"Shit!" Frustrated, Shara slammed her palm against the steering wheel. Six inches of late winter snow had her car stuck, and after half an hour of digging and jockeying back and forth, she was no closer to getting it out than she'd been at first.
She had to get to work. She'd already called her boss to let him know she would be late, and he hadn't seemed to have a problem with it. But he expected her to be there eventually.
Unless she managed to get her car out of the apartment building's parking lot, she wouldn't be going anywhere. Getting out wasn't looking promising.
Someone tapped on the window. Startled, Shara looked up at her neighbor, Jeremy. He held up a shovel. "Want help?"
Shara opened the window. "If you're offering to dig me out, yes, I'd love some help. Why haven't they plowed the lot yet?"
"Who knows?" Jeremy opened Shara's door. "You've been out here a while. Why don't you go in and warm up, and I'll tackle this?"
She couldn't do that. It wasn't fair to ask him to completely take over shoveling out her car. Having the help would be nice, but he probably had somewhere to go.
Then again, he was offering. And she was freezing, despite the warmth from the car heater.
"Thanks." She got out of the car. "I'll just go in for a few minutes."
"No worries. I can handle this." He smiled, showing a small dimple on either side of his mouth.
Damn, he's hot. Shara shook her head. It wasn't the first time she'd noticed how attractive Jeremy was. More than once, she'd considered hitting on him. But the awkwardness potential of getting involved with a neighbor, even for a one-time fuck, was more than she wanted to deal with.
Maybe she would have to reconsider that. It might be worth the risk.
"Thanks," she said again.
"No problem." He pushed her car door closed. "Go on in. If you want to pay me back, I'd be happy to have a cup of coffee when I'm done."
"Duly noted."
She hesitated. Leaving him to shovel alone still felt wrong, but he had already begun digging the snow away from her front tires. Since he was willing to do the heavy labor, who was she to argue? She headed inside and started the coffee maker.
Through the kitchen window, which overlooked the parking lot, she watched Jeremy shoveling. It was a nice thing for him to do, especially given how heavy and wet the snow was. Somehow a cup of coffee didn't seem like enough to give him in return.
She could easily think of another way to repay him. The trick would be getting him into her apartment. That probably wouldn't be too difficult, though. By the time he was finished shoveling, he would need to warm up. She could definitely help with that.
Sex with a neighbor probably was a bad idea, but today, she didn't care. Today, it was time to say "fuck it" and just go after what she wanted.
Finally the coffee was ready. Shara poured a cup and returned to the window. Jeremy was still shoveling around her car, but it looked like he had almost finished digging it out.
