So We Meet-Cute Again

By Geneva Vand

Everywhere Aiden goes, he sees the same handsome stranger—and promptly makes a klutzy, ridiculous fool of himself. Over and over again, their crossing paths spell humiliating doom for poor Aiden.

Jason is intrigued by the lanky brunet he keeps chancing upon, and the more he learns the more he wants to properly meet the guy. When they do finally meet, groceries—and hearts—go flying, but can they turn their never-ending meet-cute into something real?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Geneva Vand
• Release date: Nov 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9798223775409

Book preview

Part 1

Terrible Clichés

Aiden thought it might be time to admit it. It was official. Certified and sealed.

He was a stalker. An accidental and harmless one, but a stalker all the same.

Because there he was again. It was that same guy. He was everywhere.

Aiden watched the other man from across the street. And he was certainly nice to watch. Handsome as sin and hot enough to sizzle. He was all broad shoulders and muscled arms and chiseled jaw. He was exactly Aiden's type, apparently. Until now, Aiden had been unaware that he even had a type. But there Hot Guy was to strongly indicate otherwise. You learned something new every day, Aiden supposed.

Hot Guy must have moved to the neighborhood recently, because Aiden didn't remember seeing him everywhere before the last month or so. But now, wherever Aiden went, there Hot Guy was.

It was getting ridiculous, really. Aiden was contemplating writing up a disclaimer and printing it on a card. Something like I'm not stalking you; I just like ogling your very fine physique when I happen to see you, might do the trick.

Currently, Hot Guy was leaning over the late-summer produce at the farm stand just down the block from the table where Aiden sat. Traffic was sparse and the street was somewhat narrow, so Aiden had a fairly good vantage point from his spot at his favorite café.

He'd been staring off into space, contemplating the arrangements at the next event his company had been contracted to organize, when Hot Guy showed up. Aiden had happily transferred his attentions. After all, Hot Guy was much more interesting than the room layouts that had previously occupied his thoughts.

There was nothing wrong with a little bit of visual admiration, right? It wasn't like he was catcalling the guy. There was no actual interaction, just admiration from afar.

Aiden decided to give up on being discreet since Hot Guy never noticed him anyway. He set his coffee down on the little table and lounged back, contemplating the tall blond. His hair wasn't a true blond, more of a dish-watery faded brunet. The gloriously tousled mane brushed the broad shoulders that Aiden was so fond of. His tapered torso lead down to slim hips and long legs that ended in some hardcore biker boots. Faded dark denim and a forest green t-shirt finished the image. He looked at the shirt and wondered what color Hot Guy's eyes were. Aiden hoped they were green to match the shirt.

He sighed wistfully as his gaze traveled back up to the hair. And the face, features too strong to be pretty but they were definitely appealing, maybe even handsome. And then there were the eyelashes so thick he could tell from here. And they framed eyes that were now looking right at him.

Shit. As casually as possible, he picked up his coffee and drank. He tried to pretend to be staring at the produce. Yes. That's all he'd been doing: looking in the direction of the farm stand, watching people come and go. Right. Totally believable. Except not.

Of course the one time Hot Guy actually noticed him would be the one time Aiden was openly ogling instead of covertly ogling. Damn it. Aiden wondered if Hot Guy was straight and homophobic and likely to try to kick his ass. That would match the way his luck usually went.

Risking another sneaky glance back at Hot Guy's face, he saw a grin and an expression suggesting withheld laughter.

That was great. That was just awesome.

Hot Guy raised an amused eyebrow in an aristocratic manner, which only made him more attractive. Damn it.

Aiden's face burned as Hot Guy turned back to the vendor. Hot Guy bought his end-of-summer produce, turned back around, and waved jauntily at Aiden. He then proceeded to ignore Aiden entirely and walked down the block, presumably to an apartment building alarmingly close to Aiden's own.

Aiden was tempted to do a classic repeating head thump against the table. It seemed appropriate, but if he gave in to the impulse he had no doubt that Hot Guy would come back around the corner and catch him at it. That would, after all, be an ending entirely suited to the rest of the encounter.

Instead of succumbing to the head-thumping urge, Aiden left cash on the table for the coffee, the pastry, and the tip then walked down the block in the opposite direction. He may as well limit the probability of a face to face meeting after being caught gawking. That would just further cement the stalker vibe, after all.

It did suck that he still didn't know what color Hot Guy's eyes were, though. Aiden supposed he'd stick with the green version. It would surely be corrected later. He figured it was only a matter of time until he knocked the man down in the middle of the street or something.

Jason was trying hard not to laugh. It was that guy again. This was about the millionth time this week that he'd seen Stalker Boy. Or maybe Jason was the stalker. Naw. Stalker Boy was definitely the stalker. Maybe it was mutual? He supposed that it could be.

Either way, he and the lanky brunet were dogging each other's steps. Despite the frequency with which he was running into the other man, he figured that they probably didn't live in the same building. Mostly because if they did, they would have crashed into each other on the stairs by now. Jason guessed there were a couple blocks between their apartments, at the very least. But they apparently had the same favorite coffee shop. And grocery store. And bookstore. And jazz club. This was getting a little ridiculous.

Watching Stalker Boy out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw him set down his coffee and lean back in his chair. The dude sat like a big cat. All lean and graceful and poised. Like a panther, Jason decided, looking at the shiny dark hair. The other man's slim torso seemed to go on for miles and the limbs that should have just looked gangly looked graceful instead.

Jason kind of wanted to make a buffet out of him. All stretched out like that, he would make a beautiful feast.

Wait a minute... He turned his head to look more directly. Yup. Stalker Panther was, indeed, staring at him. Probably. It was hard to tell for sure from across the street, but it definitely looked like it. Hot damn. Maybe there really was a gay fairy godmother. Like that fairy godmother in Cinderella. The one that made all your dreams come true. Except his dreams were R-rated.

Panther apparently realized he was caught. He jolted and blushed while he picked up his coffee and tried to look like he was watching something past Jason.

Jason couldn't help but chuckle as he turned back around. He took his bag of veggies and handed his money to the confused stand owner.

Because he was in a good mood and feeling snarky, he gave Panther a little wave before he wandered off in the direction of his apartment. His reward was great big eyes and a really pretty renewed blush.

As he wandered home, he wondered what his chances of catching Stalker Panther were, if he decided to try. Finding him would obviously be no problem. But cats could be wily or uninterested. He kind of hoped this particular cat would maybe be interested.

He'd have to think on it, Jason decided. There was no point in catching Panther if he wasn't going to follow through.

Did he want to follow through? He smiled and let himself into his apartment building. Could be fun, right?

Aiden sighed. Sometimes his job as an event organizer was interesting and sometimes it was really, really, really boring.

Hey, Ange! he called.

There was a thump from the direction of their huge storage closet followed by a pained groan. He turned his chair to look just as his business partner stuck her