to sprint towards her car—before I realized that she wasn’t responsible for the noise I heard. The man and woman who were just kind of stared at me in confusion for a moment, before the man took a step forward.
“Hey there! You must be our new neighbor!” He extended his hand as he walked towards me. “The name’s Bill—Bill Pierce. You’re a doctor, right?”
“Yes, sir.” I shook his hand and didn’t back down when he tested my grip. “My name is Everette Weston—I just moved in this weekend. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you as well.” He turned towards the woman behind him. “This is my wife—Nancy. Nancy, come say hello to Dr. Weston.”
“Please…” I held up my hand. “Everette is perfectly fine.”
“Hi!” Mrs. Pierce walked up and quickly shook my hand. “We’ll introduce you to our daughter at some point—she’s probably still sleeping or something. You know how teenagers are…”
“Your daughter is Holly right?” I tilted my head to the side. “I met her over the weekend—she actually baked some cookies to welcome me to the neighborhood.”
No reason to act like I’ve never met her—but cookies are the end of that confession.
“And you were worried that she was going to burn the house down if we left her here alone.” Mrs. Pierce nudged her husband. “See, she was perfectly fine—and neighborly.”
A little more than just neighborly…
“We haven’t been inside the house yet!” Mr. Pierce glared at his wife. “Speaking of, I guess we better go make sure the inside looks as good as the outside. Nice to meet, Dr.—Everette.”
“You too.” I lifted my hand to wave as they walked back to their house.
I’m not sure if they thought they were out of earshot or not, but I heard Mrs. Pierce remarking that I was a nice young man and Mr. Pierce telling her that she better keep her eyes on her side of the privacy fence before they actually did get far enough way that I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I let out a long sigh, and then walked back into my house. If Holly’s parents were home, then any chance I had of actually talking to her was likely gone. I couldn’t exactly tell them that I did a little more than meet their daughter or explain why I needed to talk to her. It was best to just forget about that kiss—regardless of how it made me feel—because that’s exactly what Holly would probably do when she put Los Angeles in the rear view mirror.
At least I’ve got my job to keep me busy—and when my residency is over, I’ll have plenty of new challenges to tackle. I wouldn’t have time for a girlfriend anyway—even a long-distance one.
I returned to unpacking the boxes in my house. Later that afternoon, I saw some motion coming from the house next door and walked to the window. There she was—walking to her car. Despite analyzing the situation and deciding that it was probably for the best that the kiss was our last interaction, I was still tempted to go to the door—until I saw her father walk out of the garage behind her. He checked the fluids in her car and appeared to be trying to show her how to do it too, but she kept sneaking glimpses towards my house. One of those glimpses led to her spotting me in the window, and she gave me a slight smile and a wave behind her back. I was just about to lift my hand when her father stood up and looked my way, so I walked away from the window immediately.
Fuck, I’m too old to be sneaking around like some kind of teenager. Maybe her father could use a hand…
It was probably a bad idea, but I didn’t care. I changed into a fresh t-shirt and walked over to Holly’s house. Her face started turning white as I approached, but I kept it cool and asked her father if he needed help with the car. He waved off my request and made a joke about working on cars being a little different from working on people, but that allowed me to just casually stand there—a few feet from the girl that lit a fire in my soul the moment I felt her lips on mine. We exchanged smiles while her father wasn’t looking—glances, even when he was, and it was clear that the kiss meant something to both of us. My brain tried to dig back into the mental spreadsheet which had perfectly calculated why I could never be with her, but I ignored logic—I would have plenty of time to analyze it after she was gone.
“Alright, that should do it.” Mr. Pierce slammed the hood shut. “Did you pay attention?”
“Yes, sir.” Holly looked down and nodded.
“Good. Let’s get those boxes out of your room so you’ll be packed up—you need to be on the road before the sun comes up if you want to avoid rush hour traffic.” Mr. Pierce motioned for his daughter to follow him.
“I’ll help.” I took a step forward and basically invited myself along, but there were no objections.
If there was ever a benefit to having a brain that constantly analyzed everything to death, it was that problem solving was almost a superpower for me. As soon as we got to Holly’s bedroom, I lingered in the hallway, let her father grab a box and intercepted Holly with an offer to carry her box. That allowed her father to make it to the steps before he even realized his daughter wasn’t behind him, and by that point, he wasn’t going to turn around. I pushed Holly back into her bedroom—out of sight—and immediately kissed her. There was no hesitation on her part. She melted into my arms while I mentally calculated the seconds we could spare—I used every single one of them down to the fraction.
“Grab a box, walk fast.” I motioned to the light box next to her feet.
“What?” She blinked in surprise.
“Just follow my lead, and I guarantee we’ll get to kiss a couple of more times before your car is loaded.” I let my fingers graze her arm, then made a dash for the stairs.
The plan went off without a hitch, and her father never suspected a thing. I was just a friendly neighbor helping him carry his daughter’s boxes to the car so she could leave for college. Instead, I was manipulating every moment of the precious minutes—just to feel his daughter’s perfectly pouty lips against mine. Maybe I wasn’t too old to be sneaking around after all—or maybe my dick and analytical brain were finally learning how to coexist with one another in order to get what I wanted. I stopped trying to analyze that once the last box was in the car.
“Thank you for all your help!” Mrs. Pierce walked out of the house. “Bill’s back has been giving him fits for years—not that he would ever admit it.”
“My back is fine.” Mr. Pierce narrowed his eyes at his wife.
“He won’t go to the doctor.” Mrs. Pierce sighed. “Maybe you could have a look?”
“Um…” I shot a glance towards Holly. “Yeah, sure.”