“Hi yourself.”
I had to look up. Way up. He was tall, more than six inches taller than me despite the gravity-defying heels I was wearing. And that short black hair, those dark eyes. And those muscles, barely contained in that collared shirt of his? Yikes. He looked like a mountain, a mountain that I would not need any special gear, or even clothing, to climb. Not too shabby for my first night in Massachusetts.
I looked down and smoothed my dark blue dress, clinging to my curves, before making eye contact with him again. It wasn’t easy. Even in the darkness of the obnoxiously loud club, he was almost difficult to look at, he was so beautiful, so chiseled.
Wait. How did I get here? How did I get to the point where the most gorgeous guy I had ever seen was talking to me? What was going on here?
OK, pause for a moment. Before we figure out what to do about this impossibly sexy man and come up with a new language we can use to reply to him and not sound like a crazed lunatic who has lost the use of her tongue, let’s rewind and figure out just how we got here.
I landed at Logan Airport in Boston a few hours earlier. This was only my second time in town, first since the interview, but I managed to find my way to the exit area by remembering the path I had taken last time. Sandy was waiting for me there, bouncing up and down nearly to the point of vibrating in place, a huge smile plastered on her face. “I’m so glad you’re finally here!” she shouted as we pulled each other in close for a long hug. “It’s been so long! Oh, I’ve missed you!”
Sandy and I were friends from college, thick as thieves back then, but after she moved to Massachusetts we didn’t see very much of each other. That was all about to change, though. Sandy, definitely plotting all the while to get us closer together again and relive some of those college days, but this time with big-girl jobs and lives, had helped me get a job here.
It was a long way from Wichita, where I’d been staying with my parents, working at local gyms and hospitals part time, studying for certifications and trying to find something more substantial after finishing up nursing school.
When Sandy had emailed me the link a few months ago to a job posting near where she was, I had jumped at the chance. At first the idea of moving to New England seemed a little weird to me, but I very quickly ‘warmed’ up to the notion as I looked around and found very few long term prospects in Wichita.
So, I interviewed, mostly by phone and Skype at first before they flew me in for a weekend at the facility, and just a couple months ago I had found out that I got the job!
So here I was, my first day in Massachusetts, breathing in heavy the pine smell in the air. It smelled fresh and clean, and I couldn’t wait to get to work.
The first thing after we had left the airport was to drive to my new apartment. Sandy had done me a solid there too, helping me find a place in her apartment building. The rent was a little steep, but my new job was such a big jump in pay over the part time work I was getting before back in Wichita that I really didn’t think twice about it.
Plus, Sandy and I would be neighbors! It would be just like back in the dorms at school, how could I refuse? In fact, I knew for a fact that Sandy wouldn’t have let me refuse even if I wanted to. I knew that because she said so.
We drove along the darkened streets as the drizzling rain pooled around us. “Is it always like this?”
“Nah, there’s been a little more rain than usual this year, but it’s not too bad.” She chuckled. “In a couple months the snow begins, you’ll love that.”
“I have lived in snow before, Sandy, I am from Wichita.”
Sandy threw her head back and roared with laughter. “You call that snow? You get maybe a foot per year…total? We get that in a single night here on the regular. You may think you know snow, but try waking up covered in it and having to dig your way out through the front door, or sometimes a window.”
“This apartment you got me is on the…third floor, right? If that’s gonna happen to me, this is worse than I thought.”
“Nah, you’ll be fine, it was a figure of speech.”
“Whew.” I hadn’t actually seen the apartment complex yet besides in the pictures Sandy had sent me. I trusted her implicitly, and I was really happy we’d be living so close by again. I had missed her a lot.