Chapter 3. Settling In

Jane

The morning brought the prospect of finishing the unpacking and returning the rental car, not necessarily in that order. After making some breakfast and getting dressed I decided to take care of the car first. Even though I had picked up the vehicle from the airport I returned it to another location, closer to where I was living. I explained about the flat tire and that the tools had been tossed back into the trunk without putting them in place. They were going to charge me 100 for cleaning up that mess, so the tally for that flat tire was now set at 140. When I told the counter attendant where the flat tire occurred, she took pity on me and cut the fee in half, saying I was lucky to get out of there alive with all the meth heads that were there. She also stated they wouldn't have sent a rescue truck to me. It made me wonder what kind of cop would take on an undercover assignment in that kind of environment.

I took a cab back to the apartment and went up the steps at the same time as another tenant who had just arrived with a couple of grocery bags in her arms. As she tried to pull her key fob out, I flashed mine at the sensor and offered to take one of her bags.

"Thanks!" she smiled broadly. "You must be the new tenant just below me. I'm Natasha."

"Jane," I answered. "I just moved in yesterday. Everyone tells me this is a nice neighbourhood. How long have you lived here?"

"A couple of years," she replied, as we walked up the stairs together. "My boyfriend moved in with me last year. We have parties every once in a while. We're always short of available women if you're interested." I must have made a face. "Oh, unless you're a lesbian. Although I know a few cute ones."

"No, I'm not a lesbian," I answered. "Just newly divorced and it was a nightmare. I'm in New York trying to start over, so not really looking for a relationship."

"Well, I know plenty of guys who aren't looking for one either," she said. She stopped on the stairs and gave her head a shake. "That doesn't make me sound weird, does it? My boyfriend's a cop and there are many of his friends not looking for anything serious but if you need to blow off some sexual tension ..."

I smirked. She had an easy way about her that was quite friendly, but I got the feeling she wasn't anyone's fool. She unlocked her apartment door and held it open with her foot while I followed her in. Her place was bigger than mine and had great light.

"We're just below the rooftop patio," she said. "I'm sure the super told you about that. We usually try to hold our parties up there so that our apartment is kind of used as a buffer. Of course, over the winter we can't use it so the parties end up in our apartment. You really should come. We're having one next weekend, kind of celebrating the end of Sam's undercover investigation. He's been working as backup for the guy who went undercover."

"I met an undercover cop last night," I replied, thinking of the coincidence. "Although I have my doubts if he really was that. He had the nerve to ask me for money to fix my flat tire. 20 for him and 20 for another guy who threatened to put a knife into one of my other tires. He showed me a badge that he had hidden under his shirt so I would accept the help." I shook my head. "He was right about one thing. The car rental company would have left me stranded there."

Natasha looked thoughtful. "Where were you stranded?" I gave her the street name that I had entered incorrectly, and her eyes went large. "That's where Bucky, Sam's partner, was working undercover. He's probably the guy who helped you. Tall, long dark hair, full beard, amazing blue eyes?"

"I don't know about the eyes," I replied, "as it was dark but he was pretty grubby looking. Bucky, huh? That's an unusual name. You say the investigation is finishing this week?"

"Yeah, I can't really tell you anything more, but they were trying to find the source of some tainted fentanyl that killed quite a few people, both homeless and not homeless," she replied. "You have to come to the party. Tell the story of Bucky asking you for money. He needs to be made fun of more often."

I was noncommittal about it but after I returned to my apartment, I couldn't stop thinking about it, about him. Part of me wanted to see if he cleaned up nicely from the wreck he seemed to be when he was outside my car. It seemed funny that out of a city of so many millions of people that I would connect with someone in a bad neighbourhood in the middle of the night then find out my neighbour knew him. Grabbing my backpack and a couple of shopping bags I walked to the grocery store and started shopping for things I missed the day before. When I got to a point where I thought my bags would be full, I stopped and lined up at the cash register. 100 later I headed back to the apartment with my purchases. It wasn't too bad walking the distance with a full backpack and two shopping bags in hand, but for the last block I seriously considered going full old lady and buying one of those metal carts like my grandma always used when she went grocery shopping. As I approached the steps of the apartment building Natasha, and who I assumed was her boyfriend, came out.

"Sam, why don't you get her two bags," she suggested. "Jane Peterson, meet Sam Wilson."

"Pleasure," he said as he walked up the steps with my two bags.

"Me too," I replied. At my door I brought my key out and opened it. Sam walked right in with my bags followed by Natasha. "Thanks, they were getting a little heavy the last few hundred feet."

"You get used to it," he said. He stood in the kitchen and studied me for a moment. "So, Natasha said you were in Brownsville neighbourhood last night and possibly met my partner, Bucky Barnes. What the hell were you doing there?"

"I entered the wrong address in my map app and since I don't know the city yet I just followed the GPS blindly," I replied. "Your partner came to my rescue although he made me pay him 40 for the privilege. Car rental company charged me 50 for the flat tire and not putting the jack and crowbar back properly."

Sam laughed, a hearty laugh that was infectious. "Yeah, that sounds like Buck although he won't be happy you were charged by the rental company," he said. "You have to come to the party. He'll be there and you need to tell that story. Say you'll come. I'm a great cook and we'll have a ton of food. Lots of single cops, even though Natasha told me you're not looking. Just good company is all I'm promising."

"Sure," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "I'll come. Need to make some friends. I've already met one cop. His wife is the receptionist at Stark Technology."

"Steve and Peggy?" asked Sam. "There you go. You're meant to come to the party. They'll be there. Steve and Bucky go back to grammar school. I've only known him since we were in the army together."

Natasha looked at her watch. "Babe, we have to go," she said. "We'll see you later."

We did meet later for drinks on the rooftop, and it was nice. When Sam started talking about work Natasha called a halt to that and we talked about other things, getting to know each other better. By the time we ended up calling it a night I was feeling pretty mellow from the wine. In no time I was asleep.

My first week at work went quite well. The rest of the teams were there and after I did my HR requirements Tony introduced me to all the staff. My team went back to the bull pen, and everyone told me about what they were working on. Like Peter they were all pretty enthusiastic about their projects and I hoped that I impressed them with my desire to clear any obstacles that might have interfered with their work. Some of it was in areas that I needed to brush up on and I asked those employees to point me in the right direction so that I felt comfortable advising them. By the end of the week, I knew this was going to be a great place to work.

Fridays, as I found out, we usually finished about 1 pm. Tony was a great believer in having a good work / life balance and apparently would go office to office kicking people out to get an early start on the weekend. I decided to hit the grocery store on my way home, needing to pick up some fresh fruit. While I was in there, I noticed a young couple, a pale blonde and her darker haired boyfriend. They were laughing and giggling as they shopped for a few things. It was kind of sweet and it was obvious they were in love. Their happy ways put me in a good mood as I walked back to the apartment. With the warm afternoon sun, I considered heading up to the rooftop patio and chilling out for a while. After putting the food away, I poured myself a glass of wine, grabbed a book, my phone and ear buds, and headed upstairs. Sam and Natasha were already up there.

"Don't you two work?" I asked.

"I got extra leave for two months of monitoring Buck," said Sam.

"I took today off," replied Natasha. "Like I'm going to waste a beautiful day like this. What's your excuse?"

"Apparently, Stark Technology closes up at 1 pm on Fridays except for the weekend staff," I replied. "Something about enjoying life."

"I can dig it," laughed Sam.

He put his ear buds back in and closed his eyes, slightly bobbing his head to his music. I put mine in and opened the book up. A couple of hours later I woke up alone on the lounge chair. Obviously, I fell asleep, and my neighbours left me there, figuring I needed the sleep. Since it was clouding over, I headed back into my apartment, ate dinner, watched TV, had a leisurely bath and climbed into bed. It was a milestone occasion; week one at both my job and my new apartment.

Saturday was spent getting to know my new hometown, specifically Prospect Park, within walking distance from my apartment. It was actually pretty nice, and I figured I would go there often. They had a green market that was full of fresh fruit, vegetable and food vendors. It was a great place to chill and made me think more about getting that metal shopping cart I could pull behind me. After being outdoors for most of the day I decided to have a nap at home so that I could stay up later for the party. It was a good call as when I woke up it was almost dark, and I could hear the sounds of music up on the rooftop patio.

Since it was cooling down, I decided to wear a light sweater and jeans. I brought a bottle of wine up with me and came out to a party already in full swing. Natasha waved at me and came over, giving me a hug.

"I was beginning to wonder if you were coming," she said.

"I took a nap," I replied. "Spent all day at Prospect Park and it tired me out more than I knew. Here's some wine for the party."

"You didn't have to do that but I'm sure the bottle will be empty by the end of the evening," she said. "You want some white wine?"

I nodded and she asked Sam to pour me a glass. Peggy and Steve were talking in the corner to another couple and waved at me, which I returned. I noticed the young man who was at the store with the blonde girl the day before, talking with a couple of men.

"Who's that?" I asked Natasha.

"Joaquin," she replied. "He's a uniform cop in the same precinct as Sam. He helped on the undercover investigation. That man, over in the corner with the pale blonde? That's Bucky."

I looked and was shocked to see a very handsome man in his mid-30s without the long hair or beard. He had his arm around the very same young woman who had been with Joaquin the day before. They were very affectionate with each other, but it rubbed me the wrong way; a guy his age with a girl that young. It must have shown on my face.

"What's wrong?" asked Natasha.

"He's a little old for her, isn't he?" I asked, then I lowered my voice. "He isn't her sugar daddy, is he?"

Natasha, to her credit, didn't laugh out loud and didn't draw attention to my comment. "Oh, he's her daddy alright but her real dad," she replied. "That's Rose, his daughter. Today is her 21st birthday."

My mouth opened but no sound came out. She was young for a girlfriend, but he was young to be the father of an adult. I looked at Natasha in confusion.

"He was a teenage father, had her when he was 17, married before he finished high school," she said. "The dark-haired woman over there with the tall blonde man? That's his ex, Connie. They're on good terms; they were just too young to be married when they were. Didn't help that he joined the army when he was 18 and spent the next three years overseas."

I was still speechless and took a good sip of my wine. At that moment I made eye contact with Bucky. He smiled slightly and kissed his daughter on the side of her head before heading our way. Suddenly I felt like I did in high school when the cute boy noticed me, and I got all flustered. He was tall, dark, extremely attractive and like Natasha said, had amazing blue eyes. There was a rushing sound in my ears as he approached.

"So, Jane, nice to see you in one piece," he said, offering his hand to me. "I'm Bucky and I believe I owe you some money."

"No, no, that's alright," I fumbled. "You helped me out in a tough spot. I was just overwhelmed being stranded in such a neighbourhood. Natasha told me you were living on the streets there for two months."

"Yeah, I kind of immersed myself into the situation," he replied, his blue eyes looking intently at me. "Well, if you won't take my money at least let me take you out for dinner."

Natasha winked at us and left me alone with Bucky to be with Sam. I looked away from him as I found his looks a bit much to handle at the moment. My cheeks felt like they were burning and yet he still stood there waiting for an answer.

"Excuse me," I said, putting my glass down and rushing past him in a panic.

I went down the stairs to my apartment and struggled to get the key in the door.

"I'm only asking for dinner," said his voice and I froze at his words. "Do I make you nervous?"

"I don't know what you make me," I said, cringing at my words. "I'm not in a good space right now, as far as dating goes."

"Why?"

His voice was so silky soft and even though he was several feet away from me it felt like his eyes were all over me.

"I've just gone through a very painful divorce," I said, still looking at the door. "My ex-husband tried to kill me."

"I know who you are," he said quietly. "I recognized you. What if you don't look at it as a date?"

"How else would I look at it?"

"Two people who met under a difficult situation, becoming friends and finding common ground," he said. "Nothing more. I think you need more friends, especially because you're alone, in a new city, and you're still dealing with your divorce. Let me be your friend, Jane."

"Guys that look like you aren't friends with girls that look like me," I whispered.

He didn't respond at first then he said the strangest thing.

"Well, we should change that, shouldn't we?"

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, still not wanting to look at him.

"Honestly?" He leaned against the door and took a very audible breath. "I had one disastrous marriage, about a dozen failed relationships and the common thread amongst all of them was that I fell fast and hard before I ever got to know any of them. When I was out on the street I did learn that homeless women were very vulnerable and the only thing I could do for them was to offer my protection while they slept with no strings attached. So, I'll modify that to offer my friendship to you with no obligation on your part. I'm a man of my word and I do want the opportunity to be your friend." He watched me for a time. "Please."

Turning so I could look at him I still saw an extremely attractive man, but I also saw empathy and an earnestness that seemed sincere. He was still too damned good looking to look at for an extended length of time, but I nodded my head, he stepped back and waited for me to walk forwards. Together we went up to the roof and he handed me my glass of wine. Sam brought him a beer and Bucky sipped it then gestured towards his daughter. Together we went over to her.

"Rose, this is my friend Jane," he said. "She's new to New York. She's the lady I helped with a flat tire in Brownsville."

"Dad told me about you," she said, her face set in a sweet smile. "Said you gave him some pretty good sass. I would have liked to have seen that. Usually, he thinks he has everything under control so it's nice to hear that someone called him out."

"Hey, whose side are you on?" he asked fondly. It was obvious he adored her. "Rose is a journalism student at NYU, although she's working a clerical job at the precinct for the summer. Starts her final year in August. Her mom, stepdad and I are so proud of her."

"Aw, Dad, I'm proud of you, too," she replied, blushing. "Did you know that he got his criminal justice degree at night school, while he was working as a patrol officer? Not many teen dads can pull it together like he did. He stepped up when Mom wanted to go to night school as well."

"It was the least I could do to make it up to her," he said softly. He looked at Rose's almost empty wine glass. "Let me get you a refill. I'll be right back."

He took her glass and went over to where the wine was. "Before I say anything out of turn, does your dad know you and Joaquin are a couple?" I asked.

A look of panic swept over Rose's face. So, the answer was no. "Please, don't say anything to him," she whispered. "We've been dating for a couple of months and Dad's pretty protective of me. Joaquin is amazing and I know he looks up to my dad a lot. He wouldn't do anything to hurt me, knowing how it would affect my dad as well."

"I won't but maybe don't do your grocery shopping in the neighbourhood," I replied. "That's where I saw you."

Bucky returned with the full glass of wine. When he asked what Rose and I were talking about I made something up. He looked at me strangely as if he knew I was lying but he didn't press it. For the rest of the evening, he proved to be pretty good company with a dry sense of humour and a strong streak of feminism that was quite attractive. Before I left, he asked for my cell phone. I contemplated his request.

"Jane, I meant what I said," he stated, his hand still out. I gave it to him, after unlocking it and watching as he entered his contact information. "Friends. Call me anytime. I heard you went to the green market in Prospect Park. I love that market and would be a good Sherpa to carry your purchases home. I even have one of those old lady carts."

I laughed. It was as if he was reading my mind. "Alright, give me your phone," I said. He handed it to me, and I put my contact information in. "I need to buy a new bookcase as the one I have doesn't fit in the space. Do you think you can help me buy one and assemble it?"

"Now we're talking," he smiled. "IKEA?" I nodded. "I'll pick you up at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning. We can have Swedish meatballs at the IKEA cafeteria for lunch. Love those things."

The following morning, I was ready to go at quarter to 11. He buzzed my door at five to the hour and I let him in. At first, I was going to tell him I would be down but for some reason I thought it important that he come up.

"Hey," he said, stepping inside, holding a tape measure. "I thought maybe you wanted to measure the space for your bookcase, so you knew the dimensions before we went over."

"I wouldn't have thought of that," I replied, then moved over to the space on the wall. "You want to do the honours while I write the measurements down?"

He extended the tape and measured the space then looked around the apartment. "Where's the other bookcase? You need to sell it or something?"

"I dragged it into my bedroom," I replied, opening the bedroom door and pointing to it. "Not sure I want it there but that was the only space that fit."

He stayed in the doorway of my bedroom, looking at it from across the way. "Yeah, it is kind of big. You could list it online to sell or I could ask around the precinct and see if anyone needed a big bookcase. Do you have that many books?"

"Yeah, I have quite a few," I replied. "I read. With the built-ins here I don't need one that big."

With a nod and a quick smile, he stepped back, and we left. His truck was parked down the block and he opened the passenger side door for me, like a gentleman. He did the same in the IKEA parking lot, opening the door for me. When we got inside the store, we went looking through the living room and storage displays, checking the widths, as that would be the deciding factor. I decided on the Lommarp bookcase. At 25.5 inches wide and 78 inches tall it was the best fit and it had some design features that made it look a bit more stylish. There were only two colours, a dark blue-green and a light beige.

"I would personally go for the blue green," said Bucky, "but then I like darker colours. Your apartment is pretty light and airy so the beige would probably fit better in that."

I agreed and we wrote down the location of the boxed packages in the warehouse below. As we walked through the remainder of the showroom we stopped and looked at a few things together and he suggested I get some throw cushions to soften up my living room.

"It would help for movie nights," he said. "Maybe a matching blanket to snuggle under during the scary movies."

"I'm not a scary movie person," I replied, "but I do like the idea of cushions and a blanket."

We put some in the big shopping bag and went to the cafeteria, leaving my potential purchases on a hook outside. I admitted to Bucky that I had never had the Swedish meatball meal and his eyes twinkled.

"This is the best value meal going," he declared. "I come here at least once a month for it. I'm a simple guy at heart and this just hits me right."

After we got our plates and a couple of cups of coffee Bucky carried the tray to an open table and we sat near the window. It wasn't bad, as far as mass produced food goes. For 5 there really wasn't anything better. After the first few bites were in silence he stopped chewing and looked at me with something between amusement and resignation.

"I know, it's not top of the line, but it's simple, filling and you can get the meatballs in the frozen food section beside the exit. I like having them for days when I'm too tired to cook a full meal. I just bake a potato, make up a package of gravy and have some of these. It's kind of my comfort meal, like tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches."

"I can understand that," I replied. "They're not bad. When my parents travel outside the country they often stop at an IKEA to eat a couple of meals. It's familiar, cheap and they know the quality will be there. That or Costco."

"Don't get me started on Costco," he laughed. "Those hotdogs are addictive."

We ate some more and talked about mundane things. I decided to address the elephant in the room.

"You want to know about my marriage?" I asked.

"Only if you want to talk about it," he replied. "Was he always that way ... violent?"

I shook my head. "No, we were in love once. I thought he was an asshole when I first met him; condescending prick that he could be. But he had a softer side that came out and I fell in love with that. First few years were good. We were both executives at the company, we travelled, lived a good life. Then it began to unravel."

I told Bucky about John beginning to feel like he would never attain the position in the company he wanted as Ben stayed on, wanting to make the company more socially conscious and John wanting to make it more profitable. My ex-husband began to drink more, started to use cocaine to feel stronger and that graduated to more risky behaviour as he cheated on me while doing a deep dive into the wild lifestyle. There was a crease that appeared in Bucky's forehead between his eyes as he concentrated on my revelations.

"He put himself into a corner by the sound of it," he commented.

"He did," I agreed. "We had a government contract for a software monitoring system that could detect hacking attempts from foreign bots. It was a good product and it worked, until it suddenly didn't. Ben brought in some white hats from outside the company."

"White hats?" asked Bucky.

"Hackers hired to test a company's security," I said. "They found evidence that our code had been hacked which should have been impossible." I took a deep breath. "It led to me because it was descended from a hack I developed when I was a teenage gamer." Bucky's eyes grew wide. "I wasn't a black hat, an illegal hacker. It was something that a lot of us in the gaming community did when we were teenagers to bypass paywalls so we could play for free. I shared it freely among the hacking community when I was 17, and I also showed John during a drunken evening after too much wine. Apparently he sold the source code to an unknown agent for a couple of million dollars and they added their own features to it. The money was found in an offshore account that was traced back to him after I turned him in, and told them everything that I had showed him. Ben knew about my hacking past and he supported me, hired me a lawyer so that I wouldn't get railroaded into a conviction."

"Something went wrong," stated Bucky. "It put you in danger."

I nodded as I breathed out audibly. "John got bail and showed up at the workplace, made death threats against Ben and me. Security hustled him out and he was taken back into custody. Claimed he was in withdrawal from all the drugs and that made him paranoid. My lawyer filed a restraining order against him to keep him away from me and Ben. Officially he honoured it, but two men tried to run me off Mulholland Drive. They succeeded in sending me over and I was lucky to get out after the car burst into flames at the bottom. John had an alibi, but we all knew he was behind it. I filed for divorce, took my mother's maiden name for my last name and came to New York to start over. I'll go back when it finally goes to trial but ..."

"But until then you're looking over your shoulder," he finished the sentence for me. "I knew the basic story about the attempt on your life and the espionage charge, but I didn't know the details in between. You know I have your back, right?"

I nodded. "Steve said the same. Thanks. I can't even think of being open to dating, not while this is over my head."

"But friends is okay. I can do friends and I think you need that more than anything."

That earnest look was on Bucky's face again and I had to admit it made me feel good that this man who was a stranger until the night before, was willing to offer his protection. As long as I could consider him as just a friend, I would be okay because the possibility of him becoming more was real and that was something that emotionally I just wasn't sure I was ready for. At least, that's what I convinced myself.