Chapter 1

I didn’t realize how much I owned until I was halfway up the stairs, questioning every life decision that led me here.

One box in my arms. Another slipping against my hip. A suitcase dragging behind me like it had a personal vendetta.

“For someone starting over,” I muttered, adjusting my grip, “this is starting to feel like a punishment.”

But I kept going.

Because this wasn’t just a move.

It was a reset. A necessary one.

The kind you don’t plan for, the kind that gets decided for you, in a single moment, by a single person who had no business having that much power over your life in the first place.

I pushed that thought down quickly.

New place. New environment. No history trailing behind me like smoke. No familiar voices attached to things I was trying to forget.

Just me.

Finally.

By the time I got inside, my arms were already sore. I set the box down with a quiet thud and took a slow look around.

It wasn’t bad.

Actually, it was really nice.

Neat. Cozy. Warm in a way that felt intentional like someone had actually thought about how it would feel to live here, not just exist in it. A large window sat across from the door, and without thinking, I walked over and pushed it open.

Fresh air slid in immediately.

And for a moment,

Everything felt still.

My chest tightened.

Calm wasn’t something I trusted anymore. It had a way of sitting right before everything fell apart, soft and quiet, like it was lulling you into forgetting to protect yourself.

I knew better now.

“Don’t get comfortable,” I murmured to myself.

I turned around,

And stopped.

My door was open.

And there was a man standing in it.

Tall. Light-skinned. Dark curls falling slightly forward over a face that had absolutely no business looking like that. Broad shoulders. Relaxed posture. The kind of stillness that didn’t come from being calm, it came from someone who never needed to prove anything.

He wasn’t looking around the apartment.

He was looking at me.

Steady. Unbothered. Like he’d been there long enough to already form an opinion.

Something moved through my body that I did not ask for.

Heat. Low and immediate, settling somewhere it had no right to settle within the first sixty seconds of meeting a stranger.

I crossed my arms.

“What are you doing here?”

My voice came out even. Controlled.

“Observing,” he said.

“Observing what exactly?”

“You.”

I let out a small breath.

“That’s not creepy at all.”

Not even a flicker. Just that same steady gaze that made me feel like he was reading something written on my skin that I hadn’t put there.

I stepped forward, slowly, closing the distance just enough to feel the shift in the air between us.

He didn’t move. Didn’t step back. Didn’t react.

And somehow that was the most irritating thing about him.

I reached past him for the door handle, my arm brushing close enough to his side that I caught the faint warmth radiating off him. Something clean. Understated.

I filed that away and pretended I hadn’t.

“Is this how you welcome everyone here?” I murmured.

“You’re not very careful.”

I raised a brow. “And that concerns you?”

“It should concern you.”

The way he said it, calm, certain, like a fact and not a warning sat in the air a beat longer than it should have.

I held his gaze. Then smiled slightly.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

He stepped back.

“You should lock your door.”

He turned and started walking away. Unhurried. Like I wasn’t still standing there.

“Wait.”

He stopped. Didn’t turn fully.

“You didn’t tell me your name.”

A pause.

“Nate.”

“Nate,” I repeated softly.

Something shifted in his eyes. There and gone before I could name it.

“Isabel,” I added. He hadn’t asked. I gave it anyway.

His gaze held mine a second longer than was necessary. Than was polite. Than was safe.

Then,

“Lock your door.”

And he left.

I stood there staring at the empty doorway.

So that was the landlord.

Olivia had mentioned a brother who owned the building older, quiet, kept to himself. She’d said it casually, the way you mention furniture. Like he was just part of the apartment’s features.

She had undersold him. Significantly.

I closed the door slowly.

The click echoed softly through the apartment.

I pressed my back against it.

It hadn’t even been twenty four hours since I moved in.

And I already needed a change of underwear.

I pushed off the door and pressed both hands to my cheeks.

“Absolutely not,” I said out loud. To no one. Just myself. To whatever version of me thought a fresh start meant uncomplicated.

Because that man,

Whatever he was,

Was not uncomplicated.

My phone buzzed against the box on the coffee table.

It was Olivia,

I answered immediately.

“Tell me you didn’t die carrying your boxes,” she said.

I dropped onto the couch. “Wow. No ‘hi’? No ‘how are you feeling’? Just straight to my survival rate?”

“You’re dramatic. Are you in?”

“Yeah.” I glanced around. “The place is actually really nice.”

“Told you. My brother keeps everything in good condition, he’s very..”she paused, “particular about his space.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it.

“Already met him actually.”

The line went quiet for a second.

“…Nate came to your apartment?”

“Mhm.”

Another pause. Longer this time. The kind Olivia did when she was choosing her words carefully.

“Isabel.”

“Olivia.”

“I’m serious.” Her voice dropped slightly, that soft but firm tone she only used when she actually meant something. “Nate isn’t someone you want to get complicated with. Like at all.”

I frowned. “I literally just met him.”

“I know you,” she said simply.

I opened my mouth to argue and closed it again because honestly, fair.

“He also has a girlfriend,” she added. Almost like an afterthought. Almost. “Has for a while. She’s very… present.”

Something about the way she said present made me decide not to ask follow up questions.

“I’m not here for complications,” I said. “I’m here for a fresh start, remember?”

“Mhm.” She didn’t sound convinced. “Just be cool, okay? He’s my brother and you’re my best friend and I love you both and I would like to keep it that way.”

“Olivia, relax.”

“I’m relaxed.”

“You don’t sound relaxed.”

“Because I know you,” she repeated.

I laughed softly. “I’m here for peace.”

A pause.

“That’s what worries me.”

After we hung up, I set my phone down and leaned back into the cushions.

The apartment settled into quiet around me.

My eyes drifted toward the door.

The same door he had walked through like boundaries were a suggestion.

“Nate,” I murmured.

The name felt strange on my tongue.

Not bad strange.

Just new. Like trying on something that fit better than expected and not knowing how to feel about that.

I exhaled slowly.

Because something about him wasn’t sitting right with me and not in the way things usually didn’t sit right. Not irritation. Not discomfort.

Something warmer than both.

Something that had no business being there on day one.

I dropped my head back against the couch.

New place. New start. New me.

And somehow, within the first hour,

I had already met the one person who felt like trouble in the best and worst way possible.

I closed my eyes.

Don’t, I told myself.

But even I didn’t sound convincing.