The Neighbor

Chapter 9: A New Opportunity (part 2)

It had been three weeks since she started her almost permanent job for Elle Magazine. Her life has been a whirlwind of chaos the moment she arrived but she didn't mind. In fact, she loved it. Elle was kind enough to offer Robyn a temporary apartment as a place to stay in the meantime. Again, she loved it. She had just turned in her designs for Shay Mitchell's dress that will be featured in the cover this morning and it was time for her to take the whole day off. The process definitely took longer than expected.

After the second week, she knew she'd be there longer than the expected 3-week gig. It was with great relief that she had Jen back in Los Angeles to take care of her store. She was happy with the fact that the sales are still steady and her loyal customers are still happy. Everything else was going as well as she hoped for except for one particular thing.

Aubrey and Robyn have not communicated as much as they expected since she arrived. For the first few days, the free time that Robyn had was given towards either Mel or Aubrey for a quick facetime or a phone call. It was how she unwinds after a long day; she would call him to fill him in on everything that happened. He was always there when she called him and was ready to listen. It was a little taste of home just talking to him.

Things started to change after the fourth or fifth day. Their talks became shorter and sometimes, they wouldn't even talk to each other at all. Aubrey noticed the disinterest and exhaustion from her voice when they talked. He figured it's just the stress with her new position so he never bothered to ask her about it. Robyn's new job definitely filled up almost all of her time.

Aubrey grabbed a cold beer from Chubb's fridge and sat himself by his patio. The Los Angeles clouds were a bit gloomy especially for a 4pm. The weather agreed with his mood though.

"Take that smug off your face man, what the fuck has gotten into you?" Aubrey heard his best friend say from behind his back.

He chuckled and ignored his comment as he stared back to where his eyes were before.

"Seriously, man. You wanna just go out tonight? I can invite up some girls to come and chill too.."

"Nah, I'm good. I'll go home after this drink. I'm not in the mood to go out."

"Stop it, man. She's not home. She won't be back anytime soon. I think she has pretty much made it clear how she's busy right?"

He sucked his teeth, trying not to take in anything Chubbs was telling him. No matter how hard he tried though, he was right about her.

"Look, I'm just tired. This isn't about her. Don't bring her in the conversation."

"Bullshit. We'll go out tonight. Look, she can't see your worth then screw her."

"Hey, don't talk like that. She's just doing her thing.."

"Yeah and so should you. Okay, if she really wanted to talk to you, she'd be on the phone now. It's a Saturday night over there. Do you have a call coming in? No. You're sulking about a girl that's not even yours."

It stung a little bit that everything Chubbs said was right. Aubrey thought about his words for a quick second and drank down his beer. He was right. She made it clear they're just friends. He asked her out and she said no. Something almost happened but she stopped it.

"Clearly, the feeling isn't mutual" he thought to himself.

"Alright," he paused, "I'll go home and just hit me up later where you wanna go. I'll be there."

He grabbed his keys from the table and headed towards the door.

"Should I bring someone for you, man?"