Landlord Wars(9)

“Do you mind carrying this?” He juggled the tray of food in one arm and handed me a bottle of wine.

“Not at all,” I said.

We exited the apartment and made our way up a set of stairs, passing what had to be Max’s flat, as it was the only door on the entire floor, and headed up one more narrow flight toward the rooftop. “How did you meet Max?” I asked. Jack was so easygoing, while Max was an uptight ass. It made no sense these two had connected, let alone become best friends.

Jack let out a slow breath. “I guess you could call it luck,” he said and shook his head, chagrined. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but me and Max don’t normally run in the same circles. I never would have met him had circumstances been different.”

Luck? I wasn’t sure meeting Max was lucky. “I might have picked up a clue or two.”

He scratched his jaw. “The short answer is I’m a good test taker. I got into a private school on scholarship after I scored high on a test the city gives every seventh grader. Max sat next to me in math at my new school, and while the rest of the students treated me like I was beneath them, Max was friendly. He was nothing like the stuck-up prep-school kids we went there with, and over time, he became my best friend.”

Jack glanced off as though confused. “I don’t know why Max was giving you a hard time earlier. I’m really sorry about that. He’s usually smoother in social situations. In fact, it’s a good thing we’ve never been attracted to the same women, or I would have lost out every time.”

He was grinning as though he’d said something funny, but I begged to differ. Max had the charm of a python while Jack was good-looking and kind. “I’ll take your word for it. Landlord—I mean, Max really is your best friend? Above everyone else?”

Jack laughed. “He’s one of the best people I know.”

Max had behaved like an arrogant jerk the first night I met him, and he’d been a total dick just now. But he had given up his restaurant reservation when he didn’t know it was me, so at the very least, he was mercurial.

Or just a total ass when it came to me.





Chapter Five





Sophia





I stared at the distant view of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge from the building rooftop and shifted the bottle of wine in my arm, careful not to drop it. The prominent view from the home I’d grown up in was of my neighbor’s recycling bin in the Sunset District. This wasn’t a bedroom window, of course; it was the rooftop. But still, holy hell, I’d climbed far in just over a week.

Plexiglass walls protected me from the wind on the rooftop, and there was plush outdoor seating beneath heated lamps for comfort. The lamps weren’t in operation this afternoon, because we had a perfect blue sky, but I kept my sweater close in case the fog rolled in and the temperature dropped thirty degrees. Other than San Francisco’s unpredictable weather, this place had paradise written all over it—with one fatal flaw.

Who builds a rooftop garden without a garden?

Landlord Devil, that’s who.

Not a patch of green filled the roughly two thousand square feet of outdoor space. Luxury furniture? Sure, sure, had that. Sleek built-in barbeque and firepit? Yep, had those too. But no plants.

Given Max’s penchant for orderliness, he’d probably find plants too messy. But as a greenspace designer, I felt the absence of vegetation in this idyllic setting like a knife to my heart.

My palms felt itchy, and my back started to sweat. The need to fix this atrocity hijacked my focus, design elements flashing before my eyes. I’d add a large-leaf philodendron and pops of maroon, and maybe even some string lights for ambiance. It would be glorious. Hypothetically speaking.

I let out a gust of air. My dream rooftop garden wasn’t to be. I’d never be able to touch this blank canvas, and I blamed Max. Not only was he Landlord Devil, but apparently he was Stingy Plant Devil too.

Jack walked off and set down the food, while roughly fifteen of the best-dressed people I’d ever seen stood around in light blazers and early fall party wear, chatting and drinking wine. The beautiful woman Max had dated was among them.

Jack had lied. It wasn’t a casual get-together. Or at least not my definition of casual.

I should have considered who else might be here. Max owned the building, so of course these weren’t your run-of-the-mill folks enjoying the flight show, and now I had to mingle with them.

I walked over to where Jack had set down the platter of food and added the bottle of wine to the collection, clutching my cable-knit sweater to my chest. Why had I spent so much time alone this last year? I’d forgotten how to mingle with strangers. And definitely not ritzy ones.

“Sophia.” Jack waved me over to where he was standing beside a handsome couple sitting on one of the couches. “Come meet Max’s parents.”

I blinked, taking in the older couple. Jack wanted me to meet Max’s parents? What fresh living hell was this?

I sighed. I was already disturbed by the lack of plants up here; might as well round things off in a conversation with the people who’d raised my uptight, arrogant landlord.

I walked up to Jack, and he proffered a glass of wine. “Red okay?”

“Yes, thank you.” I took a sip from the glass Jack handed me while he passed another to Max’s mother.