Love Thy Neighbor

Chapter Two

For once the southern heat wasn't life threatening so after lunch I decided to enjoy the weather out on my porch swing. I picked up a copy of one of my favorites, The Great Gatsby, deciding it was worth another read.

The cute, new maintenance man passed a few times on his way to the stairs, I'm assuming to get Alex's old apartment ready for its new owner. I wasn't expecting him to stop, he had simply smiled or silently passed all the other times, but this time he didn't. He stopped short in front of my softly swinging self and when he gently placed the toolbox down at his feet I looked up.

"Hey," He wiped his hands on his khaki shorts and extended one my way, "I guess I should probably introduce myself. I'm Austin."

"Sophie." I smiled politely and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you. So are you working on Alex's apartment upstairs?"

"Yeah I am, though it's not his anymore." He smiled, "Anytime someone moves out they send someone to do a deep cleaning and repaint the place, fix any floors that need it, the whole nine."

"Are you doing all that by yourself? Don't they usually have more than one person fix the apartments?" I don't know what was in my coffee this morning, but I somehow remembered how to speak English around this man.

"Well yeah, but they just added me on so I'm part time for now which means my hours and jobs can be a bit all over the place. I'm just want to hurry and finish this apartment since I just got here and it'd be a lot easier on me." He finished with a chuckle. I glanced down at his maroon polo with my apartment's logo on it.

"Ah, I thought you were new." I smiled back at him, though it was partly due to the sunlight shining in my eyes.

Of course I've stared at that polo many times and knew he was obviously on staff, but hearing it from his mouth somehow made me feel better, less assuming and stalker-ish.

"Yeah, just got here." He smiled then glanced to the book in my lap, "The Great Gatsby?"

"Yeah, it's one of my favorites." I smiled, peering down at the novel, worn from my years of reading it.

"It is a good one. So what do you like so much about it? One of my friends in High School was always quoting Daisy. I think she secretly wanted to be her when she grew up." He laughed.

"Ugh. No." I groaned with a roll of my eyes. He looked taken back by my response, "Sorry, but no. I can't stand Daisy. I mean get some nerve and go be with the man you love. She didn't even go to his funeral. Pathetic." Austin seemed amused by my response and I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing; I continued regardless. "Gatsby isn't my favorite either. Him and Nick just kind of, I don't know, make me sad in a way I guess. I think, honestly, I just love the time period, the feel and mood of it all. I've always wanted to somehow live back then, experience one of Gatsby's crazy parties, even though I don't even go to parties." I laughed. Yep, I definitely got over that shyness quickly. "I don't know. It just draws you in I guess. It sounds ridiculous, I know-"

"No. No it doesn't." I briefly glanced at Austin to see him smiling at me. I was in disbelief that I rambled on like that and he didn't leave or think I was crazy. I looked from the book to his eyes and returned his smile. I admired his eyes for a moment while trying to figure out where to take the conversation next when he spoke up. "Well, it's been great meeting and chatting with you."

"Yeah, yeah!"

"I should probably get back to work now."

"Oh yeah, of course!" He thinks I'm a dork.

"But," He added before he walked away, "I hope to see you around. Maybe we can talk again sometime." Maybe not all hope is lost.

"Yeah, that'd be nice."