On My Own

Chapter 4 Meeting the Neighbor

Natalie's POV

I stare in shock, realizing I have locked my keys in my new place almost instantly after acquiring them. Who knew that was possible? I have got to be the biggest i***t ever.

"F*#k! I knew I would do this within the first week at some point, but I never thought I would have been incredibly talented enough to do it within the first hour, at the most. That has got to be some kind of imbecile record. Holy hell!... It's ok, it's going to be ok.. I can just call the real-estate lady.. can't believe I never really got her name. Dammit I feel rude.. But still I could call her back. I'm sure she hasn't gone too far from here, and she can come back to help me. I reason with myself as I pat my body all over, where there are pockets.. But nothing, so I reached into all my pockets just to confirm my suspicion before I freaked out. I decide to glance into my window and I can see my phone sitting right next to my keys on the kitchen counter.

"F*#k! Could I have been anymore stupid?! If my family could see me now, they would never let me hear the end of this! What am I going to do?! I mean besides now accepting the award for biggest i***t in the entire world." I make fun of my idiocracy to myself, or I thought, as I hear a deep husky chuckle from behind me. It catches my attention instantly as I quickly spin around, like I know how to do so well on the dance floor.

I lock gazes with a gorgeous older man, well older than me man. I would say late 30's early 40's. I'm stunned in place by his handsome presence, not knowing what to say to him. He is the one to break the silence between us. "I don't think you broke any records, but I'm sure you gave it a run for it's money... But I don't think you will be able to accept the idiocracy award just yet. So I really don't think that makes you an i***t sweetheart." His voice is so deep, smooth and soothing sounding, that I would just listen to him talk forever.

I'm almost in a trance from his calming voice and good looks that I stutter out. "I.. don't know.. I could probably give.. Any i***t a run for their money." He instantly let's out another melodic sounding laugh as he scoots past me smelling absolutely amazing. His laugh sounds so good. It's like a new song I heard for the first time and just want to put it on repeat over and over again..

These feelings seem so crazy for me to feel about this stunning stranger. Mostly because I lost interest in my ex a while before I actually got the guts to leave him because of how our whole relationship was going and ended up. I haven't been even remotely interested in anyone since, and it's been years.

So the fact that this man, I don't even remotely know, in a matter of seconds, strikes my interest instantly. It just seems even more insane to me and that doesn't even include the fact that he is older than me, but I don't even remotely mind and I like it.. A lot.. Seems almost insane or even strange to some. Especially when I have never gone for an older man before ever.

I just keep finding myself staring at his amazing features because that alone makes me feel things I haven't felt in a long while... I imagine this is the kind of situation that people mean when they say love at first sight. But for me, it's 'like at first sight.' I just want to get to know him. He seems mysterious, intriguing and so handsome, of course.

He has dark brown hair that's a couple inches long on the top and faded and short on the sides. Covering his strong prominent chin is a dark brown beard, just as dark as the hair on the top his head. It's only a couple inches long but all of his hair looks like it would be so soft, making me just want to run my hands through it.

His hair glistens like highlights under the streetlights because of the small amount of gray hair running through the dark brown.. I feel that it's a dashing look for any man.

The blue, white and black plaid long sleeve button up shirt he is wearing is clinging onto his muscles, almost as much as I want to right now.. Even the blue makes his baby blue eyes stand out more, looking almost crystallized.

With the plaid shirt filled with muscles, his bushy beard and intoxicating cedar scent, he seems just like a mountain manly looking hunk. If you looked up the word manly I would imagine I would see a picture of him in there. He just looks like ALL man. If he has a lady she is the luckiest woman ever.

He squeezes past as he is hovering over me, almost covering me with his muscular frame, making me feel so tiny, since he is at least a foot taller than me. But I can tell you this much for sure, I would wrap myself up in him as my blanket all day if I could. He displays his smile to me, showing his big beautiful white teeth as he walks straight for my now locked door.

I really start to feel like I am in a trance because my feet just start to move on their own, right behind him to check out my door. He squats down and his dark blue jeans just grip to those huge leg muscles so tight.. or at least that's what it looks like.. But he doesn't look too big, as if he works out all the time.. He just looks like he gets this way because of his daily routine.. probably meaning his work I would assume.

He breaks me out of my mesmerized thoughts of him by saying in his husky deep voice, "Well, this is an older lock, but I think I have the right tools to be able to break into your place for you.. I'll be right back." He stands up, squeezing past me as I take in his cedar scent once more.

The sexy stranger walks down the side, walks around 15 feet or so, and into the neighboring house. He is gone from my sights for a couple of minutes, to my dismay.

But just knowing he is my neighbor makes my heart race in understanding that I will get to at least just see this gorgeous man for a year. How could anyone ever object to that? If he was going to be the one helping me every time, then I would lock my keys in my house all the time!

He comes back out of his house, back to my porch and to the front door with a bag in hand, as he unzips it to reveal a whole bunch of small tools. He grabs a couple of the tiny tools, sticking them into the keyhole of the door. His hands rotate with a finess that pulls all my attention straight to his hand movements. His eyebrows scrunch as he does these motions for a couple more minutes, concentrating so hard.

He does this until we both hear a loud click coming from the door knob. Squeaks can also be heard as he pushes the door open and stands up smirking back at me.

Before I even realize what I'm doing, since I can't seem to control my body around this man, I jump into his arms giving him a huge hug in thanks for his help. I feel his arms wrap around my torso pulling me in tight. I have to say that I'm not feeling even remotely uncomfortable around him. So I just enjoy his comforting hold as I say, "Thank you so much, you're absolutely amazing... um... wait.. I'm sorry I don't know your name.. and here I am jumping on you like an insane person might.. I'm so sorry." I say shyly with embarrassment weaved through all of my words.

He probably thinks I'm such a big i***t because of everything he knows about me so far being his neighbor. I step back out of his comfortable embrace reluctantly, and honestly it feels like he wants to keep holding on to me and I almost let him.

"Oh.. yeah sorry.. My name is William and you can call me Will if you would like. But don't worry about it, the hug didn't offend or bother me. I was just caught off guard, that's all. I just wasn't expecting that from you.. But that's all." He responded this back and I can't help but smile as I extended my hand for him to shake. He took my hand in his as I introduced myself. "Will, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Natalie but most people call me Nat except for my best friend. She calls me Lee. But you can call me whatever you'd like handsome." I babble this as my face turns red realizing I just called him that out loud.. I probably sound like such an i***t.

I clear my throat as I continue my thoughts to him, since I haven't embarrassed myself enough in front of him. "Sorry you must think I'm the biggest i***t, but I'm just tired. It's been a long day with little sleep. I'm just in that sleepless delusional state as of right now because of driving for so long today with minimal sleep. And with you helping me out by being so sweet to a complete crazy i***t stranger, it just made my body react on its own in excitement. I'm so sorry if I bothered or offended you Will." I tried to explain, so I don't sound so stupid, but who knows if it actually worked.

"It's ok don't worry about it, Natalie, you don't have to explain anything to me. I thought the hug was nice actually.. But.. Natalie.. Um.. That's a beautiful name, by the way." He runs his hand through his hair almost nervously looking, as his hand ends on the back of his neck, making his arm flex only slightly but enough to get my attention.. Like some s*x-crazed school girl who sees a real man for the first time in her life. He looks slightly nervous by these movements that he makes, but I have got to be wrong because there is no way I'm making a man like him nervous.

I'm still taking in his gorgeous features when I realize that he just complimented me. "Oh.. Thank you.. It's the only name that my parents could agree on." I say almost babbling, still in nervousness, so I continue my thoughts before he really starts to regret helping me out. "I wish I could invite you in for dinner, Will.. Especially since you have been so sweet helping me out, but obviously I don't have anything yet, so I'll just have to harass you later I guess, making you some dinner some other day.. I swear I'm not as big of an i***t in the kitchen!" I say this as he gets a big smile on his face.

"I haven't thought you were an i***t once, but since you don't have anything yet, if you wanted to I have pizza and beer at my place and you're more than welcome to join me.. but only of you want to don't feel obligated to do so." He says this shyly looking at me then looking away.

"I would love to." I say without hesitation, making him smile a bigger smile matching mine.

"Well then, if I were you I would grab your keys and phone, so we don't have the same issue again, at least for tonight." He says this to me along with a head gesture towards the counter that has my phone and keys on it.

I giggle and nod, running into my now open doorway to the kitchen, grabbing my items off of the counter before I shut my door and follow Will down the sidewalk and onto his porch. He opens the front door and holds it for me, so I take his lead and walk in giving a soft, "Thank you "as I pass by.

He leads me to his front room and gestures with his hand for me to sit down on the nice-looking suede couch. So I willingly took his invitation as I sat down. He walks away into the other room, which is the kitchen, grabbing the pizza box and a couple beers for us.

He hands me the opened beer, sitting down and putting the pizza box between us. He sits next to me on the couch but we both turn towards each other, so we are practically sitting across from each other.

"So you said you had a really long trip, so where are you from? If you don't mind me asking, of course." Will inquires, taking a bit of the pizza. I nervously take a drink of my beer as I softly answer, "Colorado."

He nodded as his eyebrows raised slightly, "You are far away from home.. Do you have family here or something?"

I shook my head, instantly replying, "No, besides the weather, scenery and art school here, the only other main reason I came here is because there is no family close to here for hundreds of miles."

"Oh really? How does your family feel about that?" He asks curiously.

"Oh they were so excited and loved the idea so much that my father hit me and said I'm no daughter of his, and I shouldn't come back home.. My brother's laughed at me wanting to come out on my own.. and my mother cried about it, so it went very well." I answered sarcastically and a little too honestly for my own good. I don't know what it is about William, but I feel so comfortable around him.

"Man, that sounds awful. I'm so sorry. Are you actually going to stay here? Or are you headed back?" He asks, looking almost sad for me in this moment. But I shook my head at him as I replied again.

"No I'm not going back unless I have to.. Honestly, I have been trying to get out of that small town for years and my family said they needed me with them, so I always tried to stay and help the family out. But every single time I told them that I didn't want to stay on our family farm helping run the family business, they would just revert back to the same old argument they tried to push on me for years. I never wanted any part of it, but that never stopped my parents from insisting on trying to influence me to marry this man who used to beat me and cheat on me all the time when we were together for years. They said they don't think I can do any of this on my own and that I need a man to take care of me. I told them I could do this on my own and that's not the life I want to live.. And.. They all laughed at me. Once I told my family that I got accepted to the art institute here. They were livid beyond belief because they never knew I was applying for colleges. So they told me I can't do this on my own and that they are not wasting their time and money to pay for me to go here.. But little did they know, since they never wanted me to work, I have had a job for years and saved up more than enough to come here on my own.. So I told them they wouldn't be wasting their money, that I would be using my own and going whether they like it or not.. and that was about the time my father slapped me.. I then went to my room and gathered everything that I could take with me.. Threw it onto the roof of my house as I climbed out my window. Once I packed my car up with my things, that was about the time my father said if I leave, I'm no daughter if his, and I shouldn't come back.. But that's when I replied back, that if he wanted me to be unhappy with a man who beats me and cheats on me, than he is no father of mine.. I told them I loved them but that I'm not staying here and left for here that night.. last night actually.. So no, I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon.. I don't even care if I don't succeed here. I still won't be going back. I won't marry that man or live the life they want me to, so I'm just better on my own at this point.. anything is better than those options... well that's my pathetic life problems for ya." I say a little sadly to him, almost ashamed but also lonely feeling like an abandoned child after spilling all that to him.

"Wow you're so strong to get up and go out on your own like that.. That's so scary but you're so brave to do that.. I can't believe your parents would do that to you either.. That's awful that they would try to force a marriage on you like that, let alone expecting you to accept it.. And when you didn't getting mad.. That's so messed up." He says so sincerely to me.

"They say that they want me to have a stable life, but then they would never allow me to work, hence why I got a job behind their back to save up money to leave. But I don't care what they think I won't go back to that man, I don't care how much money he has.. it took me so long to finally build up the courage to leave him, that an army wouldn't be enough to be able to bring me back to that man to marry him.. I don't care how many times he asks me.. That's one of the reasons why they keep pushing him on me is because he still won't leave me alone. He just keeps trying to get me back and has asked me to marry him plenty of times, but he hasn't changed at all and no way am I stupid enough to do that. But I'm not here for a man anyway, I'm here for myself and if I find a man in the process that can accept me for me, then that would be amazing. But I'm not out here looking for a man to be with or to take care of me, because I know I can do this on my own, no matter how scary this situation is for me." I say this with almost a determination in my voice layered with bits of questionable nervousness, since I have never done this but still here.

"Wow, you are seriously so strong." He said this, completely shocking me as we stared at each other for a very comfortable moment.