Love Around Us


Chapter 1: Good Morning Zootopia!


"What a beautiful day to get up and do nothing..." Sighing in relief, Nick rose from his bed as his alarm indicated 8.00 a.m. The summer day was just beginning, the sun barely rising above the horizon, showing its bright rays to the world, illuminating the nearby grounds of Zootopia, the place Nick lived under.

Like a resident of the suburbs of this huge city, the fox had plenty of space to himself, but most of all he appreciated the quiet. Yes, there were mornings that were interrupted by the sound of the neighbour's lawnmower, but apart from that, there was nothing wrong with living in this place. Fox, after a short sitting in bed, put on his beloved navy blue dressing gown and went downstairs, not forgetting on the way to switch on the radio, which stood in the hall of the flat, connecting the front door with the kitchen. Morning music was always something that calmed him at work as well as at home, when he could sit alone and meditate.

He started his breakfast almost every day with the same thing, which was to brew himself some water for coffee so that it would be ready even before he started eating his breakfast. Although he ate cereal practically every day in the morning, he could not do without his morning coffee, without it, he was not sure if he could function normally for the whole day. His sleep was rather short, maybe because his job ends late, around 5 a.m., and he worked in the centre of Zootopia as a real estate agent (after all, a fox is a sign of slyness and shrewdness, and that's what this business is all about). The job is good enough, and the story of how he got it is even better, but it would take Nick all day to tell it. After all, knowing the image of foxes, he was given such a prestigious position for a reason.


After a few minutes of peace and quiet, Nick began to pour the finished water into the mug that held the already black-coated coffee beans. As he was pouring the water, Nick heard from outside his window the sound of his neighbour's lawnmower being fired up, presumably to start mowing his lawn. In the morning, as every week from the beginning of summer to the end of it goes on. Nick tried several times to talk to his neighbour about the subject of mowing first thing in the morning and irritating his eardrums and needlessly annoying him, but they were both stubborn and ultimately came to no agreement. Nick concluded after some conversation that the neighbour had even started mowing the grass even earlier, specifically to spite him.

"Again. Every week I ask him to do it in the evening and he specially mows even earlier!" Nick thought with exasperation. He tried for a few minutes to calm his nerves by tapping nervously on his coffee cup, but to no avail. Impulsively he got up from his chair, then turned around behind him. He could see his neighbour outside his window, a medium height stag with a sharp expression, brown eyes and short brown hair was pushing a grass cutting machine close to the hedge that separated his allotment from Nick's. The fox abruptly opened the window and leaned out of it, the deer seeing what had stopped, anticipating Nick's morning chatter.

"Why don't you start mowing even earlier! Maybe it's best to do it at night!" Shouted Nick piercing the burbling of the mower with his loud voice. The boy stopped under the fox's window and laughed ironically.

"Shut up please Wilde. It's enough that my wife doesn't give me a break anymore," Patrick countered. Nick growled angrily then closed the window with a clatter closing the blind, blocking visibility into his kitchen.

"Oh, good thing I don't have a neighbour on the other side. If I had another one like that, I couldn't stand it!" Nick sighed. The house on the other side had been for sale for several months, its previous owner having sold the plot of land where his previous house stood. He had left here because he wanted to live in the centre of Zootopia, by now Nick not much that didn't suit him here, but he didn't care very much to be honest. The main reason for this was that there lived a tiger who bore a hatred for foxes. He sometimes made disdainful faces towards Nick or threw ugly texts in his direction, but frankly the fox didn't care too much about it. Looking at his social position he was not a person worth paying much attention to. All in all, it was even good that he left this place.

Now, instead of his house, another house was put up to the terraced houses, which already stretched over a dozen flats (in which one of them lived Nick), now there were more than 10, and the company in which Nick works, supposedly is to buy a few more plots to put up even more houses of this kind. It was an investment of at least a dozen years.

As Nick calmed down and calmly consumed his favourite chocolate caramel cereal with milk he focused doubly on the news coming from the radio as it was now announcing news of the sport he had been a fan of for over a dozen years and the latest current season was promising a phenomenal finish which would be in a fortnight time. That Sunday was to be the penultimate race.

"Today at 2pm in the afternoon the lights will go out on the track in Brazil. The two drivers vying for the world title, Adam Speed and Chris Bolt will start side by side, this guarantees incredible excitement both today and next week! Who will be on top? We'll find out after 16" announced the radio journalist.

'Chris will win' thought Nick. Although he was a supporter of Chris and even had a small collection of Chris-related merchandise (t-shirts, hats, etc.) Yes his closest friend Finnick, who lived across the street from him, was an Adam fan, which sometimes caused arguments between them. The two watched the races together as soon as there was an opportunity, as Finnick's girlfriend Suzanne, after once their neighbours converged on their house asking them to be quieter (the race was late at night, but that didn't stop Nick and Finnick from shouting as loud as they could). Suzanne was on a sleepover with a friend at the time, but when she found out about it, she banned the boys from watching the sport together. Despite the ban, they continue to hang out when Suzanne is not at home.

Nick, upon hearing the announcement, quickly pulled out his phone and dialled the number for his friend, who only picked up after a few beeps.

"What's so early man? Something wrong?" Finnick asked in a sleepy voice. Nick could hear by the sound of his voice that the boy was semi-conscious, but he couldn't stop himself from asking if he could watch the race.

"Suzanne will be home tonight? Today is the penultimate race!" Exploded Nick enthusiastically.

"Ah yes...Suzanne is leaving 5 minutes before the start of the race, but I don't know when she'll be back. Watching together could be a risk..."

"Come on, she won't be back in time. Knowing her she'll still go shopping, and you know how girls are, they like to walk around the shops a bit" replied Nick. Finnick, even though he was a little worried that his girlfriend might come back early, couldn't resist the vision of watching sports together with his friend.

"All right, but if anything, you were the one who wanted to watch."

"As always anyway...okay, I'll bring something with me and come over to your place, I'll watch when Suzanne leaves" Nick communicated. He hung up and waited excitedly for the start time of the race.


In the meantime, as time slowly passed, Nick managed to clean his house. He usually did this in the evening when he got back from Finnick's and after taking notes for his work, he now decided to do it now so he could have a free evening later. He still had to prepare himself an up-to-date list of houses for sale that he could offer to potential clients who would come to him tomorrow. As an estate agent he has to be ready all the time, it's a very stressful job and it was hard for him to hide it by sleeping long. After tidying up, the fox still went to a nearby shop where he bought a few packets of crisps and fizzy drinks to be ready for the midday sport. It was a sort of 'men's night out', which was the best part of the weekend for both Nick and Finnick (although the latter couldn't say it officially, his girlfriend wouldn't like it very much).

The wait for Nick grew even longer as he looked at his leather watch on his left hand. The longer he stared at it, the more often he checked the time the more it seemed to him that time had stopped.


Finally, when the watch read 3.50 p.m., Nick, with a bag of snacks at the ready, stood in front of the window with the blinds drawn, hiding from Suzanne. With the fingers of his other hand he pushed back the sheets of the blind gently so he could see if the girl was leaving the house leaving Finnick alone. After a few minutes the short, charming woman opened the door to the flat, giving the boy a kiss on the forehead, to which Nick laughed seeing this. He continued to watch with a smile on his face as the woman got into her black car, then drove off towards Zootopia a moment later.

'She finally drove off...even though I like her I find her, quite stiff' thought Nick with relief. Nick has known Suzanne for quite a long time, practically since she became his friend's girlfriend (which is about 10 months). Fox took the bag of snacks in his hand and rushed out the door heading to meet his friend.


Welcome to my first project for 2022! I've been away for a while, but rest assured I haven't disappeared anywhere :v I needed a little rest...

I hope you enjoy the romantic comedy, have a great read!