Chapter One
JR could hear the couple arguing even before he reached the gate to his patio.
He unlocked the gate and pushed his beach cruiser bike onto the patio to its customary place against the fence and propped his surfboard next to it. The privacy fence afforded him the luxury of being able to strip out of his wetsuit so that he could rinse it, the surfboard, and the bike off before he rinsed the sand off himself.
The water from the hose was cool but using it to rinse off on the patio kept the sand and sea salt on his skin from being tracked into the condo.
The Santa Ana winds had been blowing out from the desert, so the waves hadn't been great this morning. This is why he was standing naked on his patio at this time of the morning and able to hear the muffled argument between the couple in the condo next to his.
Their patio door was closed, and two garages sat between their patios, so their words were unintelligible, but the tone and amplitude of their voices made the heated nature of their exchange obvious. Oh well, none of his business as long as words were all that he heard being thrown.
Drying himself quickly with the towel he had left hanging by the hot tub, JR prepared to enter his living room when he heard the sliding door of the condo next door to his open. This sound was followed almost immediately by that of something breaking on the asphalt parking area behind the building. He expected to hear louder voices through the open patio door next door but heard only silence as the door was slid closed once again.
Even though their two condos were the only units in the building that they shared, he didn't know the couple that lived beside him. They had rented the unit before he had moved in three years ago and kept pretty much to themselves. They were both in their mid to late twenties and seemed to spend most of their time at work.
At least the woman seemed to work a lot. JR had seen the man frequenting the community pool at various times of the day, but only when there were one or more young women present for him to try to impress. JR also knew that the property management staff had warned the man about his bringing glass bottles of beer into the pool area on several occasions.
As he took a shower JR couldn't think of a single time when he had seen the couple together outside their condo, and until this morning, he hadn't heard them argue. His studying minimized his opportunities to socialize with any of the neighbors in the condo complex. He had met several of them while maintaining the common areas of the complex or cleaning the pool, but never his next-door neighbors.
Checking the time on his cell phone while getting dressed in shorts and a polo shirt, he figured that he had four hours to study before he had to leave for his one class this afternoon. This particular class was not one he had to prepare for, but there were several others that he felt needed some preparation for him to be confident in his performance at the next class session. Maintaining his valedictorian status through his final semester majoring in molecular biology at the University of California, Irvine required the type of dedicated study that JR had thrived on his entire life.
His condo had four bedrooms, a master suite downstairs, and three more upstairs, one of which he had set up as his personal study hall. Dedicating the space in this manner afforded him the luxury of organizing everything he would need for studying in one room of the condo.
This approach helped him avoid distractions while trying to study in view of the kitchen or the view of the ocean off in the distance which could be seen from the living room. The lone window in his study hall room faced one of the courtyards of the condo complex and had very little foot traffic to catch his attention if the blinds were open, which they seldom were.
The knock on his front door was a surprise for several reasons. First, at nearly nine o'clock on a Friday morning, most people in the complex would already be on their way to work. Second, the security gates for the complex had traditionally kept canvassers, solicitors, and other door-to-door pests away from his portal. Finally, hardly anyone he knew would show up at someone's door unannounced. He was too curious however to ignore the intrusion.
Though he had only seen her from a distance as she came or went from the condo next to his, JR knew who the woman at his door was as soon as he opened it. He had always thought that she was 'girl-next-door' pretty, but it always appeared that she took little pride in her appearance. Her eyes were still puffy from recent tears, but she had tried her best to cover for this with a modest amount of make-up and avoiding direct eye contact.
"Hi," she said while looking at JR's bare feet. "We haven't met, but I'm your next-door neighbor Rockie Preston."
"I'm glad to finally meet you Rockie. I'm JR."
"I'm happy to meet you too, JR, and I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor?"
"Sure," he said.
"My cell phone got broken this morning, my car was in an accident last night, and I need to get to work. Can I borrow your cell phone to arrange for an Uber ride?"
"Of course. Come on in and I'll get my phone for you."
Still staring at his feet, she said, "That's okay, I can wait out here."
He only paused for a second to consider her response before turning and walking up the stairway and into the study room, leaving her standing at the open front door. He returned momentarily with his cell phone and offered it to her. He had unlocked the phone by entering his password on his way back to her.
Taking a few seconds to familiarize herself with the strange cell phone, she began scrolling through the applications installed on it.
"You don't have the Uber or Lyft apps on your phone?" she asked.
"No, I'm sorry I don't. I've never had any need to use them," he replied.
"Can I install one of them from the app store," she asked. "They're free."
"I would prefer that you didn't," he said. "I can give you a ride to work if that would help."
"Is that your real voice or are you trying out your Sam Elliot impersonation on me?"
His voice had a deep, resonating tone, with a hint of 'twang'. She imagined that it could be a very intimidating voice, but he spoke to her softly and with a smile in his tone.
"It's the only voice I have, and you would do well to never hear me sing with it. So, would you like me to give you a ride to work?"
For the first time, her glance moved to his face and then to his eyes. They too had a soothing, smiling twinkle evident in their beautiful hazel color.
For his part, JR was amazed to see that her eyes were the same beautiful ice-blue color as his mother's.
Her expression was one of unbridled curiosity as she asked, "How, on the handlebar of your bike?"
Her sarcasm brought a grin to his face. He imagined that her impression of him had to be influenced by what little she would have had an opportunity to learn by seeing him around the condo complex. There was no reason that she should know anything more than what he showed the community daily, which was a guy who rode a beach cruiser to go surfing almost every morning and toiled around the complex doing manual labor.
