the doorman » a.i au

two; "i'm ashton, and you?"

“Hey, good morning to you too, K. Could I ask for a teeny weeny little favour?” Sara sheepishly said when I finally answered her call with a groan after the third time it rang.

“What is it?”

“Could you… take care of my place tonight? See, Brandon bought two concert tickets and he just told me about them like an hour ago and they cost a bomb so I really don’t-“

“I’ll do it. Not too much of a big deal,” I sighed, acquiescing. Although Sara makes a pretty big fuss over boys, she was very much committed to Brandon, her boyfriend – scratch that, soulmate – of four years. Besides, I did think that Sara needed a break from all the college work being dumped on us lately, although her ‘break’ would only last for a night. It was snowing out and I favoured nothing but the freedom to laze around in my bed all day but I did want my best friend to relax a little.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re literally the best. You do still have the spare keys to my apartment, right? Oh, there’s a whole list of chores you need to do, it's on the dining table. I’m so sorry I have to do this to you but you know how particular I am with cleanliness, and you also know how dirty my place could get after just a few hours. So, please? I’ll be staying at Brandon’s so see you tomorrow morning!” she hung up before I could protest against her wishes.

With another groan, I faceplanted myself with my pillow. Again, the things I do for her.

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Turns out, it wasn’t just snowing – it was fucking freezing and barely anything could be seen under the thick layer of snow. Thank god I’m already at Sara’s. I pulled the sleeves of my coat over my wrist as the cold air stung my bare skin. As I approached the vestibule, I caught sight of a familiar doorman and his pair of hazel eyes staring right back at me.

“Hey, it’s you again!” he beamed. I half-smiled and shrugged nonchalantly in response – not exactly due to the fact that he caught me on another less than pleasing day but really because I was freezing and dying to get warm.

As I walked out of the elevator and through Sara’s apartment level’s corridor, I dug into my pockets for the spare keys. And to my horror, I found nothing. No rustling of metals, no smooth and cold narrow surfaces. Nothing. Nada. Just the fluffy interior of my coat’s pocket.

I crossed my fingers and still hoped to hear the jingle of keys in my pocket as I made my way down the stairs, all the way back to the lobby where – surprise, surprise – the hazel-eyed doorman is.

“Sorry, there’s a snowstorm out there. You can’t go out until it subsides. Why don’t you take a-“

“What do you mean I can’t go out until the damn snowstorm subsides?” I barked, taking him aback. However, he redeemed his composed state within a blink of an eye and simply said, “Management’s orders.”

“Okay, look, my best friend Sara - you might know her as the girl who lives on the 6th floor – she’s away for a damn concert with her boyfriend and I’m supposed to take care of her place and carry out some fucking chores before she’s back tomorrow morning. And while, yes, I’m an idiot for leaving behind the keys, I really do need to go out there and back to my place to take them. And once I do get back here, you could tell me all about management’s orders. How does that sound to you?”

He stroked his chin and squinted his eyes, only to voice out a ‘No’ moments later. I huffed in response and to my annoyance, he imitated me.

“Why don’t you take a catnap on one of the couches? I’ll wake you up once the weather’s better and you could do anything you’d like then. Haven’t you heard? Naps make the hours seem short,” he grinned.

Reluctantly, I backed away and plopped onto one of the couches. Fuck the doorman, fuck managements, fuck the damn keys and fuck the doorman again for even listening to the management.

While i tried to make myself comfortable, all I could think about was, what if the snowstorm doesn’t subside in time? I was given a night to clean up Sara’s place and living in a town with frequent heavy snowfalls didn’t ever guarantee a snowstorm subsiding within a few hours. I stopped to check my watch; 7.30PM. Worse comes to worst, I’d have to drive off at 11PM just to get the keys and get back to the building… Which was almost impossible because then I’d have to do the chores at midnight.

I love Sara but I won’t do anything and everything at mid fucking night to satisfy her. Come on, no one ever does that, not even to the people they love-

“You’ve been tossing and turning for the past 10 minutes. Are you alright or do you need sleeping – or, well, napping - pills?” the doorman whom I’ve come to associate with the word ‘annoying’ sat next to me, “Seems like we’ll be stuck in this same lobby for hours, are we gonna leave as strangers too? I’m Ashton, and you?”

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aAAaAAAaaaaAAAAHhHHhHHHh

long chapter and i'm quite a terrible writer who tries too hard to substitute the word 'said' with its synonyms but HE'S BEING TOO NICE TO HER AND SHE'S JUST SO JUVENILE DEAR GOD GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER KARA and hey you could try guessing her response to his introduction if you'd like!!!

i hope this was a satisfactory chapter and i'll love you forever if you were to vote/comment THANK YOU FOR READING THIS NOTE

P.S feel free to point out my grammar/spelling mistake(s) i'll love you for that too