggling again as I heard my friends laugh at the show I was putting on.
“Don’t worry about it,” the girl said cooly. “I’m not one to complain about a pretty girl staring at me.”
“Are you a lesbian?” I asked in wonder, as if I had just found out she was a unicorn. Although, in my drunken state, finding another lesbian at my small university a week into the school year felt like finding a unicorn.
Her lips quirked up into a slight smirk. “I don’t like to label myself.”
“Wow, who are y—?” The sudden urge to throw up cut off my question.
I ran into the bathroom to avoid losing the contents of my stomach on some hot girl’s feet. I made it to the toilet just in time, and after a minute of upchucking my dinner, turned to see that not only had all of my friends followed me in, but also the hot mystery girl. Great.
I stood and walked to the sink to wash my hands, praying that the room would stop spinning soon. When I stumbled away from the sink, the same strong arms from earlier grabbed ahold of me. Those big dark eyes bore into me so hard, I thought I might melt into a puddle right there in the bathroom.
“We should probably get you back to your room.” My knight in shining armor removed her eyes from mine to look toward my friends. “You guys can go. I’ll take her back to her room to make sure she doesn’t get cited for underage drinking.”
My friends quickly agreed and left the two of us standing alone in the bathroom. I felt the strong tattooed arm slip around my waist as its owner stared down at me. “I’m Kacey Caldwell, by the way.”
I couldn’t respond because we had started walking and all of my focus was on trying to put one foot in front of the other. When we got to my door, I stopped and fumbled for my keys, clumsily dropping them on the ground. Kacey reached down and picked them up, unlocking the door for me, before leading me inside.
“Which bed is yours?” she asked calmly.
I pointed to the bed on the right side of the room with the white and pink striped bedding. Kacey’s lips tilted up on just one side and she lifted her eyebrow ever so slightly. “Cute bed.”