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Chapter 1

"You stupid bitch, you ruinedher hands in front of her face as she desperately tried to back up in her s into the cheap off-white colored plastic wall, leaving her with nowhere to go and a seriously pissed off woht tenher way "Please don’t-"

Her words were cut off by a stunned gasp as twenty-four freezing ounces of her much needed caffeine fix hit her in the face, neck, and chest, instantly drenching her

"You’ll pay for what you did!" Mrs Sands screa her hand back to slap Zoe Thankfully someone, probably Mr Sands, already called security and the two large burly guys that she passed every rabbed Mrs Sands and yanked her back before she couldZoe’s way

"Bitch!" Mrs Sands screamed, kicked, and screeched as she was carried off the tenth floor

With a shaky hand, Zoe reached out and grabbed her wobbly office chair and carefully sat down, ht off the front left side wheel When the chair didn’t collapse and deposit her ass on the floor, again, she counted herself lucky

"I told you to keep your mouth shut," John, the office assle, said in a bored tone as he walked past Zoe’s cubicle

Yeah, he really had and she was kicking herself for not listening to hiroan she dropped her face into her hands and wondered if anyone would notice if she left work a little early today Of course they would, she thought e and ready to swoop in and attack at the slightest blunder

She’d lost count of how many times she’d been written up for "excessive office supply waste" for not reusing paper clips, leaving her co for twoaway paper that could be used again no matter as printed on it, and her absolute favorite, using more than one staple on a packet If she tried to leave even one minute early they’d know and for the next week they’d double her workload to get back the ti years she was too tired to argue or care At this point she was resigned to coht and half hours and work through her unpaid lunch break as was required and then go ho to hate

Two o when her landlord uncerehter and her thirty-two year old boyfriend could have her apartment, she’d been desperate to find a decent aparter salary

When she found a beautiful two level townhouse located in a decent neighborhood for two hundred dollars less than her old apartment she’d been ecstatic and snatched it up quickly, hoping that it was a sign thatup for her Of course she really should have known better since nothing in life ever seeo her way

The first clue should have been when she found out the other tenant in the two family townhouse was the landlord’s nephew Over the years she’d dealt with that situation enough that she really should have known better In her experience landlord’s relatives were ruder, louder, and had a huge sense of entitle hell She learned early on not to coht parties, had shouting randkids detonated water balloons in her mailbox The result just wasn’t worth it

So when her new neighbor, Trevor Bradford, parked his pickup truck halfway into her parking spot, leaving her with no choice but to park on the street and risk a parking ticket, she shut her ood Whenever he did so to piss her off like steal her paper, blast his television, or track mud into their small hallway and all over her cute welcome mat with puppies, she bit her lip and kept herherself that even with the jerk next door the townhouse was still the best place she’d ever lived in