Jack, Chloe's husband

"Christ," I muttered to myself, pausing to glance longingly at my couch as the sound of knocking repeated again. "Coming!" I called loudly, wiping the sweat off my brow with the bottom of my t-shirt as I walked to the door.

"Hi, I'm Jack," the rather dweeb-ish man greeted me as I opened the door, "I live next door," he told me, indicating Chloe's house with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder. "Just thought I'd come over and introduce myself," he assures me with an over-friendly smile.

_Yeah, after I finish unloading everything, now you come over, _I thought myself but hid my thoughts behind a welcoming smile. "Nice to meet you, Jack," I say, reaching out to shake his hand, enjoying the brief look of pain on his face as I squeeze his small hand with my full grip. "Come on in. I was just going to have a beer. Want one?"

"Sure, thank you," Jack nods as he hesitantly steps into my house. "I... I don't usually drink," he assures me as he glances around the room at the piles of boxes. "My wife doesn't like it."

"I won't tell her," I say with a wink as I grab two beers from the fridge and motion towards the couch for him to sit. "I met your wife earlier," I tell him as I sit down opposite him, handing him the beer as he perches tentatively on the edge of the couch.

"You did?" Jack says with a surprised raise of his eyebrows. "Odd, she didn't mention it to me," he mutters almost to himself as he sips at the beer.

_Interesting, _I think to myself as I watch him, wondering how such a nerdy little man ever ended up with a beauty like Chloe. We sit there in silence for a few moments, each drinking our beer, the few small attempts at conversation quickly revealing that we have nothing in common other than our houses being next door to each other.

"We.. we having a cookout tomorrow night," Jack finally announces. "We'd like you to come. Our way of welcoming you to the neighborhood," he says as puts his half full beer down and stands up to leave.

"Sure, I'll be there," I assure him as I stand up to usher him to the door, wondering again at how a woman like Chloe ended up with a waste like Jack. I was still wondering that as I headed upstairs to shower.