Chapter Text
The sun felt burning against the back of her body as she reached for another box out of her car. Apparently she had chosen the perfect time to move into a new city, a heatwave had swept across the UK, making it extremely hot and making her extremely frustrated.
With a bump of her hip she closed the car door, adjusting her hands to lock the car before making her way inside the new apartment building.
As she walked through the tiled foyer, her eyes gave a glare to the elevator. It had also chosen the perfect time to be out of order. Luckily for her though this was her last box from her car that she had to grab, the rest of her stuff that wasn’t valuable or easily broken currently on its way in a moving truck.
Making her way up the staircase to the third floor, briefly stopping at each landing to adjust her grip on the box another time, she made it to the front door of her apartment. Er well her aunt’s apartment who kindly didn’t mind letting her live in it as long as she paid for the bills. It was meant to be a rental property but for her favourite niece she wouldn’t charge her rent.
She leaned the box against the doorframe as she fished for the key to the door, getting it and unlocking the door, making her way into the apartment and to her kitchen. The box was placed with a huff on the counter next to two other boxes filled with kitchen appliances and/or utensils. Being one person she didn’t need much to get by luckily.
Pulling her phone out of her back pocket she messaged her aunt.
hey just wanted to let you know i got to the apartment a bit ago sorry. just finished bringing the stuff in my car up :)
That’s wonderful to hear.. I hope you make yourself at home Bee.. Let me know if you need anything.. x
thanks nina <3
Oh as well Bee.. If you see Riley, tell him I said hi. It’s been a while since I came by the apartment, he’s such a sweetheart..
Riley? She quirked an eyebrow at her aunt’s message, vaguely remembering a conversation they’d had about one of her neighbours. He’d helped a few times when her aunt had lived in the apartment prior before she moved to the countryside and would occasionally help the previous tenant whenever they had any issues.
course i can :)
All she got was a heart reacted to her last message, a small smile on her face as she read her aunt’s nickname for her.
Shoving her phone back into her back pocket she looked at the boxes in her living room from the open window at the kitchen counter, now she just had to organise the boxes into the right rooms while she waited for the moving men to arrive.
Thoughts of this Riley guy tucked away into a little corner of her brain for the time being.
———
The sun had now dipped below the horizon, the faint dust of purple slowly leaving the sky as the warm night breeze began to set in. The movers had done their jobs quickly and with minimal issues, apart from some awkward manoeuvring of bringing the couch up the staircase.
Slumping in her couch, she browsed her phone trying to find a place to get some takeaway from as she didn’t have any groceries yet.
Deciding on some pizza, she got up, slipping on her sneakers (she refused to untie and retie her shoe laces every time) and making her way out of the apartment and down the stairs she had become very familiar with today. As she rounded the corner, she hadn’t heard anyone else using the staircase so she very much wasn’t expecting come face to face with someone. Well not really face to face.
The man before her had a black cap on and a black surgical mask on, hiding the majority of his face but she did see his eyes, how dark and deep they were. He was two steps down the stairs from her and he was still a bit taller than her. She stared in bewilderment before he gave a gruff mumble of what she assumed to be ‘evening’ before he shifted past her, slugging a duffle bag over his shoulder.
The deepness of his voice sent a shiver down her spine as she watched him disappear up and around the corner, and she couldn’t help but wonder who that mystery man was. His shoulders were broad, arms thick with very well built muscles and he walked with an almost rigid straight posture, surely it would be tiring to carry yourself like that all the time. Her train of thought was quickly interrupted as her stomach made its angry presence known. She was starving after an exhausting day of moving.
———
“This thing is fucking stupid!”
The internet modem that was currently being set up was roughly tossed across the living room, landing on the couch and bouncing off to the floor with a loud clank. Patience had never been her strongest trait, in fact frustration was probably her strongest trait.. frustration at the fact that the internet modem her service provider had sent her was absolutely fucking useless.
Getting up from the stool placed at the kitchen counter window, her feet stomped angrily down the hallway, headed towards her bedroom. That was until-
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Three confident but not too loud knocks came from her front door. Ugh. Great. Turning around she headed to the front door, turning the door handle. She pulled it open just enough to poke her face around the corner, leaning a bit to come face to chest once again with the man she passed earlier.
Craning her head up to meet his eyes she noted that the black cap from earlier that was pulled down over his face was now gone. Instead she could see blond hair that was slightly tousled on top, the sides shaved and tapered. His brows were thick but trimmed, a deep gash scar going horizontal above his right brow.
“Something I can help you with?” She questioned, annoyance laced in her words as he had just caught her in a bad mood.
The man’s eyes gave away no emotion he might be feeling, something completely different to herself. Every emotion she felt seemed to always be easily spotted in her eyes, something she could never stop no matter how hard she tried.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity he spoke, the roughness in his voice amplified as if he had just woken up from a nap.
“Was just going to ask you if you could stop stomping. It echoes.”
Oh.
Her face matched the word in her head. Her eyes wide with surprise and her mouth formed into an ‘o’.
“Sorry,” she stood up straight, pulling the door open further, “just having issues with my internet modem..”
She let out a small laugh at her struggle, trying to make a bit of a light hearted conversation.
“Okay.”
And with that he turned around, going to the door across from hers, opening it and shutting it before she could get the faintest glimpse into the other apartment. Her brows furrowed in confusion. What even was the interaction she just had.
Closing and locking the door she turned around to stare into her apartment.
“Okay,” she mocked the deepness of his voice as best as she could as she walked to her couch, “what a strange guy. Knocks on my door to tell me to be quiet and when I tell him why I’m being ‘loud’ all he can say is okay and walk off.”
Laying down on the couch, she let out a small sigh, pulling her fuzzy throw blanket over herself as she closed her eyes, “whatever as long as he doesn’t complain about every little noise I make it doesn’t really matter.”
As she slowly drifted off to sleep, her body’s tiredness from moving stuff all day catching up to her, images of her new neighbour appeared in her head. The way his brows just slightly rose when she pulled the door open all the way as if he wasn’t expecting her to do that. The way he rolled his shoulders as if shaking off their encounter while closing his front door behind him.
There was something about him that was intriguing and it wasn’t the surgical mask he kept on covering most of his face from her.