Steal My Girl

2.

CHAPTER TWO
WESLEY
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FIVE MONTHS LATER
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I crossed paths with Macy a few additional times at my new coffee stop, as well as once at a local grocery store, but never long enough to stop and spend quality time with her. It always ended up that one of us were in a rush for one reason or another.

I was out on my front patio grilling some steaks for myself and one of my neighbors who frequently stopped by for "bro time". He was fairly close in age and was actually a general contractor who would sometimes aid in building a few of the homes I had designed. With having something in common to converse about, we hit it off in no time.

I was living in an affordable housing complex at the time, not that I needed to take the inexpensive route. I figured there was nothing wrong with living there while I was still on my own, until I could build up a generous savings account in order to afford to build a dream house of my own. I'd been working on a layout for myself for several years, even well before I got into designing houses as a full time job. Of course my house design had been reworked multiple times as I improved over the years, but it generally kept a consistent "base" as I'd call it.

My focus briefly shifted from the steaks to a moving truck that pulled into the entrance of the housing complex. Tongs still in hand, towel draped over my right shoulder, my eyes trailed along as the moving truck made its way into the community parking lot. I lost sight of it after a bit, as the parking lot was off to the blind side of the building.

"Hey, someone's moving in!" I hollered to my neighbor, Vincent, or Vinny for short.

I had the front window propped open, leading to the living room where he sat watching a baseball game on the TV.

"Must be out of their minds to move in close to us!" He shouted back, laughing through his words.

I responded with an affirming chuckle, returning my focus to the steaks which needed to be flipped at that point.

Upon removing the steaks from the grill, loading them onto a platter, I caught glimpse of a figure coming around the corner of a building, presumably from the lot where the moving truck was parked. I cut off the propane to the grill, then did a sort of double-take towards the figure carrying a large box, headed my direction.

It was a female, but not just any female — it appeared to be Macy.

"Macy? What are you doing here?" I greeted her, as she was nearly approaching my front yard.

"Moving in!" She beamed, through that familiar bright smile, "You live here?"

I nodded my head, "Yes, I do. Where are you moving into?"

"Meet your new next door neighbor." She remarked, wiggling her brows up and down as she used her hip to motion toward the house she was stopped in front of, the one directly beside mine.

"Oh really now?"

I ran my fingers through my hair, combing a few strands out of my face. It was getting to be time for a haircut.

Macy simply nodded in response, still smiling ear to ear. She squinted to block out the sunlight that was hitting directly in her face. Her hair looked like strands of pure gold when the sun shined on it.

"Do you need help carrying anything?" I asked her.

I figured it would be polite of me to offer a helping hand. Maybe I could've had Vinny come out to help as well, if he could be convinced to step away from the baseball game.

"You look busy." She said, referring to the steaks I'd just taken off of the grill.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I could throw them in the oven to keep them warm. It shouldn't take long if you had another set of hands helping."

"I think we got it. Thank you, Wes. Enjoy your steak!"

Just as she said "we" a male figure came from around the corner, wheeling over multiple boxes on a dolly. My heart fell to the pit of my stomach, knowing there was a high likelihood he was her boyfriend. Mark is her only brother, and I, of course, was well aware of what he looked like.

I acted as if I was gathering up my steaks and my dirtied utensils to bring inside, but I intentionally stuck around for a bit, out of curiosity to determine her relationship to this man.

The man caught glimpse of me, and we locked eyes for a brief moment. His next move shattered my heart into pieces. He seemed to catch wind of the fact I had my eyes on Macy, so he took one hand off of the dolly for a moment to sling his arm around her shoulders. He then pressed a kiss to her forehead, seeming to hold eye contact with me the entire time, though I tried not to make it too obvious I was watching.

After the encounter, I gathered the remainder of what I needed to bring inside, and made my way through the front door. I forced a smile to greet Vinny with the steaks. I headed into the kitchen to drop the grilling utensils in the sink, then plated up the steaks with some side dishes I had already prepared for Vinny and I.

I handed one plate off to Vinny, who barely took his eyes off of the TV to grab it from me. Before I took a seat on the recliner, with my plate in hand, I pushed the window shut, in attempt to block out the possibility of having to hear Macy and her new boyfriend.

I wanted to be happy for her, and I tried to be, but of course it hurt knowing I missed my opportunity to be the one wrapping my arms around her, and planting kisses on her forehead. All because I was too afraid to ask for her number.

I had high expectations for this new boyfriend. I hoped that his romantic gesture wasn't just some facade he was putting on to get at me. I hoped he was good to her all of the time, the way I knew I could've been.

All I wanted was for Macy to be happy. She deserved it more than anyone I'd ever known.

"So who's the new neighbor girl I overheard you talking to?" Vinny finally spoke up, asking me in between bites.

"Oh, she's just the sister to one of my clients from almost a year ago." I brushed it off, shifting my focus to the TV in attempt to mask any emotion I may have had.

If not for my known distaste in watching televised sports, Vinny still would've been able to see right through my act. He knew me all too well by then.

"Didn't sound like just anyone to me." He used his fork to pick a sliver of steak out of his teeth.

"Yeah, well, seems she has a little boyfriend she's moving in with." I cut myself a piece of steak and stuffed it in my mouth, still avoiding eye contact with Vincent.

"What are you going to do about that, huh?" He asked, as if there were anything I could do about it.

"Nothing? I design homes not wreck them." I remarked, earning a chuckle from Vinny.

"Wesley, I've known you for quite some time now. In all this time, I've never seen you take interest in any female. If you have some kind of infatuation with that neighbor girl, she's gotta be something special to you. You're just gonna let that go?"

"What should I do then, Vinny?" I finally turned my head to make eye contact with him.

"Let her ride the relationship out until she figures out he isn't the one, but don't leave her sight. She'll realize who was always there with open arms and she'll come crawling."