Beneath Your Beautiful: A Neighbors to Lovers Romance [COMPLETED]

6 - Misery

"More to the left," Jaya instructed her sister Candela as she adjusted a cabinet door in the kitchen. For six weeks her arm would be in a cast, which meant she needed a functioning kitchen—and the help of her family.

Her parents had offered her to stay in her old room, but they knew how fiercely independent she was. Of her nineteen adoptive siblings, she'd been the youngest to leave the nest. And even during the ten years she lived at Casa de Esperanza, she'd made sure she wasn't a burden on anyone.

"Yes, ma'am," Candela mocked Jaya's dictator tone. "How are things with you and your neighbor?"

"The supermodel?" Lumiana asked without looking up from the door she was painting. Her mass of pitch-black hair was tied to the side in a fishtail braid that swung like a pendulum with each movement.

"Noah Santino," Candela said to Lumiana. "Have you seen that guy? Es muy ardiente," she added in her native Spanish, fanning herself.

Candi always brought the party. She had a lightheartedness about her that Jaya deeply admired, especially because her sister didn't have an easy life either. Yet somehow Candi always found the silver lining.

"Seriously, Jaya. Gus said Noah seems like the perfect guy for you."

"He isn't." Jaya handed Candela the screwdriver. "I'm a sociologist. He's a supermodel. We live in two very different worlds."

Candela assembled the next cabinet door. "So what? Lumi is a respected anthropologist, and Johnny is a famous indie rocker."

"But Johnny is an artist," Jaya countered, trying her best to gesture eloquently with her cast. "There's a difference if you make a living bringing joy to people like Johnny does, or if you make people feel inadequate and try to get them to want and buy stuff they don't need or can't afford, which is what Noah does."

"What if he wasn't a model?" Candela put down the screwdriver to admire her work—she did a surprisingly good job. "You have the same hobbies, and you find each other attractive. Two solid reasons to give him a chance."

"But he is a model, and I don't date." Why were they even talking about this? There was no universe in which she'd ever date a model—Sanjay would turn over in his grave.

Shit.

She pressed a palm to her chest. Years of therapy and the old man's words still seeped through the cracks.

"Humor me for a second." Candela picked up one of the brass handles and secured it on the door.

Jaya blew a stray hair out of her face. "He's nice. I like him, but—"

"Good to know," Noah said from behind her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"How about a little warning?" she said to Candela and Lumiana, who were smiling at the sight of Noah and his adorable puppy standing in the entrance of her soon-to-be kitchen.

Over the past few days, she and Noah had fallen into the habit of showing up at each other's places unannounced. Can I borrow some sugar? Did you see the game last night? Let me show you the new trick I taught Penelope. That sort of thing. The gate was an enabler.

"So you like me, huh?"

Of course, he'd heard that. "How do you know I was talking about you?"

"I overheard enough of your conversation to know you think I'm doing the devil's work."

"Too strong of an analogy, but yes, I think what you do isn't contributing to the greater good."

He leaned against the counter, his arms crossed. Gesturing with his hand, he said, "Anything else you'd like to criticize?"