The notice came across Megan’s desk late in the afternoon, one sleepy February Monday. She’d long since made her last phone call and her hair was piled messily on top of her head. She slipped her reading glasses back on to view the folder full of information.It was a priority client. Megan was used to those lately.With the rise in tech-based companies within the greater Columbus area, the realty company was doing a brisk business with young up and comers. They were usually recently wealthy and looking for a condo in the $200,000 range.

The usual, you know? Two bedrooms. Usually a townhouse or loft. A good enough view to impress a one night stand until they were naked.

The first thing that had caught her attention about this specific notice was the client’s name. She had to check twice; she even verified with her secretary and Maxwell, the owner of the company. But it wasn’t a mistake.

Jack Johnson was moving to Columbus, Ohio.

She wasn’t a fan, per say, but she had an appreciation for his music. Before this job, before having a steady paycheck and human hours, she’d worked an Irish bar. One of her regulars over there had dumped $10 into the jukebox every Thursday and played an entire Jack Johnson album. So, she wasn’t a fan. But she sure was familiar.

There was no real explanation for why he’d need a place in Columbus but it wasn’t her job to question why her clients arrived. It was her job to make sure they’d have the perfect home. She checked the clock: just past 4. The client profile said that Mr. Johnson would be in town in two days. She mentally shrugged and went to work.

*

Megan was running behind on their first appointment. She’d spilled her coffee on her way out the door and then had gotten stuck down in the Arena district for close to twenty minutes due to an accident. It was fine though, she thought. With the client file firmly in hand, she approached the three story brownstone she’d be showing Mr. Johnson first thing today.

There was a rental car in the driveway that announced his presence. She put on her nicest smile and approached, ready to greet the singer. She went over his details again, trying to remember to ask about his wife, Jill. Megan had picked this specific house because it had six bedrooms and a great backyard, perfect for a family of five. Wikipedia was her most excellent partner in crime when researching clients.

The car door opened as she approached and she actually stopped dead in her tracks as he climbed out. This guy was a giant! She couldn’t remember at all what he had looked like online but this guy . . . this guy did not look like a singer. He looked like a linebacker. His face was a maze of angles, scars littered freely across his strong chin and even on those ridiculously high cheekbones.

“Megan?” The cupid’s bow mouth gave her a wide smile and she pulled herself together quickly and extended a hand.

“Hello, Mr. Johnson and welcome to Columbus. I hope your flight was all right.Is it just you in town right now?”

Mr. Johnson frowned, looking a little confused, but nodded all the same. “Yup.Just me.And please, call me Jack.” His hand shake was unsurprisingly strong.His hands, though, were rough. Another interesting development, she thought.

She launched immediately into her sales pitch for the neighborhood.Bexley was one of the oldest areas in Columbus and the charm had always enchanted her. She gave off some generic facts about the area as she unlocked the front door and held it open for him.

Jack looked a little overwhelmed and she knew the house had the propensity to do that. She’d been trying to unload the property for close to three months now, one of her longest turnovers. People fell in love with the neighborhood but balked at the price. She was starting to think that this house would never sell which was a shame. She just knew this place would be a castle for young children with all the nooks and crannies.

“It’s really . . . big.” He turned a slow circle in the living room. His trainers squeaked off the freshly polished cherry wood floor.

She gave an encouraging smile. “Plenty of room to grow in to. The Master is on the first level with an additional five upstairs, the extra could always be used as an office. The basement is fully finished. It would make a great play room. And, check out the backyard.” She led him through the kitchen, pointing out recent renovations, and opened the door to the patio.It was rather warm for February and she took a deep breath. It almost smelled like spring. Almost. As Jack stepped past her, she caught a whiff of him too. He had a subtle spice to him and she smiled. He might look like a linebacker but he smelled like a cowboy.

She mentally slapped herself.He was not only a client but also a married client. “Now, can’t you just imagine a swing set and a sandbox over along the fence. Maybe a tree house in the oak.” She knew she sounded a little wistful. She could imagine all of these things clearly.
When Jack turned to agree with her, she noticed he looked almost sad. “I definitely can, but that’s not really a concern right now.”

Megan was a professional and she knew when to gloss over things. “All right. Can I show you the rest of the house? There’s a-“

“I think-“Jack looked appalled that he’d interrupted her. He rubbed at the back of his neck and that was when Megan noticed he wasn’t wearing a wedding band. Oh god, how could she have been so callous? There was clearly something wrong with his family life and what if he was breaking up with his wife and was moving to Columbus alone and- oh Lord. She felt like a fool all of a sudden.

“There’s another house.Just up the block.A little smaller but just as charming and still within the neighborhood.” She was expecting him to look relieved but he still looked uncomfortable with the idea.

“How far away from Nationwide Arena are we?”

The Arena District? Megan knew exactly how far they were because she lived no more than a ten minute walk from all the sports facilities in the city. She couldn’t even begin to imagine why he’d want to be that close to downtown. “Maybe a half hour. There’s a bit of a shuffle getting around downtown from here.”

He smiled, the first good one since they’d met.He looked boyishly charming when he did that. Megan gave herself another mental slap.“The closer the better.”

*

It took another two days to put together a portfolio of possible locations along the river. They had precious few locations within the actual Arena district, mostly selling those to high profile athletes and mid-level management types at the Nationwide headquarters. Just to the north though was her neighborhood.It was . . . interesting. Short North was the hub of the gay and lesbian community in Columbus and although Megan didn’t bat for the other team, she enjoyed the friendliness there.

She wasn’t about to show off the area to a family man, though.

She settled on three houses in the Victorian Village. All three bedroom bricks with easy access to the highway and all within walking distance of Goodale Park. The park was the typical selling point for this area.

She met back up with Jack just after one in the afternoon. He looked absolutely wrecked, like he’d spent all morning running. He was all smiles for her, though, when she explained how close they were to the arena at the first house.

They weren’t there long. He didn’t like the parking situation, all off street with the easy possibility of getting parked in. The second house wasn’t much better.

The third house was a bit of a disaster. She thought she’d hit the nail on the head with all the sunshine and he’d definitely liked the spacious basement. But . . . but there was something about all the room that was bothering him. She figured it was the family thing. He had to be in deep.

“I’m really sorry I’m not digging these places. They’re really beautiful but they are really way too much space. And, I don’t know about the neighborhood.It’s nice, yeah, but it’s so quiet. I would have expected Columbus to be more . . . lively. College town, you know.” He smiled apologetically and she blinked at him dumbly. She had clearly completely misread this client, which usually wasn’t a problem. Usually she was awesome at this sort of thing.

“Lively.We can definitely do lively.” She still wasn’t about to subject the father of three to Short North, but the Warehouse District might work. “Are you free tomorrow? I have two ideas that might work perfectly.” There was a loft, right off Neil Street, that was spacious, private, and only two blocks from a museum. That might be just right.

“I’ve got a game.I’ll actually be out of town for a few days.”

She didn’t even stop to think what he meant by game. That was probably code for something. Maybe he was in town recording an album.Strange, but not unheard of. Why, just two months ago she’d gotten a rapper settled up in Dublin-

“But, if you keep looking I can give you my number?You can text me with possibilities?” Hopeful. Jack sounded hopeful that he’d score her digits or something and for some reason it made an anger flare in her. He might be in the middle of an awful messy divorce but he was still technically married right?

And then he smiled and she was entirely convinced he only had the best intentions. She was such a pushover sometimes. “Oh, sure. We’ve got a couple of properties up on the website that you can look over at your leisure and hopefully we can schedule a viewing once you get back; we should be able to get you squared away within the next week.”

And now he was grateful. “Perfect. As much as I love not having to wash my own sheets the whole hotel thing got old about three years ago.” He held out his phone and she dutifully punched her number into it. He sent her a text when she handed it back and that’s how she ended up with Jack Johnson’s cell number.

*

A picture of a beautiful old building in a downtown area appeared on her phone roughly twenty hours later.She was buried under a mountain of closing paperwork for a younger couple on the fringes of Campus-land.

‘Anything like this?’

Jack.

The building was clearly an historic building, having original molding and dated 1857. She squinted hard at the picture because she thought she could see the CN tower in the background. Was he in Toronto?

She checked her cheat sheet on apartments in the downtown area. ‘Only one.It’s a bit small and on the wrong side of downtown.What do you like about this one?’

He sent back another picture of the gym, clear through floor to ceiling windows on the renovated first level.‘facilities’.

Megan pulled her file for Jack and added the need for a proximity to a gym to her list of wants. She had seven or eight features scratched out already.It was good to be able to have another starting point.

*

An Italian restaurant was his next request. He sent along a photo from a snowy wonderland, the restaurant clearly in another downtown area. The sign on the building was in English with French scrawled beautifully underneath. In fact, every sign on the street in his picture was either in English with a French subtitle or just flat out French.

He must be touring Canada for some reason.

She added it to her list and sent along links to places in the Warehouse District. The first she’d thought of, the loft, had no facilities. The second was a good four blocks from food of any sort. Just no good on that front either.

*

Megan was almost at her wits end with this client profile. She’d been sending him links to properties around town for five straight days and he’d yet to express an interest in any of them. He found fault with each.

Finally, finally, he sent her a link off the company website for a condo.

In Short North. As soon as she saw the listing she let out a sigh. Because she knew without even clicking the link that it was the open condo four doors down from her own.

‘It’s a great living space and the gym is excellent.Also, close to the Arena.All the things you might want.’ She paused.Sometimes people were totally okay with living in the gay neighborhood. Sometimes they really weren’t. She’d had both responses to Short North and she had no idea how to go about presenting this bit of data.

She hoped she’d get lucky and rather than telling him over text, she simply sent her message along with her available appointment times over the next week. He’d said he’d be back in a day. He’d get a pretty good idea, she figured, once he saw the neighborhood.

*

When she saw him for their appointment she almost dropped her briefcase.The right side of his face looked like it’d been used as a punching bag.He had a black eye and his cheek and his brow were both sporting wide cuts, stitched shut.

He was still smiling though, shaking away her apparent concern. “You should see the other guy. Now, show me this place. I had a chance to Google the neighborhood and it sounds awesome.” Well, she thought, at least he knew what he was getting into.

They were on the front step and she punched in her personal code. “The building is locked down around the clock and there’s a night watchman. Not that there’s a whole lot of crime in the area but this is the most expensive property around and it gives the residence a sense of security.” She had never once had a problem with crime here.

He marveled over the gym facilities on the first floor.It was run by a third party but membership was included in the rent. “There’s a pool in the basement too. It’s a little gloomy down there but it’s really well maintained.”

“Does it get busy?” He watched the dozen or so patrons on treadmills.

“No. This is pretty average. Usually it’s the tenants in here but they do get outsiders from the neighborhood. All awesome, though.I promise. ”When he turned back to her he was grinning. “Ready to see the condo?”

He nodded enthusiastically. At the fourth floor they squeezed past her right side neighbor as they exited the elevator. Seth gave her a wave and gave Jack a funny look. She just smiled back at him and walked to the end of the hall. Seth was nice, but nosy. She’d probably be getting a knock on her door that evening when they both returned from work.

The last open condo in her building had been vacant for close to a month now. So close to campus, a lot of the renters were professors and February was just not a good time to move rental property. She chatted through this explanation as she opened the door and held it for Jack.

His eyes were wide as he took in the high ceilings, the shining counter tops, and the stunning view. They were high enough that all of downtown to the south was visible over the tops of the café across the street. To the west she could make out the Arena, which she pointed out to him.

“It’s about a ten minute walk or a five minute drive down to the Arena District. The condo is small for you, only three bedrooms, but it’s the largest in the building. Most are two, or one.” She had the only single on the floor.

“I love it.It feels really . . . “ he looked around for a word.

She supplied, “Open but not too much?”

Jack smiled his thanks and something in her heart tripped. She really hoped she was wrong about his family situation, that they’d join him shortly. Because if he took the condo and lived here and didn’t have a wife with him, she could get way too used to seeing that smile every day. Or however often they would run into each other. And they would run into each other.

It was sort of super weird for her to be showing a place down the hall from her own place.She thought, as she took in his naked satisfaction with the condo, that she should have handed the case over. She should have stepped back as soon as she had found out he wanted to see this property.

“When can I move in?”

At least she’d unload the condo.

*