“Ugh, no. I know what that looks like. Send me a picture of her. I want to see what she looks like since she got you sounding like a teenager. I mean, if you ever answer the door.”

“Shit,” Alejandro spat. He moved the fish from the hot pan, turned the burner off, and rushed toward the door. “Bye,” he said quickly to Angel before tapping his earbuds and cutting him off.

His doorbell rang again. “Coming. Sorry,” he called. He stopped to take a deep breath before he pulled the door open, and even though he’d pushed all the air from his lungs, Deja still took his breath away.

Deja had bought this dress two years ago, thinking it would be a great dress to wear on a date, and then she hadn’t gone on a single date since. She had lots of items in her closet like that, things she’d bought on deep discount with the intention of wearing them out to all the social engagements she might one day have on her empty calendar, and then shoved at the back of her closet, unworn and forgotten. This velvet A-line spaghetti strap dress with an intricately laced back that exposed more skin than it hid had cost her more than she’d normally spend on a single item — even on sale — but when she’d seen it in the clearance section at Nordstrom Rack, she hadn’t been able to stop touching it. It had taken almost an hour roaming around the store with the dress clutched to her chest before she convinced herself to just bite the financial bullet, never thinking it would take two years to have a reason to wear it.

She tried not to imagine how much money she’d wasted over the years on occasion wear without any occasion each time she pulled out the same jeans and sweaters to head to work or the grocery store and then home again. Reaching into that forgotten corner of her closet to get dressed for tonight had felt like a triumph as if all that money hadn’t actually been a waste at all. And then Alejandro opened his door, Deja’s heart skipped a stuttering beat, and she knew she hadn’t wasted a single cent.

His hair was curling at the ends again, still wet from a shower, she guessed. He was wearing a pair of simple blue jeans, and a white t-shirt that looked soft as butter stretched over his muscles.

He invited her inside, and when she stepped in, the sweet, salty scents of cooked food engulfed her. She was impressed just as she realized that she was also hungry as hell.