Chapter 1

1

A metallic clang echoed on the balcony, snapping Alec’s attention from lines of coding consuming the laptop screen. Rising from his desk, Alec hissed at the stiffness in his knees from sitting at his desk for hours.

Silently, he slid open the screen door and edged out onto the slab that passed for a balcony in his New York City apartment. Quietly cursing himself for his hesitancy, Alec glanced quickly among the small jungle of plants lining the rails. His ongoing battle with one of the neighborhood pigeons had escalated over the two months of the city’s pandemic lockdown. Convinced the winged creature harbored anger issues, Alec assumed the noise to be the most recent attack on his beloved wildberry heuchera.

“Dang it!” a voice called from somewhere above, followed by a rattling against the side of the balcony rails.

Alec took the two steps to the edge to see a make-shift metal basket snagged along the edge of his balcony. The thin ropes leading up shook slightly, disappearing into the balcony above him.

“Hello?” called Alec, reaching out toward the basket before he halted. Every warning about germs and distancing ran through his brain.

“Hey!” Relief swelled in the voice above him. “Sorry about this, but my lunch seems to be stuck. Would you mind giving it a shove?” Peering toward the basket, Alec saw a cardboard box from the pizza place down the block that made breath-taking calzones. His stomach rumbled from just peering at the green logo in the shape of Italy.

“Um, sure,” said Alec, glancing around before snatching his gardening gloves. He wondered if they counted as official PPE as he leaned over the side. He spied a small hook on the edge of the basket caught on the corner of the railing. In his clunky gloves, Alec managed to free the basket and steady it before turning his face upward.

“Thanks,” said the voice, now attached to the bluest, blue eyes Alec had ever seen. Laced by dark lashes that matched a tuft of wavy hair falling into his face, Alec decided the only word to describe the man was sculpted—as though carved by some ancient Greek artist with a penchant for perfection. “Did you want some?” the statue of beauty spoke. Yes, please, thought Alec. “I ordered a full calzone,” the vision above him added, snapping Alec from his admiring stupor. “No way I can finish it.”

“Oh, that’s nice of you, but I, uh…,” Alec thought of the sad egg salad waiting for him in the fridge.

“Come on. It’s a thank you for saving my food. I’m Nico, by the way. Nico Franzetti,” he said, a smile lighting up his dark, gorgeous features and relieving Alec of the ability to speak. So not a Greek statue then, but a Roman one. He stood unmoving for a beat more, until a breeze brushed the metal basket up against the railing.

“Sure,” Alec found the word leaving his mouth before he could kill it with common sense. “Let me grab…something.” He raced into the apartment and reached for plate and fork from the drying rack. Seeing his hands still encased in the gardening gloves, he quickly whipped them onto the kitchen floor in one move. Yanking on a pair of blue gloves he saved for grocery deliveries, he took a moment to try and tame the tuft of his strawberry blonde hair that generally refused to stay in place before stumbling back out to the balcony. “You sure about this?” he called up.

“Hurry up, or we’ll both have cold calzone,” Nico laughed.

Alec waved his blue-covered hands above him, part in agreement and part in assurance to the moving statue that he was being COVID-careful. “Okay, thanks,” he said and maneuvered the basket back to reattach the hook.

“I know it’s only four stories, but the guys at my fave pizza place are really weirded out by all of this. So I rigged this up,” said Nico. “It’s lucky I have rope,” Alec’s brain stuttered to a momentary halt before Nico finished, “for my job.”

Alec shook his head to clear his thoughts, then carefully opened the box. The heavenly smell of the sweet, red sauce and melted cheese hit him, eliciting a barely contained groan. The basket rattled slightly. Without looking up, Alec hurried to rip the calzone with his hands and slide the smaller portion onto his plate. Closing the box, he freed the basket and glanced up to see Nico looking at him with an odd expression.

“Thank you again.” He waved up to Nico, though the basket continued to sway at his balcony. “Oh, I’m Alec,” he called.

“Hi, Alec,” said Nico, his voice suddenly softer than before. “Do you want to join me for lunch…with balcony-to-balcony distancing, of course.”

Alec opened his mouth, ready to agree with an eagerness that would reveal he possessed not even a modicum of cool. Then he remembered the endless lines of coding still waiting for him. “I…I would, but my office is trying to navigate a buggy program,” he said, suddenly wondering how many emails he had missed while distracted by the beauty of Nico.