Chapter 1

Beth

Beth heard a loud banging sound next to her head and she jerked awake.

"Stop hitting the damn snooze button already! Get up!"

Beth shook her head and sighed. She hit the wall hard with her hand, telling her neighbor to leave her alone. Beth had lived in the apartment building for over two months now. She'd signed a one-year lease and wished that she hadn't. Her neighbor was a nightmare who had no problem yelling at her through the walls. She was warned her first week there by her new friend Maddie, but it wasn't enough. She should have known about Cole Castille before she signed the lease. Beth imagined that she never would have signed it at all.

She was stuck now though and had learned to just yell back at him. Beth had started out so differently, sending a plate of cookies to her other seven neighbors in the building when she first arrived. She'd wanted to make a good impression. When she had gotten to the single man that lived next to her, the one she occasionally fantasized couldn't speak, he had taken a bite of one at the door, told her that they sucked, put it down, and shut the door.

Beth should have known then…

Cursing underneath her breath because she was late, Beth went to her son's room, calling to him as she tried to find her bra. It was going to be one of those days, and it was all because of the damn neighbor who couldn't keep his nose out of her business. She had to race back into the room and turn her alarm off, which was going off again.

"Don't you dare bang on the wall. I shut it off!"

Beth wouldn't have imagined herself in the position she was in now, yelling through a wall at some guy she couldn't stand. She missed her old apartment, old life, everything that was familiar. The life she was in now, didn't even feel like her own. It felt like she was living it for someone else, and she wasn't too happy about it.

Jesep was up and smiling when she got back into the room. She'd found her bra on the sink in the bathroom. She needed a shower, a proper twenty minutes with hair and makeup, but that wasn't to be. Sighing and picking up Jesep for some love, she asked him how he was feeling and how he'd slept.

His answer was always good. Jesep was the easiest person alive, and Beth knew that she was lucky for it. She was barely hanging on doing it all by herself, and Jesep was the light at the end of her tunnel. His smile was enough to make it worth her while.

She fried an over-easy egg, while she made him some toast and cottage cheese. He ate it every morning with half a banana, the other half going toward her breakfast, with a cup of coffee quick brewed in her machine. While he was eating breakfast, Beth got ready for work. She was going to be late and needed to get Jesep to the daycare center.

"Mom, you have no shoes!"

Beth looked down and sighed. She checked Jesep's feet to make sure he did and raced to get hers.

"What would I do without you?"

"Have no shoes?"

Beth agreed and then took his hand to walk him out to the car. It was already warmed up and ready to go, at least something was. She gave her neighbor's door a hard look, willing him to open it so she could give him a piece of her mind, or at least the same dirty look that the door got. He was unbelievably insufferable, and she wanted him to know it, if he didn't already. Beth figured he didn't. People like that were so unaware of themselves.

He didn't come out though and it was just as well because she was late. Her son loved his daycare, was happy to go, and told her all about the big face-painting activity that was planned for the day. A local artist was going to come in and paint their faces. He was excited, so Beth couldn't help but feel the same way. There were some bright spots in her sudden move to York Town, but she wasn't sure if it was enough. Sometimes she questioned moving there at all, leaving her life behind. Then, she remembered how ‘great' it was and knew that it was not just the right decision, but the only one she had.

Beth dropped her son off at daycare, something that pulled at her heartstrings every day, because she went to a job that she could have done without. It was a decent paying job, considering the small town that York Town was, but it wasn't the sort of work that she wanted to do. Beth was a creative, but those gigs didn't pay the bills. She wanted to create works of art in many mediums, but she found herself sketching out ad campaigns for big companies instead. It was heartless work, though Beth was good at it.

Her boss was Leroy Mallard. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and way past his prime. He must have been something in his prime, those blue eyes more boyish than lecherous, because he was constantly hitting on everyone in the office, like he had a chance. Beth got creeped out by Leroy, kept her distance, and tried to make sure that she stayed away from him as much as possible. She didn't want a misunderstanding to ruin her new job. It was paramount to the new life she was building for herself.

"You're late."

"I know, but I have sketches for the Goodling Company that they are going to love. You can send them over, save yourself a meeting, and we all win."

Leroy wanted to be mad at Beth, but once the sketches were in his hand and he took a look, he smiled. A rare occasion, but he agreed that it was worth the ten minutes she was tardy. Beth held her tongue to the tone and way he said it. She couldn't yell at him like she could her neighbor. It would have been easier. Beth found her relationship with Cole was strained naturally, but at least it was honest.