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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 9:07:35 GMT -5
Rose Howard was really enjoying life. She was currently employed as a personal shopper at Bloomingdale's, a.k.a. her dream job. She lived in a beautiful apartment in an old warehouse-turned-apartment complex, which means high ceilings, polished concrete floors, exposed brick walls...her dream place. She had a ton of good friends, the sun was shining today, her favorite band's CD was blasting in her car radio... Really, what more did she need?
She pulled into the complex parking garage after work on Friday, grabbing the grocery bags from the trunk before heading inside. There was only a couple hours left before all her friends came over for game night. They would play board games, Wii games, drinking games...it was going to be a blast. After unlocking the front door, she stopped at her mailbox, humming to herself as she grabbed the stack of envelopes as well as a package slip. Oh, goody! The dress she ordered had come, and just in time.
A couple minutes later, Rose quickly unlocked the door to her apartment. She didn't know how much longer she could hold the groceries, all her mail, and the package containing her new dress. As soon as she opened the door, high-pitched yips filled the air. Ah, yes. And there was the best, most adorable dog in the world to come home to. Dexter the dachshund. Really, could life get any better for Rose Howard?
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Post by Moonshine on Dec 22, 2011 13:29:36 GMT -5
Tyler McGowan was asleep in bed. His hours were...complicated. He'd stay up all night, planning, brainstorming, storyboarding, writing. Then when he was too drunk or frustrated to continue, he crawl into bed when the sun had already come up and sleep all day -- ready to do it all again the next night.
Tyler had sold his first book when he was 23. Two years later, his book was on the Best-Seller list and he was called the Next Big Thing in American Post-Modernism. The big problem with being The Next Big Thing, was that they expected you to do it again. And with a deadline. Tyler hated deadlines.
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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 13:33:31 GMT -5
Rose opened the door leading out to the yard used by all the tenants. Dexter never ran away, so she didn't bother putting him on a leash. She stood at her kitchen counter, going through the mail.
"Whoops, that's not mine!" she said to herself, looking at the envelope addressed to the guy next door. So she went out into the hallway, knocking on the door marked 1B.
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Post by Moonshine on Dec 22, 2011 13:34:25 GMT -5
Tyler grumbled, hearing knocking somewhere in the back of his mind.
He chose to ignore it.
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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 13:38:20 GMT -5
Just in case, Rose knocked again. If he didn't answer this time, she would simply slip it under the door. But she really wanted to meet this guy. She'd lived here almost two years and had barely even seen him. She knew he was the author of that really popular book, though, the one she'd been meaning to read since she realized her neighbor wrote it.
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Post by Moonshine on Dec 22, 2011 13:41:02 GMT -5
When the knocking didn't stop, he growled and nearly stumbled out of bed. His hair stuck up every which way and he hadn't shaved in the last day or two. He wore only a pair of grey sweatpants when he threw open the door and barked,"What?!"
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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 13:47:37 GMT -5
Rose jumped. And it took her a moment to gather her senses. "This was in my mailbox by mistake," she informed him, holding out his piece of mail. "Probably just junk. Doesn't look like a bill, at least. Thank goodness. But I'm pretty sure if I didn't give it to you, it'd be a felony, so...here I am!"
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Post by Moonshine on Dec 22, 2011 13:50:34 GMT -5
He stared at her a minute, caught between wanting to slam the door in her face and wanting to see her naked. She was beautiful -- tall, with legs for days; lithe, slender body. And that face surrounded by blonde curls.
He took the envelope from her and nodded.
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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 13:53:16 GMT -5
She tried not to stare. Were authors supposed to be this ruggedly handsome?
She cleared her throat, brushing a curl away from her face. "I'm having a party tonight, sort of like a game night," she said with a chuckle. "You're welcome to stop by if you're not doing anything..."
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Post by Moonshine on Dec 22, 2011 13:56:38 GMT -5
A party? That snapped him out of it and he almost glared at her. "I'll be working. Keep it down." And with that, he turned and closed the door, tossing the envelope to the floor without even looking at it, and collapsing back into bed.
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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 14:01:13 GMT -5
"Okay..." Rose said quietly to the door. "I'm Rose, by the way. Rose Howard. Only your neighbor for two years..." With a sigh and a shrug, she went back to her apartment to get ready. Dexter was waiting for her, tail wagging. "Well at least you can turn my frown upside down, baby boy."
A couple hours later, Rose donned her new dress, snacks and drinks were on the table, and games were set up, ready to be played. Her friends started showing up, devouring the snacks and starting to play all sort of games.
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Post by Moonshine on Dec 22, 2011 14:05:42 GMT -5
By the time the party was in full swing, Tyler was entrenched in work -- the over-sized desk he used was covered in notes and research, his laptop had multiple windows open of different sections of writing. Tyler had changed into jeans, at least, but still sat shirtless and barefoot, a pencil behind one ear, a glass of whiskey at hand as he typed.
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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 14:10:43 GMT -5
Somehow, Rose had gotten pulled into playing one of the dancing games on the Wii. She was awful, and therefore laughed a lot and very loudly. Some of her friends were reading a gossip blog and playing a drinking game every time they posted about a certain celebrity. Which was a lot. And another group was playing a very rousing game of Clue. Add in that most everyone had already had at least one glass of something, and it was safe to say they weren't keeping it down.
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Post by Moonshine on Dec 22, 2011 14:14:11 GMT -5
Tyler did his best to ignore it. Tried his absolute hardest. But then he couldn't take it anymore and he pushed his chair back, grabbing a flannel shirt and throwing it on, not bothering to button it. He stormed out of his apartment, and over to Rose's, banging on the door.
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Post by Rose on Dec 22, 2011 14:31:51 GMT -5
"Oh, too bad!" Rose cried, handing her wii-mote off to someone else. "Can't play, gotta go answer the door!" She laughed as she made her way to the door. Her face almost fell when she opened it and saw a very angry, albeit very sexy, looking next door neighbor. But she kept on smiling, hoping that if she were nice and friendly, maybe he would be, too. Maybe.
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