The Finn Weber Story, part one - Shabby Chic (Intro)

Intro

Shabby Chic

Sunday before noon in a nice suburb of Oslo, weather - bright and sunny, almost too warm for May. Me - sitting my brother's house, willing to enjoy my spare time.

I grabbed a book and opened the kitchen window, then placed myself on the desk in front of the window, legs crossed, holding my nose into the smooth wind that was going.

I recognized some jazzy music playing somewhere and bent forward to look for the source.

It obviously came from the driveway of the little yellow house to my left. The owners had changed several times during the years and I hadn't seen anyone there since I had arrived. Actually I didn't even know how many people were living there at the moment.

Presently a man was working in the driveway. I decided to watch him for a while. So I turned, leaned my back on the opposite window frame and got comfortable on the desk.

The unknown neighbour obviously seemed to be a rather attractive man!

Sporty but not packed, with tan skin and black curls he almost could be south European or maybe Turkish or something like that.

With a seeming pleasure he brushed down old paint from a dresser or a commode. Apparently he had a weak spot for shabby chic style of furniture.

Ok, fine with me! Fits with the house he was living in.

After a few minutes his music went down, so I was wondering if I could entertain us with playing some stuff myself. I bent down to the CD player that was standing in front of my feet on the desk to check out what my brother had to offer. Guns'n Roses! What the...! Hadn't heard them in ages! But why not. I switched it on and turned up the volume.

The nice young man in the driveway turned in my direction and raised his hand for greeting.

"Hei! I knew it would pay off to work here instead of the backyard to get to know some neighbours!" he called in plain Norwegian. So no Turk, or at least one that hadn't met his relatives in a while... "Nice choice of music!" he added.

I swung my legs out the window and jumped down on my sister-in-law's beloved daisies.

Slowly I strolled over to him.

"Hei! Watcha doing?" I asked stupidly.

"Well, I'm trying to make this dresser a bit more pretty. Wanna join?" he answered with an inviting gesture.

Ok, this was the perfect excuse to stay and learn more about my new handsome neighbour without standing around awkwardly, doing nothing!

He wasn't as young anymore as I had thought first - in his thirties, maybe ten years older than me. But now he was giving me a very bright boy-ish smile, showing the most perfect white teeth I had ever seen.

"Sure!" I replied, smiling back "Could be fun!"

"Soooo..." he started "Maybe you could work on this!"

He took one of the drawers and pushed it over the top of the dresser to me.

As he leaned forward to do so, I could not help but admire his hair. Lots and lots of black curls and although his head was a complete mess from working, they still looked as if someone had painted them - all shiny and fluffy! I felt a certain urge to check how it would feel to touch them, but I fought it.