My Next Door Neighbor

Chapter 2

Penelope's POV

"Coming through!" I press close to the counter as one of my workers pass behind me. Okay wow, usually it's a bit crowded on the weekends but it's way more crowded than usual. I quickly rush forward to take a customers order. "Hi what would you like to order?" I smile at the customer, when I really didn't want to.

My god it's her, Lucy. She's always flirting with Gray, which I don't really care for except Gray has told her he has no interest in dating but she stills pursues him and he has shared his thoughts on how uncomfortable she makes him. Which is usually why I'm always glaring at her, rude to her, and ignoring her back at the apartment but nope. She knows I have to be nice to every customer in my cafe.

"Hi Pen, can I call you that?" She gives me one of those fake smiles. "Maybe not, only close friends call me that. What would you like to order?" The quicker she answers, the faster I can get her to leave. "Fine Pen, I would like 6 cookies and cream macaroons and 8 chocolate chip cookies" I grit my teeth and smile at her.

"Sure" I grab a bag and tongs and pick the 6 macaroons and 8 cookies and put them in the bag and before handing it to her. "That would be $15.43, now would that be cash or credit?" I ask her. She smile and hands me a 20 dollar bill. I hand her the bag and put the money in the register and give her, her change.

"See you later Pen, and do say hi to Gray for me" She smiles at me and turns to walk away when someone comes into the shop and that someone just happens to be Grayson Miller. I mentally facepalm. "Grayson! Hello!" She immediately goes over to Gray and I just see his whole body tense. I see him talking but I can't hear. "Hey Cherry! Can you take over for a moment?" Cherry comes over and nods but before she could say anything. I leave to go to Grayson.

I quickly walk over to Gray and Lucy. I hear her try to offer some of the cookies to him but I interrupt her. "Grayson, I need to talk to you in my office." He visibly relaxes at my voice and even more when I grab his hand. "Excuse us Lucy." Lucy frowns at me while I smile at her. Gray grips my hand even more as we walk to my office and as soon as the door closed, I hug him. I squeeze him tight and he relaxes. "You okay Gray? I know you're uncomfortable with her and you don't like her." I rub his hands gently and he smiles down at me.

"I'm alright sunshine. She's just so persistent and she be saying things that make me uncomfortable even after I rejected her." He stares so deeply into my eyes. I really do like his eyes, his eyes are so beautiful. They are so green like a forest. I shake my head slightly.

"I don't get why you call me sunshine" I smile up at him, god he's really tall. "Cause I remember you singing it on the first three months you moved in, remember? We've always had thin walls, so imagine my surprise to hear such a clear and beautiful voice singing, You are my sunshine, repeatedly until I grew tired of that song and I had to knock on your door to stop you singing that song" I laugh at the memory and he chuckles alongside me.

"Actually, now that I think about it, If you never had sung that and I hadn't knocked on your door to get you to stop singing it, we would've never became friends or as close to one and another as we are now. And now we've been friends for four years now" I smile at him. "You're right" and then the fucking moment breaks when he smirks down at me and stands taller.

"Excuse you Ms. Jones, I'm always right" I just stare at him for a few seconds and then stand on my tippy toes to smack him on the head. He winces and rubs his head. "Excuse me, ya bitch, I hit my head twice this morning, remember?" I laugh out loudly and then put my hands on his chest and smile up at him.

"Sorry bitch, I forgot about that. Anyways could you go grocery shopping for me? I literally only have expired meat, maybe I've been eating too many take outs to notice, hehe." I rub my head nervously, knowing he always cares to ensure I have food that's not expired and makes sure my place isn't messy since I come home late and I usually throw my clothes at places.

"Pen, you know how I feel about that. But I won't lecture you this time and I'll just do it, I'll go food shopping while you're working and then cook dinner tonight cause I am craving some tacos, you want some tacos?" He looks down at me while rubbing his stomach. I smile "You just wanted to use my kitchen, you don't even care about my needs" He gasps dramatically and puts a hand to his chest and looks somewhat appalled.

"I beg your pardon ma'am, but sadly Ms. Jones you are correct!" I laugh and then poke his stomach. And walk over to my purse and grab my apartment keys and walk back and hand it over. "Here, I don't care what you get. I just want food at my house" he nods and leans down, kissing my cheek softly. "I'll let you go back to work Pen, I'll see you later" I smile at him and he smiles back and walk out, feeling him leave behind me and we part as he goes to the direction of the doors.

                                  ~*~

"Bye Pen! See you tomorrow!" I look back at Cherry and wave. "Bye Cherry, see you tomorrow, oh also you're gonna be the one to lock up tomorrow, don't forget" as soon at those words left my mouth I saw her sigh and look at me. I sigh as I raise my eyebrow. "Yes Cherry? What is it?" I look back to her and she smiles nervously. "My girlfriend is taking me out on a date tomorrow for our anniversary so I won't be able to lock up" I wave her off. "It's okay, I'll have George do it then" she shakes her head no.

"He won't be able to do that too remember? He's off of work tomorrow for a doctors appointment and Lilly locked up last time and she needs to be home as soon as her shift ends tomorrow since her husband is leaving for that trip and needs to watch the kids" I sigh and nod.

"Right I completely forgot about that, I've been just burying myself in paperwork trying to get them done plus I've been helping serving the tables here and taking over when you guys are on your breaks, but it's okay I can do it tomorrow then. Thanks for reminding me about all of that Cherry, goodnight" I smile at her and she smiles back. "Goodnight doll" I chuckle at the accent she has and she walks out.

I seemed to be in my own head just cleaning up the counters, the tables and putting the chairs up and sweeping and mopping the floor until I hear a knock on the cafe doors and jump. I look back to see Grayson and that's when I notice it's quite dark out. I smile at him and walk over to the doors and unlock it for him. "It's late Pen, really late. The food I bought have been properly placed in your preferred places in your kitchen by the way. Anyways, you almost done? Everything looks clean." He gestures around the cafe. I nod while looking up at him.

"It is, but I have some more paperwork to fill out and complete. If you want you can get a cookie, only if you pay with your body" I smirk and he smirks back and takes his jacket off and I laugh but then stop as I see him reaching for his shirt.

"I've changed my mind, it's for free, Let's go, hehe" I quickly say while walking. Shit he almost took his shirt off, wait why am I so flustered? Why am I like this? I clear my throat and put my cold hands on my cheeks and exhale as I feel my hands cooling my cheeks, or something.

I go over and grab a few cookies and put them in a bag and hand them to him and he thanks me. "Anyways imma just do these very quickly and then we can leave." He nods and happily eats his cookies.

I sit down at my desk and grab my pen as I sign my name for the paper to order flowers for the cafe. I move on quickly, signing each paper work and before I know it, I'm done. As I get up from my desk I yawn and walk over to Gray. "Let's go, I'm hungry and tired." He smiles at me. "Luckily I've already made the tacos and they are waiting for you" My stomach rumbles at the mention of tacos and both of us stop walking.

"Did your stomach just?" He stops himself as he bursts out laughing. "Come Sunshine, let's feed the monster that's in your belly" He says with an accent and I laugh at his stupid accent and words. I turn off the lights and we walk out and I locked the doors up again.