DISCOVERING DREW

CHAPTER 6

"He calls you Lukie, Do you approve of that?" I said smiling as soon as I came down from the stairs and met with Luca.

"Absolutely not. But I don't really have a choice. I just hope he's the only one that will ever call me that horrible nickname. Oh God! If I don't need this job,I would have cursed his face out. Lukie? Can you imagine?! As if I am some child! So embarrassing". Luca cried.

I smiled apologetically at him "But it's not like you are that old. You look very young to me".

Luca frowned in a funny way to show me how annoyed he was at what I said but he looked like a very cute bunny. This boy is so fine.

"Take that back, Drew. I am 24!!! Not even close to a child at all" He was practically sulking now.

"Alright Luca. I am sorry,"I said laughing", I will address you as sir starting from today" I was hollering and almost dying of laughter now. Gosh,it'd been a while I had laughed this much with someone that isn't Dani or Dante and it felt so nice.

"Anyways though,Fat Tony is kinda hot hot. I mean you said Fat Tony and I was imagining some ugly fat creature but he kinda fine fine."

Luca looked at me and smiled,"Yes he is hot for real and I think he's single too cause I haven't seen him with anybody. But he's always in his office brooding and working so I doubt anybody would like him that much. He just screams red flags. But there's this other one man that always comes to visit him regularly. Don't worry,since you are starting work very soon,you'd see all this. Now this other man is a hot piece of ass,infact,don't judge me,I have this massive crush on him. He's not like Fat Tony who looks like he's ready to murder anybody at time. He looks so dreamy and..."

Luca practically went on and on describing this man I hadn't seen and all I could do was just stay there and watch him talk. I knew I was the quiet type and I always appreciated when people talked to me,I mean only people I actually liked though and not some randoms,but watching Luca go on and on about this guy he had a crush on,it appeared so funny. It reminded me how Dante always looked when describing his girlfriend. With the way Luca looks,he should've been the person who people had crushes on but I don't think he even thought himself attractive to that extent. He kept on gushing about this man like a school boy who literally was in love for the first time in his life.

"Oh my God! This is so embarrassing" Luca exclaimed, looking very red and thoroughly embarrassed.

"Look at me going on and on like a school girl fangirling over some high school jock. Please don't mind me,I am not normally like this. I promise you,I am much more well-behaved and matured.."

"Are you sure? Lukie?" I said looking him up and down, squeezing my eyebrows mischievously and waiting for him to start throwing tantrums. I didn't know the kind of bond I had formed already with this boy,just merely hours of meeting him. It's like we were literal soul mates.

His face darkened immediately because I called him 'Lukie' and he was almost at the verge of tears so he said in a very small teary voice "Please don't call me that,ever again.."

I laughed a little and said," Alright Luca,I won't. I promise".

Luca was just literally too sweet for this world. A whole bunch of happiness. I wondered whether he would have a tough side. I'd definitely would want to see that side of him one day.

"Luca,I think I have to get going. Apparently I have to begin work tomorrow. I can't start today though. I still have loose ends to tie but tomorrow, I'll start properly. Fat Tony said you'd put me through bartending 101 and I'd be appreciate that. I don't know nothing about bartending"

"Alright boo. Anything for you. We could exchange numbers though. As colleagues of course. If It's okay by you".

We exchanged contacts,I bade him farewell and left the club. Heading towards my car to drive back home, that's when I saw him. My neighbour or should I say blue eyes. He packed his car a little down the street and entered the club I just came out from. I couldn't make out his face clearly but it was as if I had mastered his body structure that I immediately knew it was him.

I suddenly felt the strong urge to enter the club and see what he was doing there. Or maybe I should dial Luca's number and have Luca spy on him for me. But that make me look like a stalker,I thought. I mean,Luca would start to question me on why I wanted to stalk the man and I'd definitely have no reasonable answer to give Luca other than his blue eyes was mesmerising and that sounded so stupid.

So I did nothing but sit idly in my car with my mind racing and my thoughts all scattered. I had so many questions to ask myself. Like why was I extra curious about this man? Was it nostalgia? Did I know him before? Had we met before? I mean if I'd met someone that was that attractive,I'd definitely would have remembered.

Or maybe I was attracted to him and all these reactions was because of that attraction. I paused at this.

Even as I said that in my mind,it sounded really weird and out of the ordinary to me. I had never been attracted to men,ever.( Or women much,if I were being honest). I mean I thought some men were hot and I could acknowledge the ones that were good-looking but I never ever really been attracted to any man,no matter how physically attractive they were so why was my heart beating faster whenever this particular man is involved? So if it's not attraction to the man,then what was it?

Whatever the case maybe,I didn't like what was happening. I always liked when things remained stable in my life. I loved routine and I never ever step out of my comfort zone so this emotions and reactions weren't something I felt was welcomed and I had to find a way to get rid of it as fast as I could and for good and then move on with my life.

But what exactly should I do? The only thing I thought would work in this situation was trying to get to know this man. Maybe knock on his door and try to get acquainted with him. He was my neighbour after all. Maybe once I had talked to him a few times,this whole thinking of him like a mystery man would fade away and I will start seeing him as every normal person on earth.

So I decided that when I get home,I would go over to his house and get familiar with him.

I was about to ignite the engine of my car and drive away when I saw him walk out of the club.

He came out with my new boss 'Fat Tony' and they both seemed like they were deep in a very important conversation. Fat Tony was saying something,sounding like he was very frustrated and at the same time, trying to maintain his cool whereas Blue eyes was just calm and listening fervently to Fat Tony. I noticed a lot that blue eyes looked like he was a good listener. He neither interrupted,nor did he try to argue with Fat Tony. He literally was calm whereas Fat Tony looked like he was almost about to burst with whatever explanation he was giving to Blue eyes.

They talked for a while and seemed to agree on something and then,just when Fat Tony was about to turn back and enter the club,Blue eyes glanced towards my direction.

Thankfully this time I didn't freeze like a deer caught in the headlight. I actually ducked under my steering wheel. It knew it was the most childish and the most unbelievable thing I could ever do in my life but I did it. Him catching me again,for the third time, watching him like I was some crazy stalker,was not something I would want a neighbour of mine to think of me. So I had to do something completely childish inorder to save the already sullied impression i believed he now had of me.

I waited it out for some minutes before I came up again and thankfully,they were no longer there. I released a sigh of relief. Imagine how extremely embarrassing it would have been if he caught me a third time. I didn't even want to think in that direction so I ignited my engine and immediately drove back home.

---

I got home,took the groceries inside and put it into the refrigerator. I had to make my meals so I set out to do so. I was glad I had cooking to do because it was actually indeed a stress reliever for me, after having spent an entire day of emotional rollercoasters.

I ended up making my favourite food. I made up my mind to package some and take it to the neighbour,Mr Blue eyes. I was determined to get blue eyes off my mind and no better way to do that than actually getting to know the person in question.

I took my bath,served myself some portion of the food and packaged the rest. I sat down to eat very quietly, brought out my phone from my pocket and texted Luca, thanking him for everything. Luca didn't respond immediately and I was kind of grateful for that. I wasn't in the mood to have any conversations through texts. I was what majority of people called 'a very dry-texter'. I thought that was one of the main reasons I was very much single at this point. The last girl that walked up to me once when I went to the park with Dani and Dante,to tell me I was cute and she wanted to have my number. I gave it to her,though against my will but very much coerced by Dante,I did regret giving it to her. She had to block me because I didn't reply her texts regularly and to her I was extremely boring.

I finished eating and cleared my plates and washed them. I wasn't at home with my family anymore and there was no way I could leave the dirty plates and anybody would wash them for me. If I left the plates dirty the previous day,I would wake up to them dirty so I had to make sure I washed the plates. I didn't want to attract bugs and cockroaches. I hated those things more than I hated the word 'capitalism' .

I was about to take the packaged food to the neighbour when I remembered I promised I would call Dani at the end of the day to give her the details of how my job hunt went. I knew she would definitely be awaiting my call and if I put off calling her today,she wouldn't be happy about that. But I wanted to give blue eyes this food and be done with it. So I decided to give the food first to blue eyes. Dani could wait. After giving him the food and becoming familiar with him,I will put this whole nonsense behind me and move on with my life.

So I put on my hoodie and wore my slippers and stepped out of the house,carrying the food in my hand. The distance from my house to his house was the shortest distance you could ever think of,just a space between the two houses but it seemed as if I had walked miles and miles cause my heart was racing so fast and I was jittery. I still didn't have any explanation for my emotions towards this man and I hoped that every mystery would be solved by this encounter before I go apeshit with all these unwanted emotions.

I got to his front door,which seemed like it took ages,and mustered the courage to knock on the door.

I didn't get any answer. Nothing. Not even a single sound.

I knocked again and waited. Yet nothing.

I became a little bit scared. Was he sleeping? Or worse still, trying to ignore my knocking. I knew he was inside his house because his car was packed right outside his front yard and he had his crocs in front of his house,on the footmat so I was almost sure he was home. And that meant he probably would see me leaving if he ignored me completely and it would be so embarrassing, carrying food back and forth from my house to his so I was more than determined not to leave that front porch till he appeared so I knocked again and waited for his response.