Love At First Glance (Love At Firsts Book 1)

by Garcia, Muriel

  “Then I definitely won’t meet a guy. People always think we’re a couple when we go out.” I grin.

  “I know, I quite like it. It keeps the dickheads away. If a guy really wants you, he will go for you no matter what.” He shrugs.

  “I guess you’re right. It just seems to be an impossible task meeting a man who isn’t threatened by you.”

  “Why?” He looks at me perplexed.

  “Because you’re hot, you dumbass.” I chuckle.

  “I am,” he says smugly.

  “So humble as well.” I shake my head and shove a California roll into my mouth.

  “Yeah, the fact you’re still single is purely my fault, not at all because you are a little pig when you eat.” He chuckles and wipes wasabi off my lip.

  “Ah who cares? I thought he was supposed to accept all of my flaws,” I question him.

  “He will. Don’t worry. He’ll come along, you just have to be patient.” He smiles at me genuinely and I believe him. I just hope I’m not waiting ten years.

  “Thank you.” I smile and kiss his cheek.

  “Anytime. So, what are you going to do about the note?” He pops a sushi into his mouth. How in the hell can he still look this good when eating, I look like a mess when I try to eat. Lucky bastard. Men have it way too easy.

  “I don’t know. Maybe just slip a note saying ‘no’ under his door. I don’t want him to think I’m even be remotely interested or playing hard to get if I don’t reply.”

  “Yeah, such a shame. If you ever see him though I want a picture to see if I was right with my description.” He smirks.

  “If only he were as hot as you described him.” We both sigh dreamily.

  “Would you do him then?” He raises his eyebrow at me.

  “Maybe?” I grin shyly.

  “Oh my, Haven is growing some balls!”

  “Dickhead.” I chuckle. “It’s just…you and Matt talk so much about sex and then the neighbor is fucking at all hours of the day and night, it’s making me horny.” I shrug.

  “That’s good. Maybe you’ll get some soon then.” He snickers and grabs a plate of two dumplings shaped like balls and sets the plate in front of me.

  “Smartass.” I shake my head and eat one. They are actually pretty good although I have no idea exactly what it is that I’m eating.

  It’s an all-you-can–eat-buffet so we over indulge and are both stuffed when we finally walk out. As usual, Spencer paid. He’ll never let me pay. He always says it’s because he owes me so much for sticking with him all these years when in reality, he’s the one who’s helped me the most.

  “How about we get some donuts on the way to yours and I take care of those bushes of yours and give you a massage?” Spencer asks with a grin as he wraps his arm around my shoulder.

  “Yes to donuts and massage, stop insulting my eyebrows, you’re going to piss them off.”

  He chuckles. “What? They are becoming bushy, we need to do something before you get a wild animal living in them. It’s an emergency.” He shrugs and we start walking back towards my apartment.

  “I’m not listening,” I say in a singsong voice and pretend to ignore him but it doesn’t work. His grip on me tightens and he kisses my head.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got you girl.” He chuckles and half drags me into the bakery where we choose a selection of donuts and cronuts.

  “It’s unusual for you to eat so much junk food. What’s happened to you?” I look at him with wide eyes. “Did you switch your lifestyle in the middle of the night and decide to join the dark side?”

  He shrugs. “I’ll just workout harder tonight. Not a problem.”

  “Are you sure you’re alright?” I look at him, suddenly concerned that there is something wrong with my best friend.

  “Of course, why would you think something is wrong?”

  “Because you’re acting differently.”

  “Because I’ve had junk food yesterday and today?” He looks at me weirdly.

  “Yes. You never have junk food except when we…are you eating junk food to make me feel better and less fat?” I cross my arms over my chest and he chuckles.

  “Too bad the girls are covered this time.” He smirks. “And yes I only eat it when we are hanging out because I know you love to eat unhealthy shit and it won’t kill me to have it once a week. Besides, did you really think I’d bring you a bacon cheeseburger and watch you eat it while I have a salad? Fuck that shit.” He chortles and pays for the donuts after glaring at me until I put my purse back into my bag.

  “Fair enough,” I say without much conviction.

  “Really, stop worrying, everything is fine.” He smiles his dazzling smile and wraps his arm around my shoulder again, steering me out of the shop and back towards my place.

  CHAPTER 10

  We are about to dig into the donuts when I remember the neighbor’s note.

  “Wait!” I shout making Spencer jump.

  “What?” He looks between me and the donuts with a confused expression on his face. “Something wrong with my donut?”

  “No, we forgot to give the neighbor a reply.” I snicker and take a sneaky bite out of his donut.

  “Hey! No eating my food.” He glares at me before a smile replaces his frown. “So, thinking of saying yes?”

  “No way.” I shake my head and look for a pen. I grab the note, flip it over and write on the back of it.

  Thank you for the offer but I’m not interested.

  Have fun, stay safe, don’t be too loud and it shouldn’t fall off.

  From your neighbor who wishes she could sleep at night.

  I read it out loud to Spencer. “What do you think?”

  “He’ll think you’re crazy but not a bitch.” He chuckles and takes a bite out of his donut.

  “Ah well, not far from the truth.” I shrug. “I’ll go slip it under his door quickly.” I take a bite of my lemon meringue donut for courage and walk out of my apartment. I bend over to slip it under door and just as I go to push it through the gap, someone clears their throat behind me.

  “May I help you?” I hear a deep and sensual voice say. Fuck, caught in the act.

  “Ah, uhm, well…” I slowly turn around and am rendered speechless. Well, fuck me drunk.

  “You were saying?” He walks around me to the door and unlocks it before turning around to smirk at me.

  I clear my throat and try to collect my thoughts. “I was uhm, giving you an answer to your request.” I nervously nibble my lip, he’s too close for comfort.

  “Let me see.” He grabs the paper, still smirking which soon it falters. “Such a shame. I’m sure I could make you scream louder and longer than last night’s lay.” He looks into my eyes clearly pleased with his ability to make me blush. “I hope it won’t fall off either. I kinda need it.” He chuckles.

  “What’s taking you so long?” I hear Spencer’s voice and footsteps coming closer.

  “Uh, just talking to the neighbor.” I turn to see Spencer standing behind me, shirtless. Fucking hell, I’m surrounded by two tall, amazingly built and very attractive guys. Surely, this is stuff dreams are made of? The longer I stand here, the hotter and bothered I’m getting. I get so lost in thoughts about having a hot men sandwich in the bedroom where they compete with each other to see who can make me moan and scream the loudest that I don’t realize just how long I have been staring randomly at the wall in front of me.

  “Spencer,” he introduces himself, extending his hand.

  “Valentine,” my neighbor says shaking Spencer’s hand.

  “What kind of name is Valentine?” Spencer snorts and I elbow him in the ribs.

  “I didn’t catch your name.” The man I now know as Valentine asks me.

  “H…Haven.” I smile shyly.

  “Pleasure to meet you, Haven.”

  “Like wise.” I'm sure the smile I'm giving him looks more like a constipated smile considering my nerves.

  “If you ever change your mind feel free
to slip a note under my door. I’ll always make time for you.” Valentine smirks at me.

  “Dude, can’t you see that I’m standing here?” Spencer growls rather possessively. Well that’s a first. I’m slightly taken aback by his caveman like behavior, he’s never like this, if a guy hits one me he usually won’t say a thing and takes a step back to give us privacy. Not that it happens often or anything. Wasn’t he the one telling me that I need to meet someone not thirty minutes ago?

  “Oh I can see you alright, but considering the way your woman is flustered by me, I don’t think you two are very serious. You’re probably just friends with benefits. I can offer her so much more,” Valentine provokes.

  “A night of sex and an STD?” Spencer grunts.

  “You’re funny.” Valentine chuckles humorlessly. “No my friend, a night of orgasmic sex she’ll never forget and many more if she’ll have me, but we could start with just dinner if she would prefer to do things the old fashioned way and have an actual date before getting into bed with me. I’m not opposed to good food and good company.” Valentine smiles sweetly at me and at this point I’m not sure if he means any of it or if he just wants to piss Spencer off. Either way, it’s working. I know nothing about this man, besides the fact that he's a manwhore and yet, I'm swooning over him like a fifteen year old meeting her celebrity crush. I sneak a look at Spencer behind me and I can feel the rage coming off him.

  “I’ll think about it.” I blurt out, out of nowhere.

  “What?” Both of them say at the same time, Spencer in shock and Valentine sounding surprised.

  “You can’t be serious, Have.” If looks could kill right now, I would be getting my angel wings right now. Why is he acting like this?

  “What? You were the one telling me I should get out more and meet new people,” I say, embarrassed by his behavior.

  “Right.” He sighs and walks back into my apartment.

  “Trouble in paradise?” Valentine says amused.

  “No, he’s just overprotective.” I explain and give him an apologetic smile.

  “I would be too if I had a friend like you.” He flashes me what seems to be a genuine smile. “How about we have dinner together tonight? Get to know each other as neighbors?”

  “Uh…why not.” I'm not sure why I just accepted but I want to give it a try, this fine man is clearly interested in me.

  “I’ll bring food over to your place tonight and cook, is eight alright with you?”

  “Yeah, sounds good to me.” I smile.

  “See you at eight then.” He winks at me before disappearing into his apartment.

  I walk back into mine to find Spencer leaning against the window, looking outside and completely dressed.

  “What was that outside?” I ask him when I reach his side.

  He looks down at me. “Are you going out with him?” he asks, clearly not pleased.

  “He’s coming over tonight for dinner.”

  “That was fast.” He scoffs. “I hope you have fun.” He pulls away from me and gathers up his stuff.

  “What are you doing?” I ask him confused by his sudden bluntness.

  “I’m going home. I have some paperwork to do,” he says through gritted teeth.

  “Spencer, what’s wrong?” I grab a hold of his arm and when he looks at me I see hurt in his eyes.

  “You just met that guy and you’re already inviting him over and swooning over him like a fifteen year old girl. It’s not you, he looks like a total douchebag and we were supposed to hang out today.”

  “I don’t get why you are so upset about all of this. You were okay when I went out with Vincent and you never were this upset when I first started seeing Adam.”

  “This guy isn’t right for you, but you don’t wanna hear it. I gotta go.” He puts on his jacket and leaves without as much as a goodbye. I hate this. We don’t argue or fight often but if we do, we’re upset at each other for about a minute before getting over it. We’ve never had this before. I can feel that something has changed between us, I don’t know what but it hurts like hell. I feel like a part of me was ripped out.

  I sit down on the couch, hugging my knees and text Spencer. The only time I’ve ever seen him this upset wasn’t because of me but because his fuckbuddy at the time wanted more than just what Spencer was willing to offer and started to stalk him and interfere with his life. It went as far as that person getting Spencer fired and nearly arrested. He accused Spencer of domestic abuse. I know he never would do such a thing. That day, he had so much pent up rage that instead of taking it out on me, as it would have been so easy to do because I was in front of him, he asked me for five minutes to cool off so I gave him five minutes. I'm hoping it'll work this time around. I wait for a few minutes before texting him.

  Me: Are you alright? Are we alright?

  It takes him ten minutes to reply.

  Spencer: No. Yes.

  Me: What’s wrong?

  Spencer: Don’t trust that guy.

  Me: Why not?

  Spencer: Just a feeling. I was spot on with his description…I’ll leave it at that.

  Me: He seems like a nice guy.

  Spencer: A nice guy who’ll try any trick in the book to fuck you.

  Me: Is that such a bad thing? You were telling me earlier I should say yes to his offer and now you’re upset because I said yes to have dinner with him…

  He doesn’t answer me for a couple of minutes so I start cleaning up the place a bit when my phone rings.

  “Hey, Spence,” I answer on the first ring.

  “Yes, it’s a bad thing. He’s going to wine you, dine you, fuck you and leave you. I don’t want to see you heartbroken.” He sighs sadly.

  “What’s really the problem Spencer? You wanna keep him to yourself?” I chuckle softly.

  “Yeah, that’s it. I wanna be selfish and have him all to myself.” He laughs humorously.

  “I don’t like this.” I sigh and lean against the window.

  “What don’t you like?”

  “This. Us arguing because of a stranger. You didn’t hug me or anything when you left. You never do that, even when we fight. Something’s changed,” I say defeated, rubbing my face and trying to hold back the tears that are threatening to fall.

  “We’re good, Have, don’t worry. I need to blow off some steam and didn’t want to yell at you. You know I need a few minutes to cool off sometimes.” I hear him open and close his car door.

  “I know. Do you want me to cancel? I can come over and we can watch Netflix and chill.” I chuckle, trying to lighten up the mood.

  “As appealing as it sounds I’m going to have to decline.” He sighs and I can hear it pains him to say it.

  “Why? We were sup-”

  “Hey baby.” A female voice talking to Spencer cuts me off.

  “I get it. Fucking one of your sluts tonight,” I say incredibly pissed off.

  “Don’t be like that and you accepted dinner with that asshole, I don’t see why it’s such a problem that I have a da-” I hung up. I don’t want to hear the rest of his sentence.

  I throw my phone on the counter and stomp to the bathroom; a shower is just what I need right now. I turn on the warm water and immediately stand under it, trying to let all my worries and torment wash down the drain. Five minutes pass and it’s not working, I’m just as angry as before.

  The truth is, I’m heartbroken. I feel like we just broke up even though we aren’t even a couple. It’s like I’ve lost a part of me. Today was supposed to be a lovely, relaxing day and it’s turned to shit.

  I step out of the shower feeling empty. I hate feeling like this. I dry myself and pull on some leggings and an oversized sweater. I want to cancel my date with Valentine, but considering it’s seven forty-five, it’s too late to do so now. I’d be a right bitch to do that.

  I wander to the kitchen to check if I have enough wine to get me through tonight, I have a feeling I’m going to need it. I open a bottle and pour myself a glass when I hea
r my phone buzz on the counter. I take a look at it and see five missed calls from Spencer, a couple of voice mails and two texts.

  Spencer: I’m pissed because we were going to spend the evening together and you blew me off for that creep and then you complain when I make plans…

  Spencer: I’m sorry for acting the way I did…

  I don’t have the time to reply as there’s a knock on the door. I walk to the door, open it and am greeted by Valentine’s tall frame dressed in black jeans and a white button down shirt, smiling widely at me.

  “Good evening, Gorgeous.”

  “Good evening.” I half smile, really not in the mood for this kind of company.

  “What’s wrong?” He looks at me with confusion and walks in when I stand aside.

  “Nothing. I’m alright.”

  “You’re clearly not, you look like your cat died.” Bernard meows from behind Valentine when he hears the word 'cat' being said before hissing at Valentine. “Looks like both the men in your life don’t like me.” He chuckles.

  “Looks like it.” I smile softly.

  “I’ll apologize to your friend if he’s really that pissed about us having dinner together.”

  “I think you’d be safer not doing that right now. He’s a bit pissed about all of it.”

  “He loves you.” He smiles.

  “We grew up together.” I shrug.

  “Right.” He looks at me with a perplexed expression on his face. “Well, I brought enough to make pasta a la vongole.” He smiles proud of himself.

  “Pasta a what?” I chuckle and grab my phone.

  “Pasta with seafood, tomatoes, basil and white wine.” He chuckles.

  “Oh wine, I’m good.” I grin and quickly reply to Spencer.

  Me: I’m sorry too…

  “I’m sorry if you fought because of me. I really thought there was nothing going on between the two of you.” I look up from my phone to see that he genuinely looks like he feels bad about it all. I'm pretty sure he had thought that he'd get some from his neighbor, but it looks like he’s abandoned that idea, at least for now.

  “It’s alright. We’re really just best friends and have been since we were in diapers.” I grab the open bottle of wine from the fridge and go to pour it but Valentine stops me.