The Lady Next Door - A Sequel to "The Man Next Door"

Chapter 3: Escape

The drive back home was peaceful, despite her boyfriend sitting on the edge of his seat the entire ride.

He kept his hand put on her leg as they drove through their town, which had a beautiful backdrop of the colorful sky during the sunset. "My license hasn't expired you know," Vera mumbles, moving a hand from the steering wheel and placing it over his.

"I've never let you drive," Patrick says, his eyes peeled straight ahead as she drove along the weaving road, "I just didn't know what to expect."

"You seem amazed at my driving," She faces him, holding in a chuckle.

He laughs as they start to turn onto a familiar small road, "I'm amazed that we made it home alive."

As they pull the car into their large driveway, eventually turning it off, they hop out of the car and begin to take each of their things into the house.

Once they had brought everything in, they began to unpack. After noticing that Patrick had oddly gone quiet, she looks over at him and noticed that he wasn't putting things away anymore. Instead, he was sat on the couch, worriedly staring down at his phone.

Vera gets up from where she was going through their bag, and slowly approaches him, "you wanna maybe eat something?" Vera asks, taking the spot beside him and kissing his bare shoulder.

As she listened to what he had in mind for dinner, she took a glance at his screen, seeing that he was reading a text from his boss. "What's up with work?" Vera interrupts him, she watches him turn the phone off before spinning around to face her.

"Uh," Patrick laughs nervously, combing a hand through his hair, "you know how sometimes, as an architect, all of our projects won't be happening locally?"

"Yeah," she nods, scooting closer to him.

"I'm leaving for New York, in two days," he admits, "but they'll only need me there for three nights." Hesitantly, he looks up to meet her eyes.

The gentle smile she was giving him has now dropped into a frown, "you're leaving in two days?!" Vera gasps, a feeling of shock coming over her, "well isn't that a little short notice?"

Patrick nods, "I knew this for about a month now, Vera, I just thought..." he sighs regretfully, "I thought I'd be able to find a way out of it."

"Oh, honey," she sighs, slowly beginning to pull him into her chest, "I think I can handle a couple of nights without you."

Patrick laughs, pulling away to stare into her glowing eyes, "I know you might, but I can't exactly say the same thing about myself." He leans back onto the couch, his eyes staying put on hers as he takes her hand, "I really want you to come with me."

Vera sighs as she shakes her head, leaning onto his shoulder, "well, I have work." She says, smiling weakly, "and I don't think I could ever go back to New York, not after having spent my entire life there."

Patrick smiles, "so you really don't like New York?"

"I've just grown tired of it," Vera smirks, looking up at him as he kisses her forehead gently, "and so have my parents." She giggles.

"I guess that's understandable," he begins to laugh with her, but quickly goes silent again.

"I'll really miss you," he says.

"I'll call you each night if it makes things a little easier?"

"Oh, please do," he whispers.

-

A few hours have gone by since they arrived home. As they were about to head to bed, they began trying on different dress shirts for Patrick to take with him on his small business trip.

Patrick walks out of their walk-in closet with a new shirt on, he glances at himself in the full-body mirror before turning to Vera, "where are your pants?" She laughs.

"The ones I had on just didn't go with this shirt," Patrick mutters, standing there helplessly in only a pair of boxers.

"The pants you had on were burgundy, and a white shirt definitely goes with that," Vera laughs, stepping up to him, "how did you dress yourself before?"

"I would call Sawyer over for help," Patrick looks down at her with a smile, watching as she buttoned the shirt together, cracking into laughter.

"I'm starting to get suspicious of you two," Vera says, "does Mandy know about this affair?" She jokes.

Patrick rolls his eyes, "he helped me get dressed. That's all." He scolds.

"I don't think I'm comfortable leaving you alone with him on this trip-," Vera yelps in laughter as he quickly picks her off the ground, "Patri- OKAY I'M KIDDING!!!" She continues to laugh, holding onto him as if her life depended on it.

"You done?" He chuckles tiredly, walking away from the closet.

"Yes!" She clung to him up until she felt herself being dropped off onto their bed. "Babe, you could've ruined your shirt," Vera says, catching her breath. She chuckles up until she finally opened her eyes, finding Patrick to be hovering over her, his dress shirt hanging open as he stood only an inch away from her face.

Instinctively, Vera reaches her hand up to him and gently skims her fingers over his cheek, she then reaches over to the nape of his neck and smiles as she pulls him down into a kiss.

After a minute, they pull away gently, smiling idiotically at each other as their faces have now turned into a deep shade of color. But before they got the chance to return back to each other, they hear a loud pounding coming from their front door.