Change of Plans

Chapter Nine

Chapter 9

I watched the taxi-cab pull away before entering my apartment building. The doorman greeted me with a smile and held the door open. I thanked him. I clicked the elevator button and the doors immediately slid open.

As I stood alone in the compartment, thoughts of Will invaded my mind. It was involuntary; I didn’t like him like that. He was just... mysterious. And mysterious people got people thinking. He spoke vaguely about everything and in the time we’d spent together in his car coming to New York City, he told me next to nothing about his life. I was genuinely curious about him. Was it some kind of sign that I ran into him again?

The elevator ‘dinged’. The doors opened to reveal a nearly empty corridor, with the exception of a figure at the end of the hallway. I squinted to see if I could make out who it was. I could easily tell from his build that he was, in fact, a he. His hands were covering his face and sliding through his hair in a way in which even the most oblivious of people could tell that he was nervous.

The man paced five steps one way and five steps back. He still hadn’t noticed my presence. Or he had and chose to ignore it. I was about to walk past him when he stop pacing and stood facing a door—the door to my apartment.

He stared at the peephole without moving. I waited a few moments, but he didn’t make any moves to knock or turn away. I coughed into my fist to get his attention. Startled, he jumped. His head snapped toward me and his eyes widened in recognition. He obviously remembered me, but I couldn’t seem to remember him. My eyes scanned his features trying to remember where I’d seen him before. Then it hit me.

He was the man from the airport.

My actions mirrored his, eyes wide and mouth agape. I slapped hand over my mouth in shock. “You!”

“Me?” He asked, pointing his index finger at his chest.

“Yes, you! What the hell are you doing here?”

He clasped his hands together and twiddled his thumbs. He averted his gaze from mine and said, “well, if you must know, I have a date.”

“A date,” I repeated and crossed my arms. “With who?”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I really don’t think that it concerns you.”

“If you were planning on knocking on that door,” I nodded toward my apartment door, “then yes. It does concern me.”

“You live here?” He exclaimed.

I nodded and pulled a ring of keys from the front pocket of my bag. He stepped aside. I inserted the proper key into the door and unlocked it. The door flew open revealing our grubby living room. I sauntered in and turned to find the man standing idly in the hall, peering into the apartment.

“Well? Are you coming in or not?”

He mumbled a few incoherent words under his breath and walked in, shutting the door behind him.

“So, who must I summon?” As I spoke, Audrey sauntered into the living room.

“Hey, Beth,” she said. Her eyes landed on the strange man standing in our living room and she smiled flirtatiously. “And you.”

I turned my attention to the man and assessed his reaction. He was also smiling. “Hey.” Audrey stood in front of us, hands behind her back, eyelashes fluttering a mile a minute. Her flirty behaviour was nothing new. But he was here for a date... and then finally my mind pieced two and two together.

I quickly stepped between them and turned to the man so that I shielded Audrey. I shoved a finger at his chest. “Oh, no! No, no, no, no! You two? You’re, what, thirty? You can’t be dating my little sister! She’s still in high school for God’s sake!” I objected.