Limoncello

Chapter 1

"Life is not beautiful because of the things we see or do. Life is beautiful because of the people we meet." ~ Simon Sinek

—

It is not polite to stare. Maeve knew that. It had been drilled into her for as long as she could remember. Her curiosity just always got the best of her. That day was no different.

As she was making her coffee that sunny Saturday morning, she noticed a large moving truck in the driveway right across the street. She gazed out the window as she pushed her clear rimmed glasses up the bridge of her nose and leaned against the kitchen counter. That house had been empty for at least a year. Someone was moving in. She was going to have new neighbors. A small smile formed on her face. Maybe she could make some new friends.

She continued to gaze out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of someone. A shrill beeping took her out of her staring contest with the truck and her head snapped towards the coffee maker. She made her cup before turning her attention back out the window. More vehicles had arrived at that point and the moving had begun.

The first thing she noticed was that there were four men that were not in the uniform that the hired moving company was in. Then she noticed them moving a multitude of instruments and amps into the garage while the moving company moved the furniture into the house.

She watched for the entire hour and a half it took for them to move everything into the house as she finished off the pot of coffee. As the moving truck pulled off and the four men stayed, all walking inside. Judging by the four mattresses she saw being carried into the house earlier, she figured that they all were going to be living there. Her curiosity was sated for the time being.

—

Maeve prided herself on being a good neighbor, despite her tendency to people watch. As she got ready for the day, she had decided to bake her famous lemon cookies to bring to her new neighbors. She picked the lemons from the tree in her backyard and got to work.

She packed them up nicely when they were done around midafternoon. As she cleaned up, the sound of heavy music coming from outside drew her back to her kitchen window. She grinned as she saw the four men in their garage and watched for a moment as they seemingly rehearsed a song. Her neighbors were a band.

She figured that now was as good a time as any to go introduce herself. Maybe she would get to hear some good music as well. Grabbing the cookies, she rushed to her door and swung it open before changing her pace and leisurely walking across the street. Now that she was able to hear the music better, she realized it was a lot heavier than what she would usually choose to listen to. However, she didn't mind it; the talent they had was obvious. Just as she got to their driveway, they finished up the song they were running.

She weaved through the cars that were in the driveway before stopping right in front of the band. She noticed as they all paused to look at her and suddenly felt very intimidated. She mustered up a meek smile anyway. "Hi there!" She began, "I'm Maeve. I live right across the street. I thought I'd bring these over to welcome you guys to the neighborhood." She held out the clear container filled neatly with cookies.

"Ah, so the girl that watches from the window has a name?" The frontman joked, holding a hand out for her to shake. "Noah."

Maeve's entire face felt hot at Noah's joke. They caught her staring. She shook his hand, "I'm really sorry about that. Just got curious."

As Noah chuckled, one of the others grabbed the container from her hands before speaking to her. "That's alright, Maeve. We got cookies out of it. I'm Nicholas, by the way."

Before she could reply, another walked over to her with his hand extended. "Nice to meet you, Maeve. I'm Jolly."

She shook his hand with a kind smile, "Lovely to meet you."