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

Chapter 6: Take A Chance

Patrick steps down into the lobby before turning toward the bar, he had dressed as he would for a night out with a couple of friends, just much less casual.

After noticing that everyone had gathered out on the small outdoor patio, he gathered his things from where he settled down and pushed out the door. The outdoors weren't as quiet as he wished for them to be, but it was much better than before. All that was left on the block were a couple of cars flying past and hardly any more people.

The weather was windy but still quite warm, so as he walked toward the group, he quickly fixed his misplaced brown hair and prepared to slip off his jacket, revealing the white button-down shirt he had on underneath, "hey everyone, I'm Patrick." He calmly says as his tall shadow cast over the table, taking a seat where Sawyer had saved him a spot.

After learning everyone's names, they all carried on talking, sending the waiter away at least twice as they were all waiting on one more person to join them. As Patrick sat there, he paid no attention to what the group was talking about, instead, he kept his eyes attentive to his phone.

He had not heard a sound from Vera, making him want to check on his notifications every time he got the chance. Patrick knew that she liked to keep her phone out of sight when writing her papers for work, so instead of dwelling on it, he tried his best to keep that in mind.

Suddenly, in the middle of their conversations, they all hear a chirpy voice and look up toward the last guest, all except for Patrick. Sawyer began nudging Patrick on the shoulder in order to have him look up from his phone, and that's when he recognized her. "Hey, my name is Maria," she smiles, sitting down in the last empty chair, straight across from Patrick.

-

Vera had just wrapped up her last article before sending it to her team and then lastly closing down her computer. She had never felt such a sensation of relief in a long time, easily making her want to relax into her chair.

As she began to stand from her office desk, a glimpse of the outdoors caught her eye, and to her surprise, it was already the evening.

She grasps for her phone from the counter after rushing out of the room, it had been 5 hours since she had started her writing for the day, and before that, she was too busy catching up with some friends that she had invited over.

Vera had gone the whole day forgetting to shoot Patrick a text, and she almost shivered in fear. As she tapped on his contact, she went upstairs and began to prepare a bath for herself, and once he had picked up, she felt her heart drop.

"Hello?"

"Hi," she smiled to herself gently at his sweet voice, but at the same time, she prepared herself for whatever he was to say next.

"How's it going? Did you have a productive day?" Patrick asks with concern, the door of his hotel room closing after him.

"Yeah, I just..." she takes a deep breath, "are you angry with me?" She asks quietly. After a short moment, he breaks the silence.

"Why would I be angry?" He almost whispers.

"I haven't texted or called all day."

"I mean... I was very worried," Patrick says chuckling, "but I would never be angry with you... where is this coming from? What happened?"

Vera's eyes widen, covering her mouth slightly as she made the sudden realization, "Sorry honey, I don't want you to worry." She goes to shut the bath off and begins to lean herself against the tub, "I was scared to call you after forgetting to call, it's just... something I've been taught."

Patrick sits on the hotel bed as he tries to decipher what she meant by that, but then it hit him, "baby, I'm not like him... I-"

"I know you aren't," she interrupts him, "I know that and you've proven that, it's just some kind of a reflex, I just don't know what to call it."

Patrick sighs audibly on the other end of the line, and Vera feels herself begin to calm down, "well, we'll just have to work through it, and I promise..." Patrick pauses and smiles to himself. Even without being able to see her, he can sense that she's smiling too.

"Promise me what?" she chuckles, beginning to undress.

"I'll promise you'll never have to worry about something like that again," Patrick says, his back hitting the top of the mattress.

After having a shower in his elegant hotel room, he quickly dressed into a t-shirt and boxers and exhaustingly slipped into bed, and before he knew it, thoughts of the dinner had already begun to flood his mind.

For starters, Maria was here, and she had joined their team of architects. Already, that was something that he couldn't wrap his mind around, but at the same time, it all started to make sense.

He knew he should have told Vera about her, but he also knew that it would upset her. He now has to work beside Maria even after everything that had happened, and there was no way out of it.

After he and her sister had a terrible breakup, Maria decided to spontaneously enter his life again. Half of him wanted to believe that she had changed and that this entire situation was a coincidence, but another part of him believed that she wanted to get to him.

Whatever it was, it didn't matter... he just had to work on getting past it.