Butterswap

14

I woke up to the amazing smell of bacon and eggs from the kitchen. I smiled before I spotted something on the bed beside me. My mother's jewellery and my watch. I walked out of the room and leaned against the kitchen frame.

"Thought you said you sold it?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I'm sorry I lied about that. I couldn't sell it because it would have been too suspicious if I sold it so quickly."

"I'm taking the watch back, but you can have the jewellery." I said as I strapped my watch back on.

"You should return the jewellery to your mother too."

"I can't care less about her jewellery."

He pursed his lips.

"I lied about something too. There weren't any hidden cameras or whatever in my car that day."

"I know." Keenan nodded as he placed the food on two separate plates.

"Huh?"

"Holland, I'm a thief. I'm great at stealing things and even better at actually noticing everything that goes on."

"Then why'd you come back?"

"I was curious. I just wanted to know why your terms were so odd. I wanted to know why you needed a thief along for your adventures. Trust me, your terms were the most absurd I've ever heard. A free trip with all expenses covered? Completely unheard of. I was curious as to why you would offer such terms."

"Oh. Well, now you know." I forked the bacon into my mouth. "You have a lot of money, so why couldn't you have just bought another apartment? You didn't have to waste your one and only other condition."

"Well...my mother fell in love with this apartment the first time we walked past. So I won it with a bet with someone a little later but she never got to see it. Hurry eat up, I want to complete watching the series before dinnertime."

"You planned something later?"

"Yeah, for dinner. I'll bring you to my favourite place in the whole city."

++++++

We ordered delivery for lunch and before we knew it, it was dinnertime. Keenan prepared some ham and cheese sandwiches and packaged them up in plastic boxes. He grabbed a bottle of light wine and placed everything in a carrier bag.

"Let's go." He smiled. "Oh, bring your jacket along, it's going to get chilly tonight." I nodded, I too could sense the season changing. It already felt like the start of winter. I had assumed we were leaving the apartment complex, but to my surprise, Keenan pressed the button for the top floor.

"Huh?"

"You'll see."

We finally reached the top floor and got out. Keenan took a left and started proficiently climbing up the firemen's access ladder. Plucking a bobby pin from my hair, he twisted it and manoeuvred the thin piece of metal in the thick lock. His eyebrows pinched in concentration until he heard a click and the lock popped open. He lifted the overhead door and climbed the rest of the way up the ladder.

I watched him in awe, amazed by his skills at lock picking.

"Come on up." He whispered as he reached down to grab my hand. Using one arm, I grabbed the rung and the other, his hand. Finally, after struggling for a good solid three minutes, I finally managed to hoist myself up on the platform.

"For someone so small..." He grumbled as he panted, landing on the floor beside me with a thump.

I ignored him, more stunned by the beauty of the sight before me. The sky was completely dark but the lights from the skyscrapers in the city was blinding. It was so much more than beautiful. I instinctly reached around my neck to pull my jacket tighter around me before I realised I'd forgotten to take it up with me.