Living Next Door To Alice

2/ The First Dinner

No matter how hard she tried to turn her key, her door didn't seem to want to close. Great. First day of her life getting back to normal after moving, and she was already struggling even getting out of the building. Couldn't the universe at least try a little to help her out?

"You need any help?" FP's friendly voice echoed from behind.

He saw her fighting to lock up and had secretly been watching first, the sight of it creating a smile on his face. It wasn't the first time he had witnessed something like this, but it was still amusing.

Alice turned around and looked at her new neighbor who had a grin plastered all over his face. She sighed, but was grateful that the universe had listened to her prayer.

"This door won't shut, it's driving me insane." She gestured to the lock and stroke the hair out of her face as she waited for him to help her out.

"Yeah, you have to pull and turn at the same time." FP grabbed the door-handle and pulled with one quick motion as he turned the keys, successfully locking the door for her.

"Thank you, I'd be standing here all day if it wasn't for you." Alice gave him a warm smile, feeling the tension of her first morning of work at her new job already ease a little. Now she wouldn't be late, all thanks to him.

"I don't think I deserve that much credit. Besides, it's a safe town here, leaving your door unlocked for a day won't do any harm." FP shrugged as he was not really one who could accept a compliment.

"We are form the city, we will never leave the house unlocked." Alice chuckled slightly, thinking it was cute that he had such small town goodness in him.

Still, with having lived in a big city for so long she had come to learn that not everyone was trustworthy.

"Fair enough." FP chuckled too, realizing that maybe he and Fred should be more careful, too.

"I gotta get to work, I'll see you later." He smiled once more and made his way towards the stairs, until her voice held him back.

"FP, wait a second!" She called after him in an impulse, even catching herself off guard.

"Would you and Fred like to have dinner with us tonight? Archie is more than welcome, too." Alice smiled friendly and felt her cheeks flush a little.

Truth was, she had felt pretty alone the past few months and she could use some company to take her mind off things. Considering how coffee last week had been fun she figured that this was a right first step to making some new friends.

"We won't say no to a free dinner. But you just moved, shouldn't we be the one to offer you dinner instead?"

In the end she was the one who hadn't even properly installed herself into her new environment yet, so he'd just as much would love to offer her and her daughters a place to eat that for tonight.

"Believe me, cooking helps me relax. Besides, it's nice to meet some people around here. Don't feel obligated though, it was just a suggestion." She figured that he was rejecting her invite and therefore immediately regretted asking in the first place.

"We would love to, Alice. We'll bring Archie, it'll be nice for you daughters to hang with someone their own age." FP smiled kindly, happy to accept the dinner date between the two households.

"Definitely. So, we'll see you tonight? Around seven?" Alice beamed happily as she looked forward getting to know them better. In the end, it was either that or being alone with her thoughts and that was something she'd rather avoid.

"We'll be there, not a minute later." FP grinned, and this time really left off to get to work.

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