The Strange Man

The Strange Man Next Door

When Dahlia arrived at the coffee shop near her house, she saw three men sitting at a table in front of the shop. One of the voices sounded really familiar. Like, really familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she'd heard it before. That didn't matter though. She needed some coffee. Maybe a muffin too.
When she stepped into the coffee shop and walked up to the counter, she was greeted by a grumpy brunette woman. "What do you want?", she asked. Dahlia's social anxiety was a bit shaken by the woman's frustrated tone, but ordered a black coffee and a blueberry muffin anyway (quite a victory for her socially-inept self). As a PI, Dahlia couldn't help but want to sit near the familiar voice and try to figure out where she had heard it before.
Sitting at the table next to the three men, she narrowed in on the one who the voice was coming from. The man was shorter than the other two men. He must've been 5'6 or 5'7 and the other two were a few inches taller. He had a scruffy beard and untamed hair. His outfit consisted of blue jeans, sneakers, a dirty T-shirt advertising some sort of lumber company, and a pretty cool green jacket. It suddenly hit her. It was the voice of one of the men from last night! Dahlia wasn't planning on getting a case for a couple of weeks due to the fact that she hadn't quite made a name for herself yet, and since the movers weren't coming until the following week, she had more than enough free time on her hands. It made her unbelievably bored just thinking about it. Luckily, she had just found a case (or at least something that resembled a case). It was the case of the strange man who lived next door to her.
She took out one of her notebooks and a pencil from one of her many pockets and began writing. First, she wrote "The Strange Man Next Door" at the top of one of the pages in large letters. She then wrote a basic physical description. Next, she wrote the date and a summary of what he was wearing that day as well as what he was doing. Following that was a short description of his two friends and a summary of what they were talking about. It was mostly nonsense, but she did catch the name of the establishment at which they worked: Paddy's Pub.
'Cool,' she thought. From what she had gathered, their life sounded like a sitcom. It was five goofy and charismatic friends who owned a bar together and schemed. She would be stupid to pass up such an exciting opportunity.
'Okay,' she thought, finishing her coffee and putting her notebook and pencil back into one of her pockets. 'Time for some research.' As she got up, she saw the grumpy waitress go to gather the mens' check. She seemed annoyed by them, especially by the strange man. Despite her cruel words, the strange man looked upon her with love in his eyes. He begged her to go on one date with him, but she refused, calling him a creep and telling him that she would never go on a date with him. Dahlia saw the sadness in his eyes as the waitress walked up to her table and took the check. 'Wow,' she thought. 'What type of person could he possibly be to deserve that kind of treatment?' This was yet another reason for her to learn more about the strange man.