My neighbour Rúben

Chapter 2

His name was Rúben. But not Rubén with the accent mark on the e, no. His name had it on the u. And I learnt about it by making a fool of myself. As usual.

I had been working for Lucy for a month, doing it more as a nanny than just a piano teacher. Each day I would pick Julia up from school, take her home, practice for a while, eat something, and play with her until Lucy was back. Some days I would even have dinner with her and put her to bed. It all depended on her mum's schedule.

We were eating some cookies to celebrate that Julia had received a medal at school for winning a race, when someone rang the bell.

"Who is it?" Julia asked.

"I don't know. We aren't expecting anyone and your mum isn't coming until dinner time" I said, getting up from my chair and walking towards the door. When I opened it, there he was. My Chris Evans. He was the last person I was expecting to see.

"Hello again" he said with a big smile.

"Hi" I muttered, already feeling my brain starting to shut down, my jaw slowly falling to the floor.

"Is Lucy home?"

"Rúben!" Julia screamed, jumping at his arms.

"Hello, Julia" he said, picking her up as if she weighed nothing. "What is that?"

"It is a medal! I won a race at school today."

"Congratulations! High five" he said, lifting a huge hand. Julia's next to it was tiny, but I even mine would have looked small. "Is your mum home?"

"Mami is still at work."

"Oh, I see. Is she your nanny?" he said, nodding towards me.

"She teaches me piano but also stays with me if mami has to work. She's my guardian angel."

"Lucky you" Ruben smiled. "I think I'm gonna need one too, because I forgot my keys. Again."

"Oh, silly Rúben" she giggled.

"Julia, I think you are saying his name wrong. Shouldn't it be Rubén with the accent on the e?" I asked, my brain deciding to work again. It had been too busy looking at that gorgeous man being all cute with her.

"That's on Spanish. I'm Portuguese."

"Oh." That's all I was able to say. Oh. I had tried to look intelligent like, look at me, I know languages. But I ended up making a fool of myself in front of him. Again.

"It's ok, don't worry. The same happened to Lucy the first time" he said with a charming smile. "Are you also from Spain?"

"What?" I said. My brain had frozen again after that smile, not being able to process anything else.

"I asked if you also are from Spain. Like Lucy."

Dear God. He must have thought I was an idiot after having to repeat things twice for me to get them.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. No." Too many no? Definitely. "I'm from here. Not from Manchester. From London. But from here. England."

"I figured. You don't have their accent." How was he able to tell, when I had only been able to properly say three words in front of him, still remains a mystery. "Anyway, do you think you could give me the spare key Lucy keeps for me? It's on that drawer over there" he said, putting Julia down.

"Sure" I replied, moving to pick it. "I guess it is this one? It has your name on it. And with the accent on the u."

"That's the one. I would have asked Roger for his copy, but he was busy."

"No problem" I said while handing him the key, our fingers slightly touching but being enough to make my cheeks feel very warm.

"I guess I'll be seeing you around if you are now Julia's teacher."

"Yep."

"I live on apartment A, so if you ever need anything..."

I think that my answer was a nod. Or something like that. My brain was, once again, too busy thinking about other things. Like about something I needed and that he could give me. While being naked. Both of us. On his bed. Or his sofa. Or even the floor, to be honest.

"See you around, neighbours."

"Bye!" Julia replied, closing the door. "Angel, are you ok?"

"Uh?"

"You look... Weird. Did you not like Rúben?"

"Oh, no. I did." I liked him very much, Julia. Very, very much. "I was just thinking about our cookies. Should we leave one for when your mum comes back from work?"

"Yes!" she said, running towards the kitchen while I just took a big breath, trying to forget about the thoughts going through my mind. And I managed to do it. Though only until I fell asleep that night, when I started having the most pornographic dreams of my life with the hot Portuguese neighbour. With Rúben.