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Jean vacuumed up the last of the dirt stuck in the carpet with a heavy sigh. Cleaning up after this mess was the last thing he wanted to do on his day off. He was never leaving that back door open ever again. Not after that fat menace of a cat jumped over the balcony divider and slunk into his apartment to eat his plants. No wonder the thing was fat.
A knock interrupted his mental rant. It had to be that neighbour of his, probably turning up to ask where his damned cat has disappeared to this time. It can’t be that hard to keep his damn cat indoors, can it?
Clearing his throat loudly, Jean opened the door with the most unimpressed scowl he could manage. Good luck to his neighbour trying to get out of this one. He can pay for the damage as far as Jean’s concerned.
“It’s about time you –” Jean began as angrily as he could make his breath, but immediately stopped when he found himself face to face with a tall man with sparkling eyes and a charming, nervous smile. The shrugging of the man’s shoulders and the way he bit his lip in that cute apologetic way made Jean wonder why he was so angry in the first place.
His neighbour peeked over Jean’s shoulder before he apologised, “I’m so so sorry. Copernicus just loves to wander and just eat and destroy anything he finds. I’ve been trying to stop him from getting out but–”
“Wait,” Jean interrupted, still struck by how handsome his next-door neighbour was. His shoulders were broad, filling out his casual t-shirt and making Jean look like a downright slob in his, though he had the larger frame. “You call your cat Copernicus?”
His neighbour laughed, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. His laugh was just as handsome as his smile. “Yeah… and that fat waddling ass kind of destroyed your… plants?”
Jean bit his lip himself, trying to bite down the large smile forming as his anger faded away. Maybe he should be thanking that cat. “He did make a mess of the place.” Minutes before Jean would have cursed under in breath, but now he calmly stepped aside to gesture at the vacuum cleaner in the middle of the carpet.
“Look, I know it’s not much,” the man gestured nervously with his hands and avoided looking at Jean’s face directly. “But I’d like to make it up to you? Please let me make up for it?”
Jean’s neighbour met his gaze, his handsome face just about weakening Jean’s knees. He could have just stared at those soft features and thanked him for the pleasure. “Uh, yeah, I guess so.” He had nothing to lose, and if his hopes paid off, everything to gain. “So… a date?”
“Y-yeah, that - that could… um… we could do that?” The neighbour laughed and smiled with his eyes closed. Jean didn’t know that real people actually smiled like that, wrinkling their gorgeous freckled noses like that. “Oh, I’m Marco by the way.” He gestured to his chest with an awkward slap. “Shall we say Friday? My place? I’ll cook.”
Jean reached out for the door’s handle to steady himself. “Yeah, yeah, that’s fine. Honestly, you don’t really need to do anything, really, but that’d be nice.” If Jean could slam the door shut so he could press his face against the door because of the embarrassment rising up his neck, he would have, but that’d be rude. “I’m Jean, Jean. Friday sounds great.”
They nodded polite nods of goodbye and Marco walked back to his apartment. Jean quietly and careful shut the door. It clicked shut after Jean sunk to his knees and pressed his head against the door. He whispered the only thing that came to mind, “What the actual fuck was that?”