The Doorman

4

Noah's POV

I woke up bad this morning. I had such weird dreams of Jon and Dana together. Not together in the same room, I mean in the same bed, naked together, touching together. It made my eyes red. I don't know what is going on with me. Dana comes to this place and I can't stop thinking about her. She's everything I've ever wanted.

I change out of my pajamas into a tux and get ready to start the day. It's 6:30 in the morning, and I have never been more happy to work in building 6.

I get in my car and start driving. I look at my phone and read over the text messages between me and Dana. She seems like such a startled girl. I wonder what her and Jon talked about yesterday, and how their date was... and what they did.

I get to building 6 around 7:00 and the lobby looks like a ghost town. The AC is blowing crumbled papers all around and the desk computer is on the business email saying 'no emails at this time. Please check again.'

These damn prehistoric computers.

I walk behind the desk and sit. I wait for any noise to come, but it's quiet for a good solid 30 minutes. I hear the elevator whirring down and I hear hard footsteps of a tired person. I turn my head, and I see the person I've been dreading all last night, Jon.

"Good morning, sir," I greet him with total hate in my voice.
"Hi, um, do my a favor," he hands my 16 dollars, "Can you buy Dana, room 6 in the 8th floor, a bouquet of white and red roses please? Tell her I had to leave early because I have work. Thank you. Have a good day."
"You too, sir," I wave and he walks out. I hate him so much just because he said her name like she was some type of claim.

She's not his.

The day goes by greeting and farewelling everyone that walks in and out. It's 7 pm and Dana still hasn't left her apartment. Maybe Jon hurt her?

"Hey Sam, take my shift for now. I have to go check on a light upstairs. It keeps blinking," I lie.
"Awe cmon, I was just about to start my show," he says sitting with his tablet in his lap about to press play on Netflix.
"5 minutes, I promise," I say.
"Fine."

I get into the staff elevator which is this old rusty thing that you control with a lever. I hold the lever down and it takes me up to the 8th floor.

When it slowly comes to a stop, I walk down the hall to room 6, where Dana is. I knock on the door.

Nothing.

"Hello?" I whisper. I know it's 7:00 but people here are really quiet. It's weird because they're all in their early twenties.

I hear nothing. I slowly reach my hand to the knob and turn it. The door clicks and it opens quietly. I stick my head in and look around. I can't see her. Maybe she left and I didn't notice?

I put one foot in the frame, followed by my other. I walk in and look around. She got a pretty cool suite. It's this modern style apartment with stairs that go up to a loft that looks like it hasn't been used yet. The door is still covered in wrap and the stairs have a thick layer of dust on them. I walk around a little more and notice all the empty picture frames sticking out of her little bags that she stuffs in the corner of her living room.

I walk towards the kitchen and she has glass cabinets and a marble sink with a marble counter that sits about 6 people. She has a bar right at the end of the kitchen, and the only thing separating the kitchen from the other rooms is a thin glass wall with a glass door that can barely be seen. Her dining room is very extravagant. It has a humongous chandelier hanging on top of the table and it sits 8 people. It looks like she keeps it more for stacking books than it is a dining table. I walk to the living room and see the table. There is little crumbs scattered across their glass table on their black stained wood. Her walls are a light grey with very unnoticed vines painted from the floor two feet up. They are a slight darker shade than the wall, but are noticeable when you get closer. The table has a knife, two plates, crust from what seems to be a thin pizza and a half drunken cup of coca-cola. As I start towards the bedroom door down her short hall, I hear footsteps. They sound like they're coming from the room. They sound heavy, and tired. I scatter to a hiding spot behind the couch when I hear the door knob being wiggled. I didn't have time to run to the door.

I hear the door creak open, and a small yawn. I lay on the floor behind the couch and look under. I see her feet walking back and fourth in the dining room. It looks like she has no pants on because I can't see the rest of her legs. I try to sit up but her floor is so slippery. I twitch my elbow up, but it slides down onto the wood floor and hits the leg of the couch loudly. I hear her breathing stop and her feet turn to face the couch that I'm at.

She looks to be standing there for a few seconds before she starts humming to an unknown song.

Her voice is quite lovely. It's a soft dark sound with pain and love in the background. She starts to sing lyrics.

"I can't help but think what happened last night," she sings/mumbles.
"I don't want to forget that night. The moon was blind and didn't know where to shine. It shined on your eyes but that was false hope. I hope you know this ain't a joke," he sing/mumbles again.

She seems to be walking towards the bathroom. The door closes and I shuffle to my feet as quick as I can. I push the couch so I have space to stand and I slowly slide my feet on the floor so the heel of my dress shoes doesn't click. I get to the door and I hear the bathroom door open. I open her door quickly and tippy toe out the apartment and down the hall.

The door. It's open. She's going to freak out. I walk back slowly and reach my hand out when the door flies open and you see Dana's beautiful sleepy face at 7 pm.

"Why is my door open?" She asks.
I honestly don't know what to say.
"I uh- you-- I-- I was trying to fix a lightbulb in the hall and I must have bumped into your door," I said.
"But I locked it last night," she replies.

Or maybe you were to busy with Jon to remember what you even did last night.

"Maybe you forgot," I say.
"Um, okay," she says, "would you like to come in for a coffee?"
"Actually I have to get back to work," I say and dash down the hallways avoiding any further talk. She tries to say something but I'm already far into the elevator before she could say anything that I could hear.

So fucking close