Captivated

Chapter Five - Updated

“Thanks” I mumbled stepping out of the town car onto the sidewalk outside my apartment building. The tower stood tall probably close to 12 floors and glistened under the late night moon. It was in the down-town area, not far from the bookstore or my office; everything I needed was all within reach, not far away at all. Nolan’s driver smiled at me with a small wave before he left pulling away from the curb leaving me alone gazing up at the building. I sighed to myself, Nolan is sure to be pissed off about my outburst. It isn’t often that I get angry with someone, and the rarity of me becoming angry out of jealousy is even less. I generally have a large amount of control about myself and the fact that I could barely contain myself tonight is not a good sign. I shook my head softly and moved towards the doors to the building, carefully retrieving my entrance card and swiping it to gain access to the building. The lobby is a mixture of modern attire and old-school feelings with its new age furniture and lighting while it still maintained its original stone fireplace and flooring. I moved past all of the mail boxes, the fire place that was burning low and into the elevator, taking in the silence. The only sound is the echoing of my heels across the tilled floor as I moved. I pushed the button for my floor and waited for the elevator to move while assessing the damage of my hair. The braid was loose in some places and the flower Nolan had placed in it was falling out a little bit as my hair came loose, my make-up was slightly smudged and I looked tired.

The doors to the elevator beeped and then opened to a long hallway with clean, even carpeting and various doors all up the hall. With names and numbers placed on the outside of the apartments, kind of like what you would see if you were to walk down the halls of a retirement home. The placards are a good idea; they give the building a homier feel to it when you walk around to see all the names and numbers outside the rooms. I didn’t know if I would like it at first, but it grew on my after a while. I stopped outside my apartment and fished my keys out from their place in my purse.

“Annie?” I turned to see one of my neighbors coming out of their apartment with a hamper of laundry clearly heading down to the laundry room at the end of the hall. Rather than having just one laundry room they have a few spaced out throughout the building and our floor happens to be one of the floors that houses a laundry room.

“Hey” I smiled straitening and adjusting my purse over my shoulder.

“It’s so late” she exclaimed looking down at her watch while balancing the hamper on her hip. For the life of me, I could never remember her name. She’s a stout little woman in her late fifties with slightly greying hair, always happy and I’ve noticed over the years that she never sleeps, insomnia or something.

“Is it?”

“Yes dear, it’s almost one in the morning” she stated trying to get anything she could so that she could come and find out what was happening, she is that very nosy neighbor that you don’t have the heart to shove away.

“I didn’t even notice” I lied with a weak smile, I didn’t have the energy to deal will anyone else today. It had been long and id been up since around four or five am not to mention that everything that had transpired today was extremely trying on my semi-fragile psyche.

“Is everything okay dear?”

“Yes thank you, it’s just been a long work day for me”

“Do you always work in a dress” she asked.

“No, I had a charity event this evening that ran much later than I expected it too” I sighed idly wondering where the time had actually gone. The party didn’t start that late, at least it seemed like it didn’t but I suppose that the time could have flown. We had a few hours of socializing before we even got to the meal and then there was the time that was spent touring the gardens. I suppose that it could have been much later than I suspected that it was, it wasn’t like I was keeping track of the time while I was there.