The closing paperwork was filed for a whole week and a half before she actually ran into Jack in the building. She was usually out early in the mornings, long before most of her neighbors. She was coming home, though, from a particularly interesting schedule with two separate families with kids. Neither had bit on her Bexley dream house but she was 100% certain she’d gotten both families in the neighborhood at least.

Her first stop was her condo to change and she went straight down to the gym. She needed to run off the hectic day. Three miles into her circuit, she noticed she was joined on one side. The large body flashed gold out of the corner of her eye and she turned to find Jack running next to her.

It was February. It had been warmer than normal but still below 40 degrees every time they’d met. She’d seen him in jeans or slacks and long sleeved shirts, usually paired with a sweatshirt or a hoodie. Every time.

Beside her, Jack ran in a pair of gray athletic shorts and a tee-shirt proudly bearing an obnoxiously obvious University of Michigan ‘M’.

She almost fell off the tread mill because god damn he was fit. His thighs bulged in the shorts with every stride, the shirt doing nothing to conceal the breadth and strength of his chest.

She was staring and he was still married.

When he turned and noticed her too, he looked like he was about to fall off his treadmill too.He jumped up on the edges of the track immediately, pulling his headphones out. And there was that amazing smile again.“Hey! What are you doing here?”

His face had mostly healed to faded red lines where the stitches had been. She pulled out her own headphones, slowing her treadmill to a walk. “I live here too. Four doors down from you.”

His face lit up at that. “Oh, no kidding! Why didn’t you say anything?”

She offered him a smile. “I’m not supposed to be biased when I’m showing property. How is the condo treating you?”

He blessed her with another grin. “Really great. I love this neighborhood. There’s this bar, down the street-“

She knew the exact one. “Maguire’s? Right? Back patio, like four bars and a stage?”

“That’s the one! I was over there last night with some of the guys and it was crazy. What was it that I asked you for? Lively! Yeah, it was lively.” He laughed, so easily, and she couldn’t help but smile. He totally seemed like every Midwest boy she’d grown up here with. He wasn’t. Wasn’t from the Midwest and he wasn’t available but she liked that he smiled at her like that because he had this earnest quality about him that was sort of enchanting.

“Hey, if you’re not doing anything tonight, I think we’re going to explore the area around campus. The guys have been promising to show off the college bars. But, I don’t know if I’m ready without back-up.” His eyes twinkled and he looked at her like she was an accomplice.

She pointed at his shirt. “Is that because you have a death wish?” The M was sort of offensive from here. He’d end up in a brawl if he wore that out. Of course, he looked like he could handle it. But, still.

Jack glanced down and gave a full body laugh. “Yeah.Something like that.I’m sort of a U of U alum. Sort of.” She wondered if maybe he’d gotten one of those honorary degrees colleges hand out every now and then to famous people.

“Well, I’m sorry to say that I’m an actual OSU alum and I know for a fact you’re going to need more than back-up if you go out in public in that shirt. No judgment on your poor choice of schools over here,” she waved at her face. “But, some might take exception.”

Her phone erupted in a twinkling rendition of the Bloodhound Gang’s Bad Touch and she snatched it up to turn off her alarm.“Well, shit. I’ve actually already got plans for tonight.” In reality she had fairly big plans that involved shopping for a dress for that second date with Power Broker Dave From Floor Three in a few days but she wasn’t about to say that. “But thanks for the invite. You’ve still got my number, so if you need any advice on how to find your way around, just ask.”

“I definitely will. Thanks Megan.” He looked pleased as punch when he gave her another smile and a wave.

*

Megan’s hand jerked across some paperwork at the loud and sudden crash in the hallway, right outside her door. She looked up in irritation as if she could actually glare through the door and kill whoever was on the other side for the disruption.

Another crash sounded, followed by a very creative string of curse words that roused her curiosity. She rose from her couch to open her front door.

What greeted her caused her to giggle.

Jack Johnson was sitting on the floor, surrounded by little pieces of ribbon and photos and clearly flustered. He looked up as she opened the door and Megan leaned against the wood. He seemed to smile automatically at the sight of her.

“Oh! Hey! I was wondering which one was yours.” He raised a hand in an aborted wave and succeeded in throwing the little fabric bits around. They looked like award ribbons one might receive as a child for sports.Jack grabbed at a couple that floated away. He looked ridiculous.

She managed to squeak out, “Do you want a hand?” Between the giggles she plucked a couple of ribbons up and put them back in the box he’d been carrying them in. She noted, trying not to be creepy about it, that they were awards for hockey. Perhaps one of his kids?

“Thanks. I swear I’m normally more graceful than this but all of my stuff arrived today and it’s just sitting down in the lobby. I’m trying to get it up here really quick like so no one runs off with it.” He brushed his hair back from his eyes with one hand; it just fell right back into his face.

Megan looked at her wrist watch. “I’m still five hours short of my bed time and desperate for a distraction from work if you’re interested in help.”

Jack’s eyes lit up. If it was possible he smiled even harder. “That would be amazing! Like, you could help me load the elevator and then keep it from shutting so I could get everything off. It would only take a trip or something.”

It took them three full trips and almost two hours to move everything from first the lobby, then to the elevator, and then to the last door on the left. Megan was sweaty and sore by the time they finished but she found that she enjoyed the labor, if only because she had her first real conversation with Jack.

They discussed Columbus at length, Megan sharing her favorite bars and restaurants and Jack sharing all the funny things he’d discovered in the last two weeks. She was impressed not only by his incredible ability to lift heavy objects (and the resulting bulgy muscle bits that she was still resolutely ignoring) but also by his easy going manner.

Jack never seemed pretentious or rich or whatever.

He was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, perfectly at home in the Midwest.

As she piled the last box on the kitchen table, a lighter contained simply labeled ‘jerseys’ in Jack’s sloppy handwriting, she realized that this was the longest she’d ever hung out with a guy without ulterior motives.

And she’d really enjoyed herself.

She caught Jack watching her from the other side of the kitchen and smiled at him. “Thanks so much for your help.”

“It’s not a problem. It was actually fun.”

He laughed. “If you can call almost tripping and falling multiple times and breaking my good dishes fun, then sure.” There was a teasing glint to his eyes and she colored. That had happened. Twice.

“If any of them are chipped, please let me know and I’ll replace them.”

He waived her offer away. “I’m sure there are a couple things that are busted from the move in general. I can afford to replace what’s messed up; don’t worry about it.”

Jack gave her a winning smile.

Megan thought about how other than that first box of ribbons, they hadn’t once moved a box with kid stuff in it. Nor had any of the boxes been labeled with names or rooms. She was inexplicably sad and sort of wanted to hug Jack; tell him she was sorry for the trouble he must be going through.

Jack immediately noticed the shift in her mood. “Hey, are you hungry? There’s this Spanish joint up the street I’ve been meaning to try.”

She knew he was talking about La Fogata. It was actually Mexican but it was amazing and if anyone except for a married man was asking, she’d be all over the offer.

“I, uh, should actually be going.I need to finish that paperwork.” She edged towards the door. “I was happy to help. And, uh, good night.” She wouldn’t say that she ran from his condo but she certainly didn’t walk.

*

Another week went by.

The second date with Power Broker Dave from Floor Three went pretty well. She was in the process of accepting date three via text as she walked into the lobby of the building. There was a small smile on the edge of her lips because Dave seemed like he was a smart guy who knew what he wanted in life. She appreciated that.

The large body that she ran into ripped the smile straight from her face, sending her into frowns when her phone flew from her hands and clattered to the floor. She stumbled a few steps before strong hands grabbed her upper arms. “Woah.Are you okay?”

Megan looked the stranger over, noting the genuine concern on his face, the sort of floppy and curly dark brown hair peeking out from beneath a baseball hat, and the incredibly well developed pectoral muscles. She bent to retrieve her phone if only to rip her eyes away from the pecs. Everything appeared to be in working order and she gave the stranger a smile. When he returned it her heart gave a flutter. He was quite adorable. “Nothing broken. No worries. Sorry I ran into you; I have never been very good at the whole texting while walking thing. Especially with these new touch screens.”

That got her an obnoxious, honking laugh in return. It was so surprising that she had to stifle a bark of her own laughter. That was the sort of laugh a twelve year old had. “I’m still in the dark ages.” He fished an old flip phone out of his pocket and waved it at her.

She laughed again.“Vintage. I like it. You probably get better reception than I do.”

The guy was about to respond when a voice caught both their attentions. “Sid! What are you doing?” Her newest neighbor jogged over, jeans stretching around his bulging thighs. He really was ridiculously fit for a pop singer. “Oh, hey! You found Megan! Hi Megan!” Jack was all smiles when he came to a stop next to them.

The stranger, this Sid, turned speculative eyes on her. “So this is Megan?” She frowned, totally confused.

“Megan, this is one of my oldest friends Sid. Sid, this is my former-realtor-now-neighbor Megan.” He seemed so pleased to introduce the two of them and Megan was happy to shake Sid’s hand. Perhaps this was one of the ‘guys’ he’d gone to the bars with the week before.

“I’m glad we ran into you; I was just about to text you actually.” Jack cupped her elbow and she was drawn closer into the conversation. As much as Sid giving her a winning smile made her heart flutter, Jack was making it hammer. She was going to need to bleach her brain and get rid of these ridiculous thoughts. “We need a great place for dinner. Nothing too heavy; we have to play tomorrow.”

Sid must be in the band, she realized. The entire band must be fucking ripped, she realized.

“Fish or Vegetables?”

Sid and Jack exchanged a look. They turned back to her and said, “Sushi,” at the same time. She laughed at them because it was really obvious they’d known each other for ages.

“You should check out Haiku.It’s like two blocks north: right behind La Fogata. Really good. Dark and quiet, too.” She figured having a more relaxed and less obvious dining experience would be preferable for famous people. As she spoke Jack was typing into his phone.

“Got it. The menu looks good.” He grinned up at her.

He really really needed to stop doing that.

Bleach.In her brain. She needed to get away from these two, stat. “Well.Have a good dinner! I’ll see you later!”

Jack’s smile faltered for just a minute and Sid seemed oblivious to her vanishing attempt but they both wished her a good night. She had to remind herself to breath once she got into the elevator, a hand heavy against her chest. She was going straight to hell in a hand basket.

*

So, the thing was, her phone really wasn’t okay, she discovered. At lunch the next day, she received five texts at once. Two were from Dave, happy about the chance at date three, one from Maxwell reminding her to be prepared for a presentation later in the week, and one from Jack, a picture. All the texts were time stamped from the night before.

Jack’s had apparently been sent around 11 PM, hours after they’d parted ways. A mountain of plates were stacked precariously on one of the tables at Haiku, empty beer bottles taking up space. In the picture, a grinning and very likely tipsy Jack was giving her a cheesy thumbs up. The text attached read: ‘This place is amazing! I’m totally bringing you here some time to thank you for the help with the condo and directions to great food.’

Megan’s head hit the desk with a thud loud enough to draw her secretary into her office. Grace was the sharpest tack on the floor and kept Megan’s life running with a scary efficiency. The older woman paused at the door and looked upon her with humor as Megan gave a pitiful sigh. “Did you just now realize those sassy black and red pumps aren’t really Louboutin?”

Megan’s head snapped up and she looked down at the shoes in question. “You lie.These cost me close to $500.”

Grace laughed and joined her in the office, falling gracefully into the ‘client’ chair. “If they were legit they’d have cost you closer to $700.”

Megan glared down at the shoes for a very long, calculated moment before sighing again and giving up on the argument. They still looked fabulous. “Have you ever had a thought so horrible that it makes you the worst person ever just because it popped into your head?”

A wry quirk of the lips was the beginning of her answer from Grace. “Darling.I’ve been divorced twice. So far as I’m concerned my life is one long line of horrible thoughts after another.”

That could be true, Megan supposed. But! Really! Jack was fucking so down to earth attractively sexy that it physically hurt because that was a married man right there. It didn’t matter one fucking bit if he and his wife were on the outs. She’d never been the other woman. She never would be. “I’m serious.Like, I keep thinking these things and they are the worst things I could possibly think. I’m not a bad person like this!”

“Whoa killer! No one said you’re a bad person. They’re just thoughts-“

Megan cut her off with a wail. “I’m not a home wrecker!”

That stunned Grace into silence. Startled, wide-eyed silence. And then she got over it. “Home wrecker?! What the hell have you gotten yourself into with Dave!? Is he married? If he’s married, so help me, I will destroy every ounce of sanity and order he’s got in his life. I have this power. I’m a secretary.”

Grace’s threats weren’t hollow but Megan didn’t really want to try and explain. She let her head drop again, muttering, “Don’t worry about it.I’ll get over it. Everything will be fine.”

Silence greeted her statement. When she raised her head, Grace appeared to be trying her hand at mind reading and Megan still felt like shit.

*

In an effort to forget about Jack, Megan pushed date three up to that evening with Dave. She took a long shower, taking care to shave all the parts that needed shaving, and spent a ridiculous time picking out what to wear.

The fact that she looked into the mirror each time she tried a new outfit and thought, ‘I wonder if Jack would like this dress’ and how freaking ridiculous that was didn’t get lost on her.

She was ready to go, waiting at the lobby door at eight. She liked being prompt.

Also, it was eight PM on a Monday. If they wanted to miss the bar crowd anywhere within a four mile radius they needed to be going. But, Dave was late and her attention drifted around the room, coming to rest on the full windows looking into the gym.

She should just give up. She should go back upstairs and forget about life and everything after and-

On the far side of the room, Jack Johnson was lifting weights. She offhandedly thought he was doing bench presses. Fully consciously she thought she wanted to lick every inch of straining muscle showing beneath the sleeveless t-shirt.

At some point in time, she’d surely screwed up. She’d screwed up bad and this was her punishment and it wasn’t over yet.

At the far side of the room, where the free weights were located, that same Jack Johnson was standing and stretching. He was rotating his torso; sweat tracked down his temples. He looked like a mess. He looked like a sweaty, gross, manly mess and Megan had to clench her legs together to stop the shaking.

He caught sight of her for a split second before his stretching continued. Megan sucked in a breath and then forgot how to breathe all together when his eyes snapped back to her form. The smile he gave her was blinding, even across the room. She was like a deer caught in headlights, frozen to the spot, as Jack crossed the gym to the door.

She was almost blown away by the heat radiating from his body and the smell of pure male that came into the lobby. It made her head swim. “Hey! You look amazing, Megan!” Damn him. Damn him to hell.If she was going down, it was all his fault. He must be doing this on purpose.

“Yeah, hey, I uh- I’ve got a-“

“Looking good baby!” Loud, confident. Dave’s voice managed to break her attention long enough to look away from Jack. Her date slung an arm around her shoulders. Dave even went so far as to press a kiss to the side of her head. That was weird. He’d never done that before.

She felt trapped, sandwiched against Dave. “Hey.You’re late.”

Dave laughed. For some reason it sent a chill down her spine. Completely unintentionally she immediately compared the somewhat sarcastic sounding laugh to the clear joy she heard when Jack laughed. Dave’s eyes were glued on the sweaty form still hovering nearby.

“You gonna introduce us babe? One of your neighbors?” There was a current of warning in Dave’s question and Megan did her best to clear the fog from her head.

“Yeah. Um. Dave, this is Jack. He just moved in down the hall.”

Jack seemed almost visibly deflated when he stuck out a hand. “Nice to meet you Dave.” Defeated. He looked defeated.

“We’re gonna get hit with the rush if we don’t hurry it up; cool?” Dave’s personality had seemed to take a complete one eighty. She glanced sharply over at her date. He gave her a bit of a side hug.

“You guys are going out to dinner?”

Dave had the biggest shit eating grin that Megan had ever seen.“Yup.Third date so it’s kinda big.” Dave gave the most obvious of winks that confused the hell out of Megan. “The Top. Over in Bexley. I had to make a few calls to get reservations so quick. And, we’re about to be late.” He slapped Jack on the shoulder. “You have a good night lifting weights or whatever.”

As Dave pulled Megan away she turned to look back at Jack, still startled by how upset he seemed. She gave him a smile and a wave as they left out the front doors.

*