"Okay {First}, calm down. You only need to say 'Hello! Welcome to the neighborhood!' to this guy, make some small talk, and then leave. Simple. Easy peasy lemon squeasy."
Though your voice sounded cool and collected, you were anything but. In fact, you were a nervous mess. With hands wringing each other and feeling a bit lightheaded, you spoke to your bathroom mirror.
"Wait why do I have to greet this new guy on the block? I don't know what he looks like! Plus I'm not even the sociable type!" You watched your face grimace back at you. A little v formed between your eyebrows when you remembered your annoying, gossipy neighbor Sheila told you not to forget to greet him. Of course, you could have shrugged and lied that you already did, but you knew that bitch would gossip horrendous things about you if you didn't comply.
"Heh, I bet that insane woman is watching me right now to see if I actually do it." Just to amuse yourself you went over to your window to look at her house, and sure enough Sheila was peeking through the blinds before her eyes widened. Her blinds shivered closed, leading you to gasp. "Holy crap! She is watching me!"
Amazed by this sudden realization, you backed away in terror. Now, it seemed, you had no choice but to greet this new guy. Sighing, you applied the last of your makeup.
"This greeting thing better be quick, I really need to go to work." You glanced at the time. 7:30. "Awesome. I have thirty minutes before work starts." Going through your mental checklist of what you actually knew of this new guy, you knew (via Sheila of course) that he had a daughter, was pretty good-looking, and was single. You weren't exactly sure why Sheila told you the last part, but you figured it was her not-so-subtle way to hook you up. You scrunched your nose.
Patting down down all the creases of your clothing, you went outside and across the street. Making sure to purposely glance Sheila's way when you headed to the New Guy's porch, you (pretended to) confidentially knocked. Waiting for an answer, you stared down at your shoes to find dirt scuffed all over it.
"What the-? How did that get on there?" Frustrated that this was even happening, you raised your shoe to wipe it off, hand leaning against the New Guy's front door. Sadly as said door opened to reveal the mysterious man, you lost your balance. "Ah!"
His shock mirrored yours because you heard his shout of bewilderment. You felt your face contacting something hard but warm and two arms holding you in place. Dumbfounded, you snapped your head upwards to only have your eyes widen. "Woah..." The New Guy was hot!
He peered down at you with wide blue eyes and eventually you realized what position you were in. It looked like you were embracing New Guy! You could imagine Sheila's face right now; she was going to have a field day with this juicy piece of gossip. Jumping back, you flustered out a response.
"T-Thanks for catching me. I was trying to take some dirt off my shoe and then you came out here..."
He blinked at the sudden turn of events. "No problem. Um, can I ask why you are on my front porch?"
"Ah, yes! I almost forgot. I am {First} {Last} and I came here to welcome you to the neighborhood!" Giving him the once over, you felt your face heat. "Though falling through your front door was definitely not planned, I assure you." You squeezed your eyes shut. 'Dear me, did I just say that?'
Surprisingly, New Guy laughed. The sound was very pleasing and you felt a tad better about yourself. "You certainly made quite an entrance. I didn't expect that from one of my new neighbors." He stuck out a hand in your direction, "Hi, I'm Scott Lang. Pleasure to meet you."
'Scott...good name for a good-looking guy.' Fumbling to meet his hand halfway, you shook it. "The pleasure is all mine." Taking your hand back, you smiled. "So...I heard you have a daughter. What's her name?"
Immediately Scott's eyes softened when he thought of her. "Her name is Cassandra but I call her Cassie for short. Have you met her? She's a good kid. As a matter of fact, she is sleeping right now."
You cocked your head to the side. You were pretty sure school was going to start at 8. Then again its been a while since you were last in school. "Doesn't she go to school?"
He shook his head, sadness dropping his smile. "No. She has a heart condition."
"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't know." You mentally kicked yourself for making him say something so personal.
"Its alright; nobody really asks about my daughter." Your heart constricted. You didn't know it was possible, but you felt closer to the man. "Anyway-" He looked at your clothing, "-are you going somewhere?"
Fudge! You looked to the time. 7:50. Ten minutes to go to work! Traffic was going to be killer. "Yeah, I actually have work in ten minutes." You sighed.
"Oh? Where do you work?"
You waved your hand dismissively. "At Central Bank. You know the one down by 3rd? I work there." You weakly grinned, "It tends to get boring in the evening. Anyway, I wish we could have talked a while longer but I have to go." Suddenly you had an idea. "Do you want to get coffee later? Say tomorrow?"
Something strange passed through his eyes and by the time you noticed, it was gone. He conjured up another heart-stopping grin, "Sure. I would like that."
Inwardly, you fistpumped. "Alright, its a date." You blushed, "I mean see you later." Meekly you shook his hand again and turned.
"See you."
~~~A Week Timeskip Of Scott Hatching a Plan as Master Thief~~~
It had been a week since you last saw Scott. After your 'date', you had become really busy and he seemed to have been too. Yet you couldn't forget that last encounter with him.
Scott had introduced you to his adorable tiny daughter and you had all but squealed at the little child. She looked like a cherub with its personality to match. After talking to her for a while, she had to be put to bed when Scott took your hand in his. He had said a soft thank you and smiled in such a way that made your heart skip a beat.
You had never had a man look at you that way before and merely thinking about it made you redden.
'Concentrate, {First}. You are at work!'
Ah, that's right. Work. Speaking of which, working at the bank was boring and unexciting as usual. Herds of customers herded in and out, your coworkers yawned at their posts, and you were left with the stellar job of counting the money for the day. Usually the supervisor was expected to do this, but he said he had to leave early, thus leaving you to do his job.
Irritated to have gotten the short stick yet again, you mumbled, "4997...4998...4999..." You licked the tip of your finger as you placed the last bill down into the vault, "5000!" Wiping your forehead from the hard work, you grinned. "I did it! Jeez, who knew counting money would be so tiring?"
Your feeling of satisfaction was sort lived when you heard an ominous noise from the back door. Raising an eyebrow, you closed the vault door and reached into your purse. Taking out pepper spray, you aimed it at the door, inching toward it. "Come at me, bro." You whispered determined. However after standing there for a good two minutes, you gained the strength to move. Quickly you ran to the door, unlocked it, and flung it open. Poised to strike, you found no one was there.
Stepping outside with muscles still tensed, you took a quick look around with your hand on the spray's trigger. Walking around, you found you were alone with only the lone dumpster and stray cat to accompany you.
"Weird. I could have sworn I heard someone." Thinking you were losing it, you suddenly heard a sharp noise from the vault and a gruff, vague curse. "What!" Rushing back inside, you found a man hunched over, loading a lot of the bills you had just been counting into a big black bag. He was wearing all black and had a black hat with brown hair sticking out. The brown hair reminded you of Scott but you shook the thought as soon as it came. 'Scott's not like that.' You grew really pissed. No way did this guy think he was getting away with this.
"Hey! You better think twice about stealing that money! I took a lot of time and effort to arrange them nicely!" Distractedly you really wished you had a gun instead of pepper spray. "Put your hands up!"
The man froze. He was going to move and you barked, "Don't you think about it mister! I have a black belt in...in ninjitsu! Don't mess with me." Finally slowly, as if taking his sweet time, he put his hands up.
"Now turn around!"
He was about to comply when he dove down while simultaneously grabbing the bag. He purposefully launched a few bills in the air to distract you and you panicked. "Eek!" Spraying everywhere, you managed to get one side of his eye to which he yelled. His shoulder harshly hit the door's frame yet he still managed to run out.
"Dammit!" You growled. Going to chase him, you pressed the button to the silent alarm then ran outside. By the time, you caught sight of him again he was already in a car pressing the gas. Cursing at your rotten luck, you flicked up your cellphone and dialed 911.
"Hello this is 911. What is your emergency?"
"Hello I am {First} and I work at Central Bank. Its just got robbed by some burglar wearing all black." You described your whole ordeal and by the time you got a response from the operator, police already arrived on scene.
You pursed your lips. This was going to be a long night.
~~~Timeskip of Reader Thinking of All The Ways She could Have Disemboweled the Thief~~~
Flinging your body to your front door, you took out your keys, beyond tired. The police took hours of questioning yo,u only to say that they would like to question you some more later. When you asked when they will be about to capture the perp, they vaguely replied that they were 'still investigating'. You rolled your eyes. Some help they were.
Almost opening the door, you saw a huge shadow looming over you. Sharply turning around, you were ready to deliver a punch in case the burglar followed you home. However, you instead found it was the charismatic Scott.
"Woah! You alright {First}?"
It took you a moment to realize no danger was going to befall you. Relaxing, you feebly chuckled. "Sorry Scott. Its been a long stressful day."
"I can see that." He watched you put your fist down. "You want to talk about it?"
You shrugged, "My bank got robbed today."
He became surprised. "That's not something that happens everyday. You okay?"
"Yeah, I guess." You tried to look at him in the dim porch light. Only half of his body was visible and the other side was hidden. Unconsciously, you watched him rub the other side of his shaded face in discomfort. When he slightly moved a bit forward in the light, you saw his eye and parts of his face were puffy."What about you Scott? How are you? You look a bit red on one eye."
"Its been a long day for me also." Scott shook his head and pointed to his eye. "Oh this thing? I got pink eye from my daughter. Somehow she caught it."
For some reason, something in your body shouted, 'He's lying!' Giving him a sympathetic look, you sincerely said, "I hope she feels better." Then becoming playful, you added, "You should get that looked at. It looks gross...like its going to jump at me to infect me."
He immediately caught on to your humor. "Maybe I should speed up the process and hug you." He feigned to hug you when he groaned in pain.
"Scott?" You became worried.
Softly chuckling, he rolled his shoulder. "I'm fine. Its an old wound."
You nodded but you had a nervous feeling blossoming within you. His wounds seemed eerily similar to the burglar's. Pretending to yawn, you told him, "Scott, I should really go to sleep."
"Oh yeah sorry! Sometimes I forget to stop talking." He did that same charming grin, but this time you were more weary. "Goodnight {First}. Hope you feel better."
"Goodnight Scott. You too." Flashing him a smile, you stepped into your home and closed the door. Rushing to see him walking toward his house, you saw him touched his shoulder and curse. He sounded like the burglar.
"!" Gulping, you felt your chest tighten in realization.
"I-I think he is the burglar."