Where Would I Be Without You

Chapter Three

The day was cloudless, and the sun had heated it up to a nice warm seventy degrees so far with an expected high in the eighties. I dressed in my 'let's go to the bar' jeans, since everything else was dirty. I put on a purple lace bra to encase my size C cup girls. They were always happier in something pretty. I didn't have a single pair of underwear left that was clean, unless I wanted to wear my thong underwear. That, I usually saved for fun date nights, like I use to have with Steve. That thought caught a hitch in my breath. I threw my shoulders back, my head high and dug in my closet for a top to wear. I picked out a purple Colorado Rockies tee shirt I liked to wear to the ball games I went to with my dad. Slipped on my matching purple flip-flops. I like to color coordinate my casual clothes, so sue me, besides, my mani-pedi, required flip-flops.

I grabbed my overstuffed, oversized laundry basket, roll of quarters and headed for the basement laundry room in my apartment.

The elevator was taking forever, and I didn't want to carry my laundry basket down in flip-flops. I had done that once and spilled laundry on the stairs in front of old man McCarty. That was not a good idea. He about had a heart attack at the sight of my bras and underwear spewed out in his doorway. I guess if I hadn't made such a god-awful sound, he wouldn't have come out of his apartment to find all of it.

I set my basket down and got my cell phone out of my purse. I texted Marion that I was good now. Laundry day and pedicure, and I was good to go. I didn't mention the cake. I would save that for a girl's night out moment, along with new naked neighbor, singing in my apartment drunk and the slipping on spilled drink moment. I would be sure to not leave out my mom's message because Marion always had a way of making me see things in a less hurtful perspective. It wasn't always true, but it helped to hear it from my best friend any ways.

By the time I slipped my phone back in my purse, the elevator dinged, and when it opened, I was not prepared for who would be inside of it. There, staring down at his phone was my neighbor. He looked up, just as I wanted to run back inside of my apartment. He stepped out, said good morning, grabbed my laundry basket and made a casual note that it must be laundry day.

I stood there feeling awkward and then while he was holding the elevator door open for me to step inside, it started to ding an alert. "Better hop on in before it breaks down again." His smooth sexy voice matched his body, and I was in some serious womanly trouble. I took a step inside and feigned a smile that did not match how I felt. I felt some serious sexual vibes, and my nerves were not up to the task this morning. Then he said something that was so romantic I whirled around like a ballerina, internally any ways. "Although, being stuck in a broken-down elevator with someone like you would be alright."

Of course, the first thing I said to him, but more out loud to myself, made absolutely no sense to him as I let it come out all breathy and unbelievable. "You're eyes are blue. Light blue with a hint of green, but you look Hispanic." Perhaps my comment sounded prejudice, yet I was anything but. It was just after sneaking a peak at him naked, I had envisioned him with dark intense eyes; eyes that I wanted to roam my body naked. I had to get these sultry thoughts out of my head as we were standing in a very enclosed space.

An awkward smile crept across his face as the door began to close behind us. He hit the button for the basement as I just stared into his eyes. I could easily get lost in them. Everything about him said Latin bad boy yet his eyes, they were so soft and colorful. Then he said something, and I shook my head back and forth quickly to clear the daydream I was in. I looked down at my laundry basket in his hand, perched on his hip. He is strong. His muscles rippled from the sleeve of his tee shirt. I cleared my throat as I looked back up into his eyes and spoke like a frog was in my throat. "Come again?"

"My mother. She's Brazilian heritage. My father is part Hispanic part Swedish. I guess you thought otherwise." As he said it, a seductive smile spread across his face, and I felt a nervous reaction coming forward.

I laughed and touched his arm that was holding my basket. I felt his skin under my hand and a tingle in my tummy. I was in big trouble. So I did what any sensible woman would do at a time like this. I babbled. All the way to the basement in the slowest moving elevator ever invented.

"No. I mean. I didn't know what you were. Or should I say who you are. Were. Whatever. I just caught a quick peek of you undressing before you showered, and I guessed Hispanic. I also guessed your eye color to be brown or black. Either one. Either one is ok I guess. Although your eyes are spectacular in color. They're not blue. They're not green or blue green. They are like their own special color. Intriguing. Sexy. So any ways. I saw you. Undressing that is. Oh God. That sounds terrible. Like I'm a peeping-tom. But I'm not." I let my hand touch his arm again. It was irresistibly drawn to him or touching him at least. I felt I was being pulled in like some magnetic force, uncontrollable force that I was not in any shape to reckon with, so I let my hand linger while I laughed with a giggle, and then I did what I did best while he stared at me with the sexiest of smiles. I babbled on.

"So. No. See. The apartment across the alley. Directly across mine. That would be yours now. It has been empty for a while, and then I noticed a light the other day. Then I got busy getting ready for my family birthday party, and well, I don't know if you saw anything unusual at my place last night but let's just say the party did not go well."

The elevator door opened, and he motioned for me to go first as he made a statement quite clearly and with a sense of pride. "I have my mother's eyes."

I stepped out and headed down the hallway to the old and dingy laundry room. However, it had three brand new state of the art washers in it, so I was not one to complain. When I stepped aside to turn and look at my new neighbor, I thought for a second his eyes had been trained on my ass. That's a good sign. A good one indeed.

Rein it in Amber. I mentally hollered at myself. However, a bit of it might have muttered out of my mouth. My sexy new neighbor looked at me with his head cocked sideways and a soft 'what' exited his lips that were so kissable I wanted to devour them right there.

"Oh. Nothing. I was thinking. Did I say something?" I questioned as I watched him set my laundry basket on the long folding table in the laundry room. I was mesmerized by his muscles, his skin, which had this mocha latte color, I wanted to drink every last drop of; his height was a few inches taller than me, and his demeanor had a sexual flirtatiousness to it that made me want to do something, anything flirtatious or sexual to let him know I was interested.

"So it was your birthday yesterday?" He turned and looked at me, but for a fleeting second, his eyes gazed at me up and down. His gaze caused my internal furnace to kick up a few notches. Then he looked away to something off to the side and smiled while bringing his head down and looking back up to meet my eyes with his head tilted. It was sexy as hell and over the top flirtatious move, and I wanted to strip him down and get familiar right next to my laundry basket. I did a mental head slap and realized my hormones have been in overdrive lately.

I felt sexually caught off guard. My flirting game was usually spot on. However, he did things to me that caused me to feel so flustered and silly that I just stood there staring at him.

"How old are you now?" He was asking me as I gauged his age in his late twenties, possible thirty, but he had excellent skin and a youthfulness to his looks. Then again, so did I. I wondered, should I lie and say 'oh it's my twenty-fifth birthday'? Before I could wager lying about my age against the truth and what the advantages could be, his eyes mesmerized me with a look, and he spoke up with a teasing flirtatious voice.

"Let me guess." He joked with me as his eyes traveled across my body again. "Twenty-six?"

"Thirty." I practically blurted out. So much for keep him guessing or making him think I was younger.

"Thirty? I never would have guessed. You look much younger." He smiled and took a step forward putting himself right in my space. "Mason Montahue, by the way." He put his hand out to offer a handshake, and I blurted out.

"My birthday, real birthday that is, isn't until this Wednesday. It was just a family thing." Then I grabbed his hand, shook it super-fast, and let go. I was officially all twitterpated over a man I had seen naked, and now that he was right in front of me. The sexual dial a meter had shot way past overloaded, and I had no dignity left to my game. I was smitten, and flustered, and I wasn't sure how all this might play out.

"Nice to meet you Amber Jones. I'm the new superintendent for these buildings for the next six months. That is, until I can prove to my father that I know what it takes to be on the inside running things."

"Your father? Montahue Properties. The Montahue Properties that has billboards all over the city and manages, like, hundreds of properties. That Montahue?" I was in awe.

"One in the same. My family has run this business since before I was born. I got my degree and managed a few buildings but my dad said as soon as I turn thirty, he would consider me for a CEO position. I've got a year to go, but had to take this position for six months. I guess he wanted me to show him I am still good with my hands." He said good with hands like it was a sexual connotation, or perhaps, I just took it that way.

Then it dawned on me. I had never said my name. I wasn't thinking stalker or creep, but more like he already knew the tenant's names. I turned my head sideways, looked away from his sexually compelling eyes, then looked back, and spoke up with a note of seriousness. "Mason? How did you know my name?"

He chuckled and then reached up and touched my face, putting a loose strand of hair behind my ears as he looked into my eyes. "You got called on last night. From your neighbors. Apparently, your singing hit a high note and a few thought you were getting killed. They called me, asking me to call the cops, but since I already had a front row view of what was really going on... well, by the time I made it over to your apartment, you were already passed out on your bed."

"My bed. Naked? Or was I still dressed?" My eyes were so wide and with a full on straight stare as if that would make a difference to his answer.

"Naked." He said it so casually. Then what he did next sent me into a permanent tailspin of chaos. He pulled my head up to his with the back of his hand below my chin. I watched his lips open slightly as he lowered his head down to mine, and I watched his eyes soften... then he kissed me. No tongue or pervert kiss either, just a soft sensual kiss that sent me into overload. When he pulled back and stood before me, a few solid muscular inches taller than me, his presence in the decent size laundry room just took up the entire room.

"Happy Birthday Amber." His voice held a sultry sound to it as his eyes were lit up like a Christmas tree. "I hope you get your wish." Then he walked right past me and out of the room leaving me there in my own cyclonic tailspin.