Work Text:
Hey Mister by Eloise inspired this.
Penelope Featherington is in love, with Mr.14B.
It started over a year ago, on the first day she moved to her current apartment.
Last year was a big year for her, her novel sold well, which means she could finally move out from her childhood bedroom and move in to the apartment of her dreams at the heart of the city. She could finally admit to her mother that she is a writer. She could finally live alone and savor her youth (without her mother’s barbs). And maybe, just maybe, she could finally fall in love with someone.
And she did.
She fell for him instantly, the moment she laid her eyes on him.
She is not usually like this. She is not the type to fall in love in a struck of lightning.
Yet she did.
She met him on her first day of moving in. She remembered all the details, she would replay the moment over and over again at the back of her mind.
She was standing in the narrow corridor, holding the door for the moving men that was carrying her stuff into her new apartment. She noticed a huge hunk of a man was standing behind her moving men.
He was wearing a beige cargo shorts and a gray sleeveless shirt, carrying a huge backpack on his back. His hair was unruly, a few stubbles on his chin. He looked confused at first, his brows furrowed, his eyes fixed on the floor and he shook his head side to side.
Then he looked up as if he remembered something.
And they locked eyes for the first time.
He was quite tan, tall, and has the most piercing green eyes she had ever seen.
When the moving men was out of his way, he was standing in front of her, putting a smile that could make her knees weak.
“Hi, I’m Colin, 14B, you must be new?”
“Yes, I’m Penelope, 14A. Nice to meet you Colin 14B.” She said shyly.
He chuckled, and she was pretty sure her heart skipped a beat. “Well, see you around, Pen of 14A.” Then he disappeared to his apartment, right next to hers.
Penelope lives for the moments they share.
The anticipation she feels every time she walks out her door, hoping he would walk out too.
The stolen glances and chaste friendly smiles in the corridor,
The rushing of heartbeat when the elevator is too full and they stood incredibly close to each other.
The food he would bring over when he returned from his travels.
She doesn’t even know his last name.
He’s just Colin, her next door neighbor who travels a lot.
He doesn’t tell her his last name, and she thinks its rude to ask. Even though she is fighting every fiber of her being not to ask. She doesn’t want to seem too eager, she still has her pride.
She spent a lot of time scrolling through social media looking for him amongst thousands of Colins in town. To no avail of course.
She is exasperatedly in love with him, and she doesn’t even know why. It is in her bones, as if she just knows. As if loving him is engrained in her nature. As if loving him is her fate.
There are too many questions that her rational mind throws at her.
Why does she love him? Does she need a reason?
Is it really love? Is it just infatuation?
And ever since the very first day, her heart answered all the same,
She is not sure. And to be quite honest she does not care.