Cameron

“Hold the door?”

I looked back at the tall man in a leather jacket that was talking to me in such a gruff voice. He had his hands full, but the problem was that I didn’t know who he was. The door was usually locked for safety reasons and I didn’t want to be the one to let him in.

“I’m sorry Sir, but if you don’t live here, I can’t let you in.”

“I am moving in today, so hold the door.”

He gestured to all of the items in his hands and there was a moment that I thought it would be best if I did let him in. But there was another side of me that was sure that he didn’t live here. I had lived in the building for many years and I would have remembered a man like him. He was hard to forget with his tattoos and dark brown eyes.

“I’m sorry, but you should have a key then. I can’t let you in, but I will give you a number to call the manager if you want.”

He looked at me as if I was a little crazy and I ignored the look that he gave me. I closed the door behind me and there was a bit of noise when I did so. I looked back over my shoulder once to catch his dark gaze. If I would have been wax, I would have melted right then and there from the stare. It was clear that he wasn’t the least bit happy with me. The man’s dark brown eyes bore into me until it was hard for me to speak, let alone go up the stairs to my own apartment. What if he was telling the truth? There was no way that we were going to be friends or anything short of enemies.

I tried not to think about it again as I opened the door to my apartment. The city wasn’t as safe as it had been and if I was wrong, there was no telling what could happen. Besides, he looked a little rough for this neighborhood. Whoever the man was, he didn’t look like he belonged. It was men like him that I tried to stay away from. That was why I lived in a place that had better security than my last place and I paid a premium in rent.

Forgetting about the man from the door, I took a shower and got ready to go out for the evening. Carol had invited me to drinks and it had been one of those weeks that I needed one. It wasn’t long before I was making my way back down the stairs and I stopped short when I saw the landlord and the rude man from before. I cringed inside. Of course he was telling the truth.

“Cameron. How are you doing?”

I smiled at the old man and told him that I was fine. I tried my best to ignore the look that I was getting from the dark-haired man standing next to him. It was obvious that he wasn’t very happy with me and I didn’t blame him now. In my defense, I didn’t really know who he was. He could have been anyone.

“I wanted to introduce you to the new complex manager Joel. You know that I am getting long in the tooth, so I finally hired someone that will be taking care of everything for me.”

It was getting worse by the minute and all I wanted to do was scream a little inside. It was my luck that he was the new manager. That meant that it was going to be impossible to get anything fixed, not when I hadn’t let him in.

“Nice to meet you Joel.”

I moved to shake his hand and there was a moment that I thought he wouldn’t take it. Mr. Johnson was standing right there though and must not have known about us meeting earlier.

“We have already met Ron. This is the one that wouldn’t let me in earlier and made me call you down here.”

Mr. Johnson chuckled and the grip on my hand was a bit tighter. I pulled away after a moment and bid them both a goodbye. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I was more than a little embarrassed and I knew then that I wasn’t going to be calling for anything unless it was an emergency.

“Oh, Cameron? When do you want Joel to come up and take a look at that air conditioner of yours?”

I had forgotten about it and I turned around slowly. “You know, it is working better now. I wouldn’t even worry about it.”

“Now come on. You have been telling me about it for a month. I had meant to come over, but my old knees have been acting up. That’s part of the reason that I had to hire my nephew, Joel.”

“Really, don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure? It is going to be hot next week.”

I hadn’t seen the forecast, but in New Orleans in the middle of July was always hot. I was just going to have to deal with it. I told him that I was sure and retreated into the muggy air outside before he could say anything else. Why hadn’t I just let him in? There were so many apartments in the building. It wasn’t like I would have known everyone. It was a mistake that I was going to have to pay for by sweating this summer with no air conditioner.

Looking back before I moved down the sidewalk, Joel was looking after me and I thought to myself how much of a shame it was that earlier had happened. I was more than a little attracted to the man, even when he was giving me a dirty look and now it would amount to nothing. He wasn’t my type, not by a long shot, but a guy like Joel could make a woman forget for a little while that fact.

Pushing it from my mind, I tried to focus on the night and called Carol to see where she was. She was supposed to be here already and since I now had an enemy at the door, I decided to have her meet me away from the apartment. Walking to the bistro, I waited a few minutes before I saw her silver car pull up and I took her out a drink that I knew she liked. There was no better way to start the night of dancing, then with a White Russian to go.

“Cameron, what is going on with you? Why are we meeting here?”

I told her about the man at the door and the new manager. I was frustrated and I knew by the look on her face that I was blowing it out of proportion. I wasn’t sure why, maybe it was the way he looked at me, but I knew that it was going to be a problem.

“So it’s the landlord’s nephew?”

“Yeah, just my luck.”

“Well was he cute?”

It wasn’t something that I was really thinking about. Joel was cute, really cute in a bad boy sort of way. But that wasn’t the point. Carol was a little man crazy, so I figured that she would want to know about him for that reason.

“I guess he is, if you like that biker sort of look. He is just not my type.”

As we drove to the club, I sipped on the drink and thought about Joel. He was cute, but I knew that it was going to be trouble. I was already thinking about the heat and what I was going to do about the air conditioner. I could do a lot of things, but fixing mechanical things was not one of them. I was just going to have to find someone else to help me or replace the whole unit.

“Man, you are quiet. He must be a little more than cute.”

I looked over at Carol and shook my head. “I wasn’t even thinking about him. I was just, I don’t know.” I wasn’t a good liar, so I stopped while I was ahead.

“Well stop thinking about it or whatever it is that is making you frown. You know that is just going to give you wrinkles.”

She was right and I wasn’t sure why I was so worried about him. I was out to have fun and it was something that I needed. “You’re right. I guess he just put me in a bad mood.”

“Well drink some more of that and we will be there in a minute. There isn’t anything that some liquor and a little dancing will solve.”

I knew she was right and I tried to do what she said, pushing the man from my mind and not thinking about him anymore. I wasn’t going to think about the dark-eyed man that was now thrust into my life. I was going to focus on the drink and the night ahead of us.