Don't Touch My Stuff

Aurelio and August have been neighbors for more than a year.

They weren’t always enemies. She wasn’t always pouring coffee in his mailbox, and he wasn’t always blaring his music through the walls.

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Aurelio doesn’t remember what happened to change his sweet neighbor into a hallway menace, but he suspects he has it coming. He woke up with a hangover and a gap in his memory, and only her anger for proof that he’d fallen short of the man he wanted to be. He quit partying and spent the next year bearing her wrath. Somehow, it did nothing to kill his crush on her.

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August doesn’t trust people to be there for her. She’s been taking care of herself for as long as she can remember, and she’s built a good life. The last thing she needs is a romantic relationship that she’s sure will turn toxic like her parents’. So, really, it’s for the best that she hates her neighbor. He’s definitely not the hottest, nicest, person she’s ever met, and his smile isn’t blinding at all.

It’s easier to be angry than hurt.

But a series of events destroys her resolve to hide her feelings and soon they’re tangled in a friends-with-benefits relationship that might just be a lot more serious than she’s ready to admit.

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It’s all more than enough to keep them from noticing the stalker creeping dangerously close.

This story contains—explicit content, mugging, stalking, being trapped in an elevator, physical assault, hurt/comfort, domestic violence, reference to an abusive childhood, learning to trust, and miscommunication.