The Chance to Fly, Chapter Two
It had been a week since the apartment down the hall had been filled. A week since Hans and Elsa became Anna's new neighbours, and yet in that week Anna hadn't glimpsed either of them again. In fact, the only sign Anna had been aware of that the couple had moved in at all was the new name filled in on the buzzer pad downstairs. Now, next to the number seven, the line read – in impossibly neat handwriting – 'Christian'. This, Anna decided, was final.
They clearly are married. There's only one surname on their buzzer.
Yet despite this knowledge, and despite the fact that Anna had not caught sight of a even a flash of those excessive sideburns, or that glossy platinum hair, in the past seven days, still she could not shake the latter from her mind.
It was probably her schedule that kept Anna from bumping into the new residents. She had been working every night the past week, leaving for the bar around the time that most people sat down for their evening meal and not returning until well into the night.
They probably both have proper jobs, plus they have a child, they must have the kind of routines that actual grown-ups have, Anna thought to herself.
Sometimes she had to remind herself that she loved her job, her freedom, her unsociable hours. But only sometimes. Mainly, the times she had to remind herself of those facts were the times when she loitered slightly longer than usual at the mailboxes downstairs, or locked her door more slowly than normal, remaining in the hallway for an extra minute or so, you know, just in case. If she had a regular job, she'd probably see them leaving for work in the morning. She'd see Elsa, with little Kai balanced on her hip – those hips – heading out to drop her son at preschool. If she had a regular job Anna would be home to go and have a glass of wine with Hans and Elsa in the evening after they'd all had a long day at the office and Kai was fast asleep. If she had a regular job, Anna would have to wake up at seven a.m. If she had a regular job, Anna would be taunted by having to see the unattainable blonde every day. They might become friends and she'd have to yearn for Elsa whilst trying to maintain a friendship with her and her husband. Oh, She'd feel terrible for lusting after Hans' wife when Hans seemed like such a nice guy.
No, Anna, you're getting carried away. Anna found that she often had to drag herself back from the little fantasies that had been playing out in her mind recently.
You have an awesome job. You work with people you love, you get to see bands play nearly every night, and the tips from the pervy customers pay for your ice cream habit. Sure, you don't get to drool over your hot neighbour, but that's probably a good thing. Rational Anna had taken over once more. That side of the redhead had been putting in overtime for the past week.
It was a Thursday evening, Anna had started her shift an hour earlier and things at Oaken's were slow. There were a couple of the regulars lined up at one end of the bar, drinking their usual drinks and bickering over the same things they did every night, putting the world to rights with plans which grew increasingly ill-advised with each consecutive beverage. Anna had changed a couple of barrels in the cellar, she had polished the taps and restocked the nuts. Now, she was bored, leaning on the bar and perusing the daily papers that were delivered to the bar each morning.
'Winter Predicted Coldest in Over a Decade…'
'Declared Dead: Senator Anderson and Wife, One Year on…'
'Tension in Eastern Provinces Reaches new Peak…'
Anna flicked through the pages. There was never any good news. Thursdays were always slow at Oaken's, there was no live music, and not a lot that needed doing, so Anna was the only member of staff working that night and the evening dragged on in a similar fashion. A few groups of men in suits came in for works drinks and Anna graced them with a smile on her face and gained a few extra tips in the jar. She chatted with the regulars until closing time and then loaded the glasses into the washer. She emptied the drip trays, wiped down the surfaces, and headed home. For once, she was leaving at a reasonable time. It was only just midnight.
The papers hadn't been lying. When Anna exited Oaken's and locked up behind her, there was a definite chill in the air. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself and made a mental note that it was probably time for the leather jacket to return to the closet until next year. Tomorrow she would break out the hat.
You're getting a thrill over bringing out your winter hat. Anna, you must find better things to occupy your mind. Anna thought to herself as she strolled down the street.
This time, there had been no after-work drinks, no rough-and-ready karaoke, no mad dancing with workmates on the empty stage. This time Anna really did stroll, there was no staggering home on a Thursday.
Anna reached her apartment building, pulled her keys from her jacket pocket and made a conscious effort not to even glance at the new name above her own on the buzzer pad. She closed the door quietly behind her – a few shouts from angry neighbours in the small hours had taught her to enter the building with care – and trudged up the three flights of stairs. One of the joys of an early night – or early in Anna's mind at least – was the ability to actually get ready for bed, rather than just remove her jeans and fall into the sheets. She washed the make-up from her face and brushed out her rust-red hair, allowing the waves that her trademark plaits had created to remain in place. Anna brushed her teeth, now with the utmost attention to where any excess toothpaste landed, and slid under her warm duvet. She lay back and sighed. God, Anna loved her bed. She wasn't quite ready for sleep yet though.
Anna knew it was insane how much time she had spent thinking about Elsa. She knew that she had only met the woman for a matter of minutes, and that for the majority of those minutes Elsa was simply trying to avoid looking at the obvious toothpaste gloop on Anna's T-shirt. She knew she must have come off as a complete idiot, first literally bumping into Elsa, then dropping the removal box on the floor and falling into her own doorframe. She had called Elsa called her 'Hot' to her face, for crying out loud. In regards to that particular chunk of word-vomit, Anna had convinced herself that Elsa hadn't heard what she said. But whichever way she looked at it, something in those minutes had had an effect on Anna. She wasn't one for love at first sight; she didn't believe that love could simply stem from opening a door and falling into the first person in her line of vision. But still, it had been a week now, yet Elsa was never far from Anna's thoughts. The blonde had barely spoken; she was an enigma to Anna, a mystery… a married woman. A married woman, with a child. Anna sighed once more. Trying (and failing) to not think about her stunningly beautiful neighbour was exhausting. And it was with one last-ditch attempt to empty her mind of arctic blue eyes that Anna succumbed to sleep.
The next morning, Anna awoke at a reasonable time. 10.30am is reasonable, right? Anna was sure that it was. She had got up, succeeded in dressing herself in her usual attire of tight jeans – green today – and a fitted band T-shirt. She knew the look was getting old, but she worked in a music venue, she got a lot of free T-shirts, why wouldn't she wear them? Her hair was tamed out of its state of bedhead and back into its twin plaits.
Anna was now padding around her kitchen barefoot, a couple of pieces of toast balanced precariously in one hand and her stereo remote in the other. She increased the volume of whatever station the thing had landed on and, tossing the remote onto the counter, she took a large bite out of her chocolate covered toast, humming along contentedly with the radio.
Today, Anna was feeling positive. She wasn't going to think about a certain leggy blonde along the hallway, she was going to spend her day being a successful grown-up. And successful grown-ups need to take their laundry down to the laundry room and then go to the supermarket because successful grown-ups cannot continue to eat cereal for dinner at three a.m. Anna shoved the last of her toast into her mouth and prepared to leave the apartment. Remembering the chill from the previous night, Anna pulled a black beanie over her head, stuck her grocery list into her pocket and picked up her bag of laundry.
Several hours later and Anna's laundry was safely whirling away in the machines in the basement. Only some detergent had ended up on the floor, and just a singular sock had been lost somewhere between her apartment and the laundry room. Anna had been shopping and bought everything on her grocery list, and even a couple of extra items – a deli box of freshly baked double chocolate cookies, because she deserved a treat, and a carton of chocolate ice cream with chocolate chunks, because… she deserved a treat. All in all, Anna was feeing pretty proud of all she had achieved so far in her day as a successful grown-up. She may even clean the oven when she gets home, besides, she barely uses it, and it can't be that much in need of a clean.
Anna had reached the front door of her apartment building; she shifted her grocery bags into one arm, and lifted a knee to support them from beneath, resting her raised foot against the door, before scrabbling in her jacket pocket for a key. Just as she found her keys – and discovered a half-devoured candy bar in the process – the door before her swung open. Anna was caught off guard and immediately dropped her grocery bags to the floor, spilling the contents across the mat inside the door.
"Shit!" Anna exclaimed, immediately bending down to gather up her shopping as it scattered and rolled into the apartment foyer.
"Sorry. I scared you." A soft voice said from just above Anna's head. Anna glanced up, and for a minute had a distinct sense of déjà vu. Legs. Thin but shapely legs, hugged tightly by pale blue denim before disappearing under the hem of a tailored black coat. Elsa crouched down to help Anna collect her groceries.
"I… Uh… No, you didn't scare me. Just…" Anna struggled to form a sentence. She was being confronted by the woman who had plagued her thoughts for a week and if anything, Elsa was even more beautiful than she had remembered. How can that even be possible? She wondered. But it was the true; this woman must be laced with some sort of magic. Her hair could rival actual platinum, and it shone like a mirror. Anna forced her mind away from thoughts of running her fingers through it. Elsa's skin was pale but utterly without flaws. And those eyes… For days Anna had only to close her own eyes in order to conjure up the image of those clear blues.
"Sweet tooth?" Elsa asked, studying the carton of ice cream in her hand, a small smile playing on her lips. She remained lowered to the floor, her legs bent and her weight supported by slightly heeled black Chelsea boots.
Anna looked up from where she had just retrieved a pack of tampons from the mat, shoving it hurriedly back into the grocery bag, and hoping Elsa hadn't noticed. She hadn't expected Elsa's face to be so close to her own.
"Uh… Chocolate… it's a weakness." Anna stated with wide eyes, before crushing the last items back into the bag, grabbing the deli box of cookies from the floor by her converse-clad foot and standing abruptly.
"I know the feeling," Elsa offered, mirroring Anna's movement and returning to a standing position; a standing position that Anna now realised placed the blonde a few inches taller than herself.
"It's Anna, right?" Elsa said, her icy blue eyes finding Anna's own mossy greens.
"Anna. Yeah. From upstairs. We met last week. Well, we collided actually. We really should stop meeting like this." Anna's verbal spewing had taken hold and as she heard the last sentence exit her mouth she internally groaned. Outwardly, however, she chuckled awkwardly and her eyes darted around the room, glancing anywhere but at Elsa. Why, Anna? Why couldn't you be cool for once?
Elsa laughed. She actually laughed. It was a quiet laugh, and most probably a pity laugh, but it was a laugh nonetheless. And to Anna, it was the best sound she'd heard all day.
"Well, there have been no injuries yet. I suppose we should be thankful for that." Elsa muttered, bending to place the carton of ice cream into the grocery bag. A small smile still played on her lips. Where Hans' wide grin had been open and eager, Elsa's was quiet but surprisingly warm. Hans' toothy beaming seemed more an instinctual thing, where Elsa's was a treat; it felt as though it had to be earned. Anna would love the chance to earn that smile as frequently as possible.
"That's true. And you're Elsa, aren't you?" Anna replied, trying her hardest to act as though she hadn't been rolling that name around her tongue all week, marvelling at how beautiful four little letters could be when put together in the right combination.
"I am." Came the simple response.
"Well, Elsa, if you too share a deep rooted affliction for chocolate, maybe you'd like to come up for coffee and cookies? I mean, you don't have to have coffee. Maybe you're a tea-drinker? Or a cold drink. I have cold drinks too. Probably." Stop it, Anna, just stop. Anna was off again.
"Oh. Well, I… That sounds really… nice. But actually I'm just on my way out." Elsa stuttered. She had lost some of her composure and gestured with her head towards the front door, accidentally flicking her long loose hair over her shoulder as she did so.
Obviously she's going out, Anna, she was going out when you threw your groceries at her. Anna reprimanded herself.
"I have to pick up Kai, but another time? I'd like to come over another time?" Elsa continued, turning her statement into a question. It sounded a little bit like a mother placating a small child, and Anna's heart began making its way down to her knees.
"Sure, of course. Another time." Anna said. Her rambling had been well and truly quashed.
Elsa reached out a hand towards Anna and Anna's eyes tracked its movement as though in slow motion. The hand landed gently on Anna's forearm, and Anna held her breath, studying those fingers, long and slim, musical somehow, like maybe Elsa played the piano, or perhaps violin. Anna could imagine her playing violin.
"I'll look forward to it." Elsa said softly, effectively snapping Anna's gaze up from the hand resting on her arm and straight into arctic blue pools. Someone could drown in those… Anna felt Elsa squeeze her arm for a fraction of a second before the hand slipped from its place and the taller woman spun on her heels, her hair fanning out behind her before coming to rest between her shoulder blades, the white-blonde a stark comparison to her black coat.
Anna remained frozen to her spot, mouth slightly open, as Elsa pulled open the front door once more and moved to step out of it. Just as the blonde was about to leave, she turned slightly and considered Anna over her shoulder.
"Make mine a tea." She said in the velvety soft tones that would now ring in Anna's ears for the rest of the day. And with that, Elsa strode out of the front door and down the street.
Anna stayed in place for a moment more before realising that her mouth was still hanging open. She shut it quickly and cleared her throat, shaking her head.
What have you done, Anna? You're meant to avoid obsessing over your new, married, neighbour. Now you've invited her over? You invited her over for cookies. What are you, twelve? She probably doesn't even want to come, she just felt sorry for you. Anna berated herself all the way up the three flights of stairs to her apartment.
She did say she wanted to come though… She even said she would look forward to it… and she touched me! Anna's internal battle had been lost once more, and her mind drifted to various – wildly unlikely – scenarios that could result from Elsa coming over to her apartment. Her day of being a successful grown-up, it seemed, would be short lived.
Shit. I better buy some tea.