"Little town, it's a quiet village. Every day like the one beforeeeeee," Erica sang, her curls bouncing around her as she spun around in her bedroom, making her bed after opening her windows to let the warm summer air in on the Sunday morning. "Little town, full of little people, waking up to sayyyyy...."
"BONJOUR!" Chris sang while opening the window and poking his head out.
Erica laughed and walked over to her open window, leaning her forearms against the windowsill and leaning her head out while looking at Chris across the space between their homes, "I told you that you were the ridiculous one."
"Well I don't think I ever disagreed with you, I just told you that you were ridiculous also," Chris' broad shoulders filled up most of the window he leaned out of. "Besides, you can't expect me not to join in when you're singing Disney, I mean, c'mon!"
"That is true," She shone a smile at him that made his knees go weak.
Chris thought about the day ahead of him and told Erica, "Hey I'm going to go with my sister and my Ma and take the kids to a pool today but I'll be back tonight... want to go try that new Chinese restaurant?"
"Yeah I'd love to!" She told him right as she heard a familiar truck pull up to her house and told him, "Oh I have to go, but have fun! Tell Lisa hi and I'll see you tonight!"
Chris waved at her before she poked her head back into her bedroom and then hurried down the stairs. She whipped open her front door right as a familiar grey haired man was about to knock. Erica squealed before throwing her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, just as she did as a little girl.
"Uncle Dave!" She buzzed. "Oh I'm so glad to see you!"
"Hey squirt," The good natured man chuckled, wrestling away from her hug and ruffling up her messy curls, making her laugh. "You know, you really need a boyfriend or something. You shouldn't be this excited to see an old man that you saw like a week ago."
"I have a boyfriend, he's right there," Erica pointed at the fluffy golden retriever lounging on the nearby carpet.
Dave gave his niece a skeptical look and told her, "Yeah you really need to get out more."
"Just shut up and show me the desk you brought me," She playfully gave him a light push.
He laughed while walking out to his truck and pulled the small desk out of the bed of his truck and carried it into Erica's garage. Jacky had come out to sniff around the garage full of furniture projects that she was working on while Erica and her uncle put the new piece down right in the middle.
"Okay, so I'm thinking we build a shelf on the bottom, then put some cool knobs on it, what do you think?" Erica questioned while sitting down on the cement floor and looked at the piece of furniture.
"Yeah I think that's good. Let's get it all sanded first though," He said while tossing her a piece of sand paper before sitting down on the opposite side.
While they both got to work sanding, Dave commented to his niece, "So how is it going living next to Mr. Movie Star?"
"It's been really great actually. We've become friends and it's so nice for Jacky to have Dodger to play with," She told her uncle, wiping her dusty hands off on her black ripped jeans.
"I watched Captain America last night because I was curious and as the ladies would say, that Chris is quite the eye candy," He wiggled his eyebrows, making Erica laugh before rolling her eyes.
"Yeah he's handsome," She plainly replied.
"That's it? Just he's handsome? You have that hottie living next to you and all you can say is he's handsome?" The goofy man couldn't help but tease his niece. "Most girls would pay money to live next to a sexy movie star."
"It's weird to think that Chris is famous. He doesn't seem like a movie star," Erica tucked her dark curls behind her ears and pushed her bangs off to the side while she continued sanding.
"Oh you know a lot of movie stars do you?" Dave looked over at her.
Erica threw her piece of sandpaper at him, "Shut up! You know what I mean!"
"Well it certainly seems like he's into you," He observed.
"Oh yeah, a famous movie star is into me," She sarcastically said while Jacky came over and laid down next to her.
Dave's eyebrow rose while sassing, "I thought he didn't seem like a famous movie star?"
"He doesn't, but the fact remains that he is," Erica told him, looking over at him. "I've looked him up on the internet and he's dated Jessica Biel, Minka Kelly, Jenny Slate and a bunch of other people. I really don't see myself up with all those gorgeous women."
"Yeah but I see a theme with those women," Her uncle started, putting his own sanding block down to fully devote his attention to the conversation.
"What's that?"
"That none of them worked out," Dave stated. "Maybe he's looking for something different. Maybe he wants someone normal, who's not going to treat him like a celebrity or who is in the spotlight themselves."
Erica thought about it for a long time but she didn't want to get her hopes up. She wouldn't lie to herself, she was crazy about Chris. He was gorgeous, friendly, had all the same values she did, they had fun together and honestly, the two just clicked. She hadn't ever connected with someone as quickly as she did with Chris. She just wished he wasn't famous so that she actually might have a chance with him.
The fact remained though that he was, so Erica in her mind had already decided she just was going to enjoy their relationship for what is was... two neighbors who were friends.
Erica and her Uncle Dave didn't come back to the subject. He could tell she didn't really want to get into it so he just left it alone for now. They ended up just chatting about everything else under the sun while working on the piece of furniture until it was starting to get darker.
"Hey sporty spice! You ready for dinner?" They heard a low voice call before Chris' hunky frame appeared in the garage. He had on a pair of straight leg jeans, outlining his long legs and comfy tennis shoes along with a grey tee shirt that looked like he was going to bust out of. "Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you had company."
"Oh Chris, this is my Uncle Dave and this is Chris," She introduced the pair while standing up.
She admired watching Chris shine that bright white smile at Dave while they shook hands and talked. Chris saw that they had been working so he said, "Well I don't mean to interrupt, so Erica I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"No, no, you guys go to dinner. We were just puttering around working on this desk," Dave explained.
Chris held his big hands up and told them, "It's fine, I really don't want to pull Erica away if you're in the middle of something."
Dave looked over at his niece who was biting her lower lip. He loved his niece so deeply and he wanted her to find someone she could love and have a family with. He had known Erica her entire life and he could tell when she liked someone and it was obvious to him how much she liked Chris so he told Chris, "No, you take her out to dinner. She's wearing an NSYNC shirt and I can't approve of music crap like that, so you'll be doing me a favor by getting her out of my sight."
Erica sent him a playful glare while Dave put an arm around her neck and messed up her hair, making Chris laugh at the sight. Once her uncle let her go, she kissed him on the cheek and brushed the dust off herself before going with Chris to the new restaurant.
Before they could make it inside, Chris saw Erica hurry off toward a big dumpster nearby. He followed her over and saw her looking inside the dumpster filled mostly with empty cardboard boxes but also pieces of a broken dresser.
"Give me a boost," She said, putting one hand on the edge of the dumpster and the other out for him.
Chris looked at her like she was a crazy woman and asked, "Erica, you want me to help you climb in a dumpster?"
"Yes! Look at the knobs on that dresser! That would be perfect for that new desk and they're free!" Her brown eyes sparkled with excitement. "Now put all those muscles to good use and help me up!"
He laughed but did as she asked and had Erica easily helped her up into the dumpster. She stood on top of a stack of cardboard while she carefully unscrewed the knobs. Once she got the item, Erica put them in her pocket and carefully walked back to the edge of the dumpster.
Erica was just going to jump down but being the gentleman he was, Chris reached up and gently grabbed her thin waist and effortlessly lifted her down. Once she was on the pavement, she held up her new knobs and showed him proudly with a wide smile.
Chris snickered before scratching at his dark beard, "I've never in my life met a girl like you Erica. You are without a doubt one of a kind."
She put the knobs in the pocket of her black jeans and tried to smooth down some of her curls while they walked toward the restaurant and chuckled in a joking tone, "Um, is that a good or a bad thing?"
He looked down at her and his words were void of any teasing or joking while his blue eyes stared at her and his low voice spoke, "Trust me.... It's a really good thing."