Page 49 of The Annoyingly Attractive Neighbor

“They’re roommates, not neighbors.” She shrugged.

“Is that any better?”

“Probably worse.”

After a while, Claire was finally ready to go to the checkout, with a pile of books nearly up to her head. While she was paying for her books, Noah secretly bought another book for her.

He had no idea whether the book was good. But the words neighbors and fake dating appeared on the back, and that felt close enough to fate, or at least a good joke.

He passed it to the cashier, who quietly rang it up and slipped it into Claire’s bag.

They were halfway back to their apartment complex when Claire noticed an extra book. “Noah.” She looked at him accusingly. “I bought eight books. There are nine in this bag.”

He grinned. “I thought you might like it.”

She pulled it out, confused. Her expression softened as she read the back, and Noah felt absurdly pleased with himself. “Did you read the back?” she asked him.

“Of course.”

“Neighbors and fake dating, really?” she asked with a laugh.

“Yes, really. Let me know if their story is as good as ours.”

“Unless the hero has a golden retriever and brings her coffee, I’m guessing it won’t be.”

CHAPTER 16

Relationship Behavior

Noah was behaving like Claire’s boyfriend.

But casually. Like it wasn’t weird at all. Like it was just. . . how life worked.

Example One: The Umbrella

On Monday, it started raining as Claire was exiting the building. She stood there, staring at the downpour, mentally calculating how wet she was willing to be. She didn’t want to get soaked, but every other option involved being late.

It was then Noah appeared beside her and held out an umbrella.