Ever since Raquel moved to Leeds for her job as a graphics designer, she had been living in this apartment all by herself. She could have shared the apartment with some other girls in the office. It would have saved a lot of money for her future.
But who was she kidding, what future? She knew there won't be anyone in it, and cats don't need much to get by. She and Lisbon would be fine. Besides she knew her colleagues: Agatha snored loudly and Julia could be an absolute bitch when she didn't get much sleep, so living with them was out of the question. In the office, she used to interact with people only if it was absolutely required for work. She was not friendly with anybody. She used to eat alone in the office canteen. Everybody in the office used to call her by different names like 'sadist', 'psycho','poor thing'..etc etc. She knew all her nicknames, but never cared enough to explain herself or call them out about it. Complaining to the HR was out of the question as that's where The Asshole worked. Alberto, her ex! Who made her life absolute hell for the first 8 months of her job.
He met her on her first day of work, guided her through all HR formalities and flirted with her incessantly for days after that. He made her think she was the most beautiful and intelligent girl in the office. Well, at least at first. And she had found herself succumbing to his charms. She developed feelings for him, feelings that were new to her. Having no romantic experience during her highschool or Uni days, she didn't have anything to compare them to. Alberto was very charming and courteous to her for the first few months of their relationship. But when she didn't put out, he showed his true colours. She was most afraid of being left alone, and he played on that fear. Every date used to end with arguments, and every time he did something wrong, he used to tell her that it was her fault because he was just 'acting out' as she was a prude and couldn't let the relationship go to a more intimate level.
"I want a girlfriend for myself, not a nun!" he used to yell at her. It happened so frequently that she started believing it. She believed that there was something wrong with her.
And then, she was no longer the most special girl, as a new girl joined the office. So Alberto's all efforts were now directed towards Pillar, the new trainee.
When Raquel caught them on one of their dates she accused him of two timing her and Pillar. The couple laughed on Raquel's face, calling out names to her, asking her whether it really qualified as a relationship if she couldn't even touch her man?
Raquel felt so disgusted by it. What about emotional connection? What if she wanted to feel something in her heart before being intimate with that person? What if she actually wanted to develop a bond that's stronger than lust, before she gave into the temptation? She wanted someone who would first make her heart feel complete. Was it too much? Wasn't there a single person in the world who would do that? She decided then and there- if she wasn't going to find such a person she was not going to be with any man. She would swear off all the emotional attachments and would stay a spinster all her life. Yes, that would give her freedom!
Lisbon was an impulse buy, but it was the best thing she ever got for herself. She bought her on the day of her breakup (If you can even call it a breakup).
There was so much she learned from Lisbon. She wasn't overly affectionate, like a dog, only bothered Raquel when she needed food, water or when nature called. Lisbon also wasn't really friendly and preferred to be on her own, lazing around in the fluffy basket Raquel got for her all day. In short, that was what Raquel aspired to be- unfriendly, independent, indifferent. She didn't need anyone, except Lisbon, the queen of indifference.
She had entered a shell, and she knew she was safe in that shell. She trusted no one, She didn't care about anyone, She didn't like anyone. And she knew, it was better this way. Because, if she guarded her heart closely, no one could hurt her.
Raquel lived the same monotonous life. Everyday she used to wake up, get ready, leave for work, sit in front of a brightly lit computer screen for 8-10 hours, again leave for home, eat dinner and sleep. There was nothing new. No Excitement, No friend, No change, No happiness, and.. No pain! And she was dead set on maintaining this schedule till one fateful day when all her plans were thrown out the window of her 3rd floor apartment.
That day early in the morning at around 6:00 AM Raquel heard the doorbell, feeling a bit surprised that it rang at all. She thought by now it would have been out of work due to not being in use. Afterall she had absolutely no one that would visit her apartment, unless it was a food package she ordered. Then too, she mostly used to track it online and would hover near her front door and as soon as she used to hear footsteps in the hallway she used to open the door and snatch it, having already paid the money online.
For a moment she thought she imagined it, or it was a part of her dream? But then it sounded again. She looked at her watch and wondered who would be ringing the bell at this time.
She went and opened the door to see a bearded man standing there with a small bowl in his hand. He was about 6 feet tall with jet black hair and black thick framed specs on his eyes. Raquel looked at him with confusion. She had never met this man before. So What was doing, ringing her door bell at this hour?
She took in his appearance, a light blue buttoned up shirt under dark grey chequered suit with matching trousers, a loose dark grey patterned tie hung loosely on his neck. His clothes, though not designer, did not look cheap in any way for him to be a delivery boy! Then why was he here at this hour of the day?
Before she could ask him anything he started speaking.
"Hi..umm..I am Sergio, Sergio Marquina, your new neighbour." Said the intruder pushing his spectacles high up on his nose.
"So?"said Raquel, blinking her eyes open.
"I am sorry, actually I came to borrow some sugar. I moved into the A311 today morning. I get grumpy if I don't get my coffee early in the morning. So, if you don't mind, may I borrow some sugar?" the tall man said with pleading eyes.
Raquel was livid. "Let me get this right, You rang my doorbell, 6 o'clock in the morning, just so you can get your coffee?"She asked incredulously, "You go around disturbing other people for your coffee? That too, complete strangers?"
"Well, we are not strangers, per say. I'm your neighbour, ain't i?" He said with a small smile.
"What an arse!" said Raquel and started closing her door.
'Please please please don't close the door...If I don't have my coffee in the morning I will get sick. I tried many other doors, but only you opened it. Please help me out. You're the only one who can save me! ' He pleaded dramatically.
Raquel shook her head and closed the door on his face. He stood there shell shocked for a minute and started turning back to his apartment dejectedly when he heard the click of the door open from behind. He looked back to see Raquel standing there with a Sugar jar in her hand.
"Hey..thank you so much..ummm- I thought…you were so angry…you saved my life you know!" He said with a surprised, but excited smile.
"How many teaspoons do u want?" said Raquel sternly, ignoring his excitement.
"Umm..oh..umm..2 spoons" He said with a flushed face.
Raquel threw him one last irritated glance and opened the jar, took 2 teaspoons of sugar, poured it in the bowl and without a word went inside her apartment, slamming the door on his face.
"Thank you," Sergio murmured to the closed door, "Well that went well!"
Raquel got ready for the office and left the flat exactly at 8.45am as always. Her day in the office went on as usual. Her Manager Prieto was being an arse as always, Angel was still sharing inappropriate and politically incorrect jokes with her and the new intern- Anibal, hadn't emailed her the designs she needed. See, all normal, everyday instances, except for one instance, when she was on a coffee break, and she remembered the early morning incident with coffee.
At first she felt bad about slamming the door on his face. But he was a stranger and it's better to set some expectations early on in any acquaintances. The expectation she wanted to set was- she wasn't interested in making an acquaintance at all.
Then why was she thinking so much about the handsome stranger? (Handsome? Really Raquel?" she chided herself.) But then it was not everyday you get a wake up call for 2 teaspoons of sugar. So she surmised that the whole situation was weird, hilarious, and a tad bit thrilling which made her think about the coffee man every time she sniffed coffee.
She wasn't the only one who was thinking about the morning encounter though. The man in question, the coffee-man, was lazing around in the apartment's front lobby, thinking about her.
At exactly 8 pm, he went to A303, and rang the bell, but nobody opened the door. So then he went there again at 9 pm, still no one answered. He got quite concerned after the 3rd time he had rung the bell at 10 o'clock. That's when he decided he would go enquire after the resident in A303 to the building manager.
When he got hold of the Building manager, 'Daniel Ramos', A young man of about 30 years old, he very casually asked him about the people who resided on his floor. Daniel immediately launched into a spiel of long descriptions about each and every tenant, their pending bills, their comings and goings and bad habits. But no mention of the grumpy girl in A303. Well then, direct approach it is! He thought.
"What about A303? Who lives there?"
"A303… ummm.. Oh yes, that would be the cat lady! Yeah, she's not around that much, so it's easy to forget that she stays here. She goes at work before 9 in the morning and comes after 11 in the night." Daniel exclaimed.
"Cat lady…! interesting" he chuckled at that moniker. How did she earn it though? She didn't look old enough to be a cat lady. In fact, in her cute cotton pyjamas that he had seen her in the morning, she looked quite young! "Why cat lady, though?" he finally voiced his thoughts to his new chum, Daniel.
"Because she behaves like a spinster you see. Like she's on the shelf all her life and is going to expire on the shelf itself. She looks like she needs a friend, but I don't think she wants a friend." He said , seemingly lost in deep thought, "And of course, she has a white persian cat." He added as an afterthought.
Well, that was very helpful of Daniel, indeed! Thought sergio.
"And she doesn't interact with anyone?"
"Nope! At first I thought she was mute, but then I saw her cooing to her cat one day, when she was taking it out… to the vet i suppose… She's really a workaholic I guess, otherwise who would work till 11 on a Friday night?"
"Who indeed!" Murmured Sergio.
Well well, it would be a nice challenge- to figure her out, Sergio smiled at himself.
When Raquel returned home it was already 11.30pm. She didn't feel like having dinner so she filled Lisbon's food plate with cat food and placed her water near it. She was just walking towards her bedroom to hit the bed when she heard her door bell ringing again. Blimey! This was happening a lot today, she thought. When she opened, she came face to face with the coffee man.
"Now what?" said Raquel, thoroughly irritated by then.
"Actually I went to Tesco in the afternoon. So I thought of returning your two spoonfuls of sugar." He said with a crooked smile.
"Whaaaat!" Raquel couldn't believe her ears.
"Here, take it!"He presented the small bowl he was holding before her like it contained precious jewels instead of two spoonfuls of sugar.
"Oh my god!.. Just stay here." Raquel squeaked and closed the door.
Once inside, she facepalmed and walked into her kitchen. She came back with the jar of sugar and opened the door. The coffee man was still standing there waiting for her.
"Here.. Pour it inside!" She thrusted the bottle in his direction and he poured down the sugar in the jar.
"Now, Anything else?" Said Raquel angrily.
"Nope! That's all! Thank you for lending me sugar in the morning. Otherwise I'd be dead by now." He sounded genuinely grateful.
"Whatever! Goodnight!" Raquel said tiredly, somewhat mellowing down at his tone and closed the door.
She felt amused by the coffee man's behaviour. She had been so rude to him, and he still talked so courteously. A smile formed on her lips as she thought about the fact that he came to return back the two spoons of sugar. Such a cute guy! But as soon as the thought came to her mind, she shook herself and banished it from entering her head.
Look at Lisbon! She thought. That's who you aspire to be! Queen of indifference.
Lisbon just stared at Raquel, mewled, and went back to licking her paw.
Raquel let out a deep sigh. She felt grateful that she did not succumb to her new neighbour's charms and relaxed at the possibility that after her rude treatment, he might never approach her again.
Of course she didn't know just then, that she couldn't be more wrong.
In fact she was proved wrong the next morning itself. Saturday was the day when Lisbon went out in the garden for fresh air. So as usual, she grabbed the white furball and decided to go for a walk.
"Cat lady!" Her new neighbour called out the next morning, as she was exiting the apartment. From his appearance, it seemed like he was returning from a jog.
"Oh no… not the coffee man!" Raquel panicked. She looked here and there in desperation. Surely, there had to be one tree big enough to hide her and her cat till he leaves her alone. Seeing that there were none, she started walking in the opposite direction, which meant she had to again enter the apartment without having the chance to walk Lisbon in the garden.
But before she could actually buzz herself in, the coffee man had caught up to her.
"Hey, good morning! Are going back inside? I thought you were gonna walk your cat…"
"Yeah, well I changed my mind." She said as briskly as possible.
"O-kaaay,"he drawled out," but I think your cat wants to go out."
"You don't know anything! Lisbon is not a very outdoorsy cat." She said avoiding eye contact at any cost. In fact she tried very hard to avoid even facing him, turning in another direction everytime he was in front of her. But the coffee man was making it very difficult as he constantly followed her body movement and seemed to come face to face with her every time.
"Lisbon, huh? Cute name... Have you ever been to Portugal?... Hey look, it's clear she wants to roam about… Why are you reluctant to put her down… it'll be only for a bit!... don't worry she'll come back even if you let her go." He kept saying each sentence everytime he faced her, further adding to her irritation.
"God! I can't do this on a Saturday morning." She muttered under her breath and Sergio suppressed his smile.
"Are you okay? Any problem?" He asked her when she seemed to struggle with Lisbon as the cat tried to break free from the cage of Raquel's arms.
"No no...Apart from nosy neighbours and an absolutely pissed off cat, my Saturday morning's going splendidly! Ouch!" She exclaimed as Lisbon's paws drew blood from her right forearm.
"Oh! That looks painful." he flinched at the sight of blood.
"No no it's nothing!" She struggled to keep a hold on Lisbon, then screamed at the creature, "why are you not listening to me!"
Lisbon mewled at her angrily. Sergio shook his head slowly, suppressing a laughter and moved closer by a few inches.
"Well, that's a nice display of power between the owner and the pet, but -" he lowered his voice by several notches and said, "as your dutiful neighbour I should warn you, that", he looked at his watch," within 30 seconds if you don't let Lisbon go, she's gonna pee on you."
"Whaaaat?" She was momentarily stunned because of the close proximity of him. She peered at him from under her lashes and saw his face, smiling sweetly at her, then his throat, then his quick dry T-shirt clad chest - how defined it was!
No no no no no stop thinking about this, she reprimanded herself and felt herself thoroughly flustered. Which is why her grip on Lisbon slackened a bit and the cat took advantage of the momentary distraction and jumped and ran towards bushes.
"See! " Sergio looked proudly at the direction Lisbon had gone, "It's not very difficult to let go of some things, isn't it?"he said pensively and she looked at his face in alarm. There seemed some deep meaning behind his words but for some reason, it eluded her.
He looked back to her only to find her staring at him with odd expressions. They seemed to hold each other's gaze for a minute, until Raquel looked away.
"Have a good day! Please take care of your scratch", Sergio motioned towards her right hand where Lisbon had clawed at her. He then tipped his head a little and bid her farewell. She saw him punch his code and then enter the building and all she could do was to stare at his back.
After that little encounter, his thoughts lingered in her mind for all day.
