Again

  “So what about those planes that go missing and those long-ass murder trials?” Alex asked. “If big brother knows everything, why can’t they find a missing plane or skip a lengthy and expensive trial and just nail the murderers from day one?”

  “Politics, lawyers, money, and lots of red tape,” Sydney said, tapping his beer bottle with his bottle cap. “And that’s all I can say.”

  “Wow,” Valerie said, shaking her head.

  Thanks to Sydney the conversation took a sharp left from the direction Emi’s stupid comment had it turning. She glanced at Sydney again as everyone else began discussing the latest murder trials in the headlines. His smile was innocent enough, but the twinkle in his eye said he knew he’d saved her from an uncomfortable moment. And not a minute too soon because her brothers had since joined the conversation. That would’ve been fun, having to explain the ridiculous insinuation that came out all wrong in front of them.

  After spending a few more hours around Sydney and Sarah, Emi was curious about his relationship with her. While Angel seemed fine with it, Emi knew this bunch well. She couldn’t imagine him being okay with his wife having such a hot single friend she was so fond of. There had to be more to this.

  The ride would be interesting for two reasons. She had a ton of questions for Sydney, but at the same time she didn’t want to come across as too nosey. Still, she had two whole hours to make small talk with her new friend and neighbor.

  Chapter Three

  Sydney

  “Why do you call Sarah, Lynni?” Emi asked.

  They’d barely pulled away from Sal’s driveway, and she hadn’t even finished securing her seatbelt. Sydney had to smile. He’d been right about noticing her watch him and Lynn curiously earlier.

  “It’s her middle name,” he said simply.

  “Yeah, but you’re the only one who uses it. Why?”

  He shrugged as he slid his sunglasses on. “When I met her, she introduced herself as Sarah Lynn, and I just thought she looked more like a Lynn. Over time as I got to know her better¸ it turned into Lynni.”

  “And you two are just friends. You’re not related in any way?”

  “Nope,” he said, feeling the need to take a deep breath. “Just friends.”

  “Wow.” Emi sat back in her seat. “So you’ve known her since before she was married, right?”

  “Long before.” This time he gripped the wheel a little tighter. “We were kids in sixth grade when we met.”

  “Really?” She turned her body to him again as she’d been doing in the beginning when she’d asked her first question about Lynn. “That long, huh? Did you two ever . . . you know—?”

  “Never,” he said before she could finish. “We were each other’s best friends in Arizona. Then she moved out here just before starting senior year in high school and met Angel. The rest is history.”

  “But you two still keep in touch after all this time,” she said, stating the obvious. “That’s nice.”

  She sat back again, staring ahead, though Sydney could only see her through his peripheral vision. They were at a stoplight and he could turn to face her, but even with his dark sunglasses on, he didn’t want to risk her noticing the tension he felt anytime this subject came up, even after all these years.

  It was true. He was over Lynn—had been over her for years. He just wished he could get over the “could’ve beens” every time he saw her. While he was happy for her—she was living a blissful life—he still couldn’t shake the feeling that it could’ve been him with her. Not Angel.

  Emi pointing out how nice it was that they were still friends after all this time couldn’t have come at a worse time. Sydney knew, just like every time he was around Lynn, in a few days he’d be over it. He’d move on and back to the real world, pushing all regrets aside. He’d expected the ride home today to be a thoughtful one revisiting old memories. He just hadn’t expected to be discussing them with anyone.

  Of course, his unexpected companion home would ask the million-dollar question. “Any particular reason why you and Sarah never dated? Or am I making assumptions? I mean I know you said nothing ever happened, but did you two ever even maybe date?”

  “Nope,” he said again, trying not to sound too curt. “We were just good friends—best friends actually. We didn’t want to ruin that, so we never did.”

  “That’s sweet, but I didn’t think that’d be possible, especially given how good-looking both of you are.”

  Sydney smiled bittersweetly. It was nice to hear a young, attractive girl like Emi think he was good-looking. But it still didn’t take from what her first comment made him feel. No, it wasn’t possible. Obviously, for Lynn it had been, but not for him.

  “Well, thanks,” he said. This time he did glance at her with a smile. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because neither of us had siblings and we spend a lot of time pretending we were each other’s. So it was too weird to think of each other in any other way.”

  Not true.

  He tried to mask his unease. Just thinking about the amount of time he’d spent back in the day thinking about Lynn in much more offensive ways than a sweet sister, made him frown. Of course, he hadn’t in over a decade. It was hard enough fantasizing about his single best friend, whom he was not supposed to be thinking of that way. Why torture himself by fantasizing and coveting another man’s wife?

  “I think it’s neat that you two have stayed in touch even after all these years. I would’ve imagined that her just moving to another state alone would’ve jeopardized it. Her getting a boyfriend should’ve severed that friendship even further. I mean, heck, I moved just two hours away, and I hardly ever talk to any of my friends now. And it hasn’t even been a year that I’ve been gone.” She shook her head, looking out into the sunset as he got on the freeway. “But then I guess I’ve always been a little on the anti-social side. You’re a way better friend than I am. That’s for sure.”

  For a moment, Sydney considered telling her the truth about why he’d never dated Lynn then thought better of it. Just because she lived in his building now didn’t mean her staying there was a sure thing. She’d already mentioned moving back home once. He’d managed to go all these years without telling Lynn what he’d really felt for her way back. Why chance this little girl getting homesick again, moving back, and spilling the beans?

  That made him curious, and it was a good way to get off this topic. “Speaking of you moving away, you said you’d moved out to LA last year but had to move back. Why was that?”

  “I’d originally moved into the dorms,” she said, staring out the window. “Then there was this incident.” She shook her head. “I suppose when you stand back or hear about it as a third person it does sound awful, but it happened so fast and with such minimal damage—to me anyway—it didn’t feel like such a big deal.”

  He glanced at her. Now she’d spiked his curiosity. “What happened?”

  “I was attacked,” she said so nonchalantly Sydney had to do a double take. “It was just this homeless guy at the park where I was running early one morning. I’m not even sure he was going to try to do anything to me like rape me or whatever. I’d seen him at the park before. He’d always try and say something to me, but I’d pretend I didn’t notice. I had my earphones on most of the time and would just keep running. The administrators at school had warned us about the homeless people in the area when we’d had our first orientation. They told us never to engage with them. For the most part, they were harmless, but some could get angry or nasty, and I guess that morning he was angry. At first, I didn’t even call it an attack, but my brothers and sister insisted that was what happened. So now I have to call it that. I was attacked.”

  The traffic began to slow, giving Sydney a chance to turn to Emi again. It did seem like this was something that hadn’t fazed her as much as it should’ve.

  “I felt someone touch my arm,” she continued. “It did startle me, but turning to see his face so close to mine was even more startling, and
I guess I yelped or something. That startled him but also made him mad, and he grabbed my other arm. All I remember is how bad he smelled and that he called me a bitch when I tried to pull away from him. I’d just started to struggle with him because he wouldn’t let go when, fortunately for me, a guy running not too far away saw the whole thing and came to my rescue. The last thing I remember about the attack was seeing the homeless guy smile just before he grabbed my boob.” She shrugged, surprising Sydney when she chuckled. “Turns out the runner who saw the whole thing was a local boxer on his morning run. He beat the crap out of the guy. It’s not like he even beat him a whole lot, but those punches he landed were all it took, and the guy was knocked out cold.”

  She took a deep breath, turning to Sydney with a wince. “When my brothers found out, they freaked out. We’ve had kind of a bad string of things like this happening in our family. My brothers didn’t even want me to come to school out here in the first place for that reason, but ESU has always been my dream. They begged me to come home until they could figure something out. All kinds of ridiculous things were discussed—them moving out closer to keep an eye out for me or hiring a body guard since A.J.’s making stupid money now in the big leagues—but I refused. Finally, we came to a compromise. I’d let them pay for an apartment in that astronomically priced apartment building as long as they didn’t get a full-time bodyguard for me or move out there. I guessed it was one of the most exclusive in Los Angeles with a high level of security because of some of the high-profile people who live there.” She turned suddenly with a smile. “Did you know Scarlet Brendon from CSI Blues lives in our building?”

  “Yep.” Sydney smiled with a nod. “I’ve had drinks with her.”

  “Get out!” she said, making Sydney chuckle.

  “I’m serious. She’s real nice too.”

  Maybe if he knew Emi a little better, he might share what else he’d done with and to Ms. Brendon. For now, he’d be a gentleman and keep that to himself.

  “Louie Vick lives there too.”

  “The chef?” she asked excitedly.

  Sydney decided that rather than get back into the heavier subject of her attack he’d tell her about all the other high-profile people who lived in their building.

  When Sydney had first moved there several years ago after his separation with his ex-wife, he’d done so for practical reasons. His office was just a few miles away. But after living in a high rise in Tokyo for months, he’d become used to the hustle and bustle of living in the middle of a busy city. Living in this building wasn’t the first time he’d had a chance to rub shoulders with celebrities either.

  “When I lived in Germany for a few months, I lived in the same building with David Hasselhoff and got to chat with him a few times. Nice guy.”

  Her brows came together in confusion. “Who?”

  “The Hoff? Knight Rider. Bay Watch,” Sydney offered, feeling old as she tapped her phone’s screen furiously.

  “Hasselhoff,” she said, sliding her fingers over the screen of her phone. “Oh him!” she said, turning back to Sydney, those big bright eyes of hers making him breathe in deeply. “He used to do America’s Got Talent, right?”

  “Uh, maybe, I don’t know.”

  “Yeah, that’s the guy, and I watched some of the comedy roast they did of him. The name just didn’t ring a bell.”

  Sydney had never even watched an episode of America’s Got Talent or a current celebrity roast. He felt stupid now for bragging about having chatted with The Hoff. Leave it to a nineteen-year-old to make Sydney realize how lacking his knowledge of current pop culture was. Admittedly, Hasselhoff was before even Sydney’s time, but the concept of a car that could talk, drive, and think for itself was appealing to tech enthusiast of all ages. So Knight Rider had kind of a cult following by tech geeks.

  Aside from the news and the history and documentary channels, he hardly even watched television. He’d had no idea Scarlet was a celebrity and a pretty big one at that until after he’d slept with her. She’d said it was what she’d liked most about him: the fact that he’d been drawn to her just for her and not for her celebrity. Though he wouldn’t say he’d been drawn to Scarlet for her personality alone. He could admit now the woman was beautiful with a kickass body to boot, and that was the main draw when he’d first laid eyes on her. Even after getting to know her a bit better, he hadn’t felt much else but physical attraction. But that was beside the point. Point was she was on one of the highest-rated detective dramas on television and he’d never heard of her before the night he met her. Talk about being out of it when it came current pop culture.

  He decided to not brag about the other celebrity he’d flown in first class with: Alex Wolfe, the host of Generation Tech, one of the few television shows he did watch often. If Emi didn’t know who The Hoff was, Sydney was certain she wouldn’t be too impressed with a tech show host—if she’d even heard of him. Even Lynn hadn’t had a clue who he’d been talking about when he texted her to tell her.

  “I knew a lot of high-profile people lived in our building, but I had no idea how many.”

  “Oh, yeah, and a lot more that aren’t necessarily celebs,” Sydney said, “like CEO’s of some big companies, Hollywood behind-the-scene big wigs, big-time screen and song writers, etc.”

  He wouldn’t mention that, in the tech world, he was a bit of a celebrity himself. Earlier at the party, Emi had already mentioned wanting to change email service providers because the one she currently used wasn’t user-friendly at all. She said she’d lost emails too many times because of it. Anyone that tech-challenged to not be able to deal with one of the easiest email providers would likely not be impressed by his techy celebrity status, not that he was trying to impress her. He’d just save himself the embarrassment of her possibly thinking he was trying to show off his geek.

  As they neared their building, Sydney began to wonder if he should exchange numbers or anything with her. Would having friends in common make them friends? Did he even want this to become anything more than a onetime ride back with him? He’d likely not see Lynn again for several months if not longer. Knowing Lynn was the only thing besides living in the same building he and Emi seemed to have in common.

  To his pleasant surprise, Emi saved him the awkwardness of debating until the last minute by asking straight out as they drove into the building’s parking lot. “So what floor are you on?”

  “The twelfth,” he said as he pressed the button at the entrance. “You?”

  “Tenth. By the pool.”

  “I have a view of the pool from my bedroom window,” he said, looking back at her with a smile.

  The question of whether or not they should exchange phone numbers was another one she easily took care of as they got in the elevator. He’d just checked the curious text on his watch he had from Lynn, asking him to call her as soon as he had the chance, when Emi leaned over inquiringly. “Is that one of those smart watches?”

  “Yeah,” he said, looking back down at it proudly. “This one isn’t even out yet. I have a few friends in Japan who work in the industry and get me the occasional prototype. It’s pretty sick all the things it can do.”

  “That’s crazy,” she said, staring at it. “But you can make calls on it and all, right?”

  “Sure can. It connects to my phone and auto connects to my car speakers as soon as I get in, but that’s not that extraordinary. Most phones do that nowadays.”

  “So you can text me from your watch too?”

  “It’s easier on my phone, but, yeah, if I need to, I can.”

  “Text me,” she said, rattling off her number. “This way we can have each other’s numbers. You know, now that we’re friendly neighbors and all. I did mention I’m not the most social person on the planet, so you’ll be one of the few friends I have out here. And if you ever need anyone to come over and feed Homer for you when you’re out of town or something, I’d be happy to.”

  “Sure,” Sydney said, typing in her number on
the small screen of his watch. Her phone pinged, and he couldn’t help but smirk. “I think I like your other ringtone better.”

  Her face flushed just as they reached the tenth floor and the elevator doors opened. “Never again,” she said as she stepped out.

  She thanked him for the ride, told him she was serious about not having any friends out here and to not be a stranger, then waved sweetly, mouthing the words good night.

  Sydney rode the rest of the two flights up to his floor, lost in thought. As sweet as Emi was, he had no intention of getting too friendly with her. Something about her overprotective brothers and her being a friend of Lynn’s didn’t bode well for a friendship with her. Girls that age could be a lot of drama, not that she’d come across as one of those girls. He just didn’t see how a nineteen-year-old he had so little in common with could fit into his life.

  His watch dinged just as the elevator door opened. Already smiling, he clicked on the envelope from the caller he’d stored as simply E.G.

  I just saw what you texted. It was nice meeting you too. But that’s Ms. Elevator Girl to you, sir!

  He scrolled down and reread what he’d texted her. It was nice to formally meet you, Elevator Girl. He considered responding with something as equally playful then decided not to. His first instinct had been right. Getting too friendly with her could potentially lead to trouble, especially since—no matter how young she was—she was undeniably attractive. The last thing he needed was that kind of confusion in his life.

  “Nope, not having it,” he said under his breath as he opened his apartment door.

  As expected, Julie Anne had once again done an excellent job of cat sitting Homer, a reminder that even Homer wouldn’t be an excuse to ever call Emi. Equally expected, Homer went crazy the moment Sydney walked through the door.

  “You missed me, boy?” he asked as he finished up with their long playful greeting that had Homer rolling around by the front door and Sydney squatting down scratching his belly.