Chapter 2

Saturday morning rolled in like any other day in the city. Tris, done with her morning jog, was huffing her way back to her apartment building. The pavement seemed oddly sympathetic to her sneakers' rhythmic pounding, as if it knew she needed a breather from the mess her week had been.

Being a lawyer who cared about pro bono cases, Tris had her ideals firmly planted. But the world around her was turning all corporate, even in her own practice, and that was a bitter pill to swallow. She had left her previous gig to escape this, but here it was again, knocking at her door.

The jog was a temporary escape, a time to unknot her thoughts, but as she pushed open the glass door to her building's lobby, a new problem popped up. A bunch of random moving boxes had staged a coup against the elevator. Tris' eyebrows frowned in irritation; this scene was a lousy cherry on top of her chaotic week. She was wondering were Victor was, Victor was the concierge of the building, he was friendly but always had this nervous manner. She did a quick look around the lobby but couldn't find Victor anywhere.

She marched up to the blockade with a determined breath. And guess what? Other folks were irked too, mainly the old residents. They shot Tris sympathetic looks as if they were all members of an "elevator sanity" club.

"All this mess for real?" Tris muttered, her exasperation bubbling. "He's been holding the elevator now for over 30 minutes " Rose one of the elderly residents exclaimed.

This guy turned, annoyance swimming in his eyes. Bingo, it was the same dude from the supermarket chicken heist. His blue eyes – those same captivating blues – met hers again. She wondered if he recognized her too.

Tris threw her arms in the air, her irritation unfurling. "Look, buddy, there's a flipping storage elevator right there," she snapped, indicating the pretty obvious.

He grunted, a mix of being fed up and resigned. "And who made you the queen of elevator law?"

Tris wasn't having it. She shot back, fists on her hips. "I'm not alone in this; there are grannies and grandpas living here too. This elevator is for normal, everyday stuff. Moving stuff? That's what the other elevator's for."

As the guy begrudgingly started shifting the boxes, Tris's irritation mingled with a sense of curiosity. The memory of their supermarket encounter brushed against the present as she observed him. His aura seemed cloaked in solitude, as though he was accustomed to keeping people at bay.

Unexpectedly, another figure emerged from the shadows of cardboard chaos – a burly man whose presence demanded attention. Tris's initial irritation shifted to intrigue as she observed him, his amusement only thinly veiling an undercurrent of anxiety. Her gaze caught his, and for a fleeting moment, she glimpsed a complexity she couldn't quite decipher.

With a resigned sigh, Tris let the matter go. She wasn't about to dive into neighborly confrontations, not in her own building. As the boxes grudgingly yielded, she shot one last look at the man who had incited this elevator mess. The intensity of his blue eyes held her for a heartbeat before the storage elevator doors snapped shut, cocooning her in a moment of solitude and a surge of curiosity.

Feeling triumphant, Tris stepped back and opted to go for the stairs, to walk off the frustrations that this guy was giving her, she hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with him so much. After finally conquering 6 pairs of stair she cursed the chicken thief and regretted taking the stairs, she was ready to take a long bath and considered having a nap instead of going out shopping with her friend Christina.

But then came a twist in the plot. As Tris opened the door for her floor, there he was, the guy. Not just on her floor, but opposite her apartment door. Boxes galore. Yup, the universe wanted them to be neighbours or something.

"Are you following me or something?" The question was outrageous, catching Tris off guard.

Her eyes blazed with anger at the audacity of his comment. "Following you? Seriously? I live here too, you know. And I'm pretty sure I have better things to do than track your movements," she retorted, her words laced with sarcasm.

He raised an eyebrow, seemingly unimpressed by her response. "Just making sure."

Tris rolled her eyes, her annoyance now mingling with disbelief. "Trust me, you're not that interesting."

With a frustrated sigh, Tris started walking down the hallway in the direction of this handsome jerk, her mind a swirl of emotions and unanswered questions. The unexpected clash had left her with a strange mix of irritation and intrigue, a puzzle she couldn't quite solve. He kept his eyes on her, as if he was unsure what she was going to do.

As she approached her apartment door, she noticed that the commotion had shifted slightly. The boxes that once blocked the elevator now seemed to be in her way, blocking her own front door. Irritation flared within her once again.

"Hey, could you move these boxes?" Tris's voice was pointed, her frustration clear. "They're blocking my front door."

The man, seemingly caught off guard, glanced at her and then followed her gaze to her apartment door. Recognition flickered in his eyes, surprise mingling with something she couldn't quite decipher.

Wordlessly, he began to shift the boxes, revealing her apartment door. Tris's annoyance wavered for a moment, replaced by a mixture of surprise and a dash of curiosity. She watched as he cleared the path, her thoughts spinning with the realization that they were neighbors, living just opposite each other.

As the boxes were moved, Tris's gaze met his once more, and a new layer of understanding seemed to pass between them. Whatever tension had lingered between them in the lobby now shifted, evolving into something else entirely. With a nod of thanks, Tris entered her apartment, and her loyal Bernese Mountain Dog, Bailey, was quick to greet her with his wagging tail and warm eyes. Bailey had always been a source of comfort for Tris, his presence grounding her even in the most uncertain of moments.

As she closed the door behind her, her thoughts remained fixed on the enigmatic man across the hall. The encounter had taken an unexpected turn, revealing a connection that neither of them could have foreseen. And as Tris looked out her window at the city beyond, she couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the beginning of something both mysterious and intriguing.