Inches Apart

n e i g h b o r s # 2

Emily closed her front door behind her. As she walked down her small porch stairs, her phone buzzed, and she quickly extracted it from her purse. She looked down and saw she had received a comment on her blog. She quickly read it and typed a reply.

She was placing her phone back inside her purse when she collided into something, or, to be specific, someone. That someone reached out a hand and kept her from falling down. Emily looked at the person to apologize and say thank you, but she came face to face with her despised neighbor, Daniel.

She quickly took her hand out of his helping arm and turned to leave. She swiftly walked down the street without looking back at him. She hated him and didn't want to have to deal with him.

"Hey! Aren't you going to apologize for bumping into me and making me spill my coffee?"

Emily turned around and smirked as she thought of the perfect thing to say.

"Nope."

Daniel scowled at her reply, and Emily just smirked. Soon, she turned and walked away, leaving Daniel alone. He started to walk in the opposite direction to his office and dropped his empty coffee cup into a nearby trash can.

When he reached his office building, he went straight to his huge office and sat in his chair. He sighed and turned to look out of the floor-to-ceiling windows along his back wall. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, counting down until his secretary would burst into his office like usual.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One."

"Mr. Young! Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I tried to get here on time," his assistant gasped.

"Miss Thomas, you have said that since the first day. All I need to know is the schedule for the day."

"Well, you have a meeting with Mrs. Williamson today with one of her clients. That starts in a couple of hours. It's in the conference room."

"Alright. I'll get some work done, and then I'll have you come and get me ten minutes before the meeting. That's all for now, Miss Thomas."

"Yes, Sir."

Daniel waved her out of his office and got to work. A few minutes later, he got an email notification. He smiled as he opened the email.

"You finally found the time to get back to me. Let's see what you have to say."