Neighbors

Chapter Two

The weekend with my sister went by all too quickly. I was left with ripe golden tan and bags of frozen smoothie mix as a reminder of our time together, along with the plethora of photos she always took. They uploaded to the family cloud so it would be easy enough to sift through them later. It was only the day after and I already missed her. I missed much of my family often but I wasn't ready to take any trips back to New Jersey or even New York to visit Ophelia. The thought of being that close to the past left a heavy pit in my stomach that felt like a stone that sometimes came with a sudden panic attack. And I had no time for panic attacks with an infant to care for. While it was unlikely my stalker would show his face around my family after the beating he took the first time, the memory of our last encounter still weighed on me.

In other news, Angry Artist hadn't made any attempts to finish our staring contest since our encounter in front of the building. In fact, I hadn't seen him at all. But I didn't need to see him to know he was still around. Every morning like clockwork his dogs were barking. They barked for nearly an hour and sometimes it sounded like they were in my bedroom demanding my personal attention. I didn't particularly have an issue with dogs or barking but there were some nights with Josiah that were harder than others and since I didn't usually have to be in at the youth center until late morning, it would have been nice to be able to catch up on sleep without the barking.

Josiah's sleeping schedule had been slightly thrown off with my sister being here and her last night had been a bit harder than the others. So the following morning was one of those mornings where I would have loved to sleep in but the barking ensued seemingly the moment I shut my eyes. I groaned and rolled over, burying my head under my pillow but today was one of those days where it seemed like they were in the room with me. Angry Artist had to know this was unacceptable. Patience could only go so far with a new mother.

I rolled out of bed too sleep deprived to care that my curly hair must have been a mess and my blue silk high waisted shorts and cropped spaghetti strapped blouse was slightly twisted, the shorts riding a little higher so my ass was a little more out and the top showing a little more cleavage on one side than the other.

Knocking on the door sent the dogs into a frenzy and it was three knocks before he yanked open the door looking just as sleepy. His hair fell around his face since it wasn't gelled back. He was wearing basketball shorts and surprise, surprise, no shirt, just a wall of perfectly sculpted muscle. It should have been illegal to be that hot in the morning.

"Can I help you?" He said, his voice deeper than usual from being unused. He rubbed his eyes and looked down at me. I felt him mark me from head to toe and swore he was fighting back the urge to smile.

"We need to talk about your dogs."

"What? No muffins and we need to talk about your dogs?"

"Sweetheart, I have a child. When I spend all night trying to comfort him long enough to get him to sleep and two hours later I'm woken up by barking, I don't have the energy to bake."

"Well, I'm out of options with the barking. They won't stop. I've tried everything."

"They need to burn off that energy. You should take them walking or to the dog park. They'll come back and sleep."

He rolled his shoulders. I couldn't tell if he was shrugging me off or stretching the tiredness from his limbs. "I can try but I can't promise anything."

"Do, because this is getting out of hand. I've dealt with it as long as I could."

"Well they aren't barking now."

True, indeed, they had gone quiet. I could see them in the hall behind him, sitting like good boys and panting. "True," I said, "but rare. I get it, they are dogs, my sister has two, or five... depends on how often her husband comes home with a new one, but it doesn't change the fact that I have a child and I need what little sleep I can get."