You're His New Neighbor

One

"88 Poppy Walk...Hereford..." You muttered under your breath, looking over the directions your real estate agent had given you.

Setting up your new phone had become a chore after the eleven hour plane ride from America, leaving you jet lagged with a huge migraine.

It hadn't helped that it was snowing when you'd landed and all your coats and jackets were packed away in your suitcases that were lost by the flight and bound to be delivered to your new home tomorrow.

Your breath clouded around you in little puffs of air, your skin prickling painfully as you shuffled toward the dark parking lot.

Thankfully, you had your paperwork for the car you'd purchased over the phone in your carry on.

You hadn't had a chance to look into getting your British license yet, but the seller of the vehicle helped you look up the laws on driving in the UK as an American and it turned out you didn't need to worry about that quite yet.

The little Volkswagen was waiting for you just like you'd discussed with the seller and you reached under the wheel well to find the keys stuck right where he'd said.

You were thankful for his help, letting you pay in such a strange way to keep your money off the radar.

You threw a little extra in as a thank you for conducting the entire transaction like some spy movie when that couldn't be farther from the truth.

After hearing your story, both he and his wife had gotten you in contact with their friend who was a real estate agent in their area, who happened to have a home for sale that "needed a little love" as they'd said.

The agent worked with you and you made a deal to buy it blind for a measly twenty five thousand pounds.

In your 6 hour layover in Chicago, you'd managed to buy both a house and a car and make a few friends who promised to help you get the lay of the new land once you'd arrived.

The car started right away and you punched the address into the map on the phone you'd bought at Heathrow, preparing yourself for the two and a half hour drive.

It was still so early, the sun hadn't even breached the horizon yet. Your stomach growled, but you didn't want to risk trying to find something substantial, so petrol station snacks became your saving grace.

By the time you pulled into the park of your new home, the sun was barely peeking up over the horizon, casting a dim orange glow over everything.

A thin blanket of snow had fallen and it crunched softly as you stepped out of your car, taking a look at the place you now called home.

"Well this is even worse than I expected." You sighed before shaking your head and manually opening the garage door.

Turning to look around the neighborhood , you spotted a man standing in his drive across the street with a steaming mug of what looked to be coffee and his morning paper tucked under his arm.

You smiled and wave at him, then unpacked the few items you had from your car quickly, shivering almost violently from the cold.

Price watched the whole ordeal from across the way, the steam from his mug curling around his face as he squinted, trying to get a better look at the new arrival.

You had a look on your face like you'd just bitten into a sour lemon. He huffed a chuckle to himself, the puff of his breath visible in the cool air.

He gave you a week before you gave up just like everyone else who tried to take this house on.

A part of him felt bad; God knows he'd been in shitty situations with even shittier accommodation.

But this was a different ballgame. Civilian life had a way of dulling the edges of almost everything, and his first instinct wasn't to run over and help anymore; it was to watch and wait.