When Alejandro pulled up to her apartment, Deja wasn’t watching him through the curtains in her living room window, but she wasn’t not watching from the window. But since she was looking, she watched him stand from his car and sucked in a harsh breath.

He was in a casual suit...she thought. She didn’t actually know much about menswear except that Alejandro had always looked immaculate. This suit was dark blue, and once again, tailored within an inch of its life. The white shirt was so white it was either brand new, or he was using some kind of bleach normal people couldn’t buy. He also wasn’t wearing a tie, which made him seem less like a professor, and she appreciated that subtle change. And he capped it off with a pair of brown dress shoes that Deja normally wouldn’t have bothered noticing except these seemed to accentuate that this man had big feet. Her eyes went to his groin briefly before she looked away.

Each step he took up to the front door of her apartment building was slow and measured, which meant she had plenty of time to appreciate the way his muscles rippled under his clothing. But when he was at the front door, bent over at the intercom system to look for her name, she saw that he had a nervous smile on his face, and that made her smile.

The buzzer rang, and even though she watched him press the button, she jumped.

She ran to the intercom. “Hello?” she squeaked.

“Deja? It’s Alejandro.”

His voice sounded amazing, even through the crackling intercom speaker that was at least thirty years old.

“I-I’m coming,” she said.

“Take your time,” he said, and her stomach burst into a nest of butterflies.

She took a deep breath as she stepped carefully into a pair of eggplant purple suede pumps that she hadn’t worn in so long Too Damn Long didn’t feel long enough. She grabbed her small wallet on a chain and threw it over her arm and grabbed her favorite pea coat before she opened her door.

She locked her apartment door and then turned to see Alejandro looking through the long pane of glass at her. She froze, caught off guard by the hunger in his eyes as he looked her up and down. She felt self-conscious for a second before his eyes lifted and he looked her in the face.

“Come on, Deja,” he said with a smile.

She walked slowly to the front door and pushed it open a bit.

Alejandro pulled the door open fully for her, and he didn’t even try to hide his interest as she walked out into the cool evening air.

“You look amazing,” he said wistfully.

“It’s just an old dress,” she said, clutching her coat to her stomach.

“I can see why you kept it,” he mumbled.