2 Chapter 2

BEEP! BEEP! Janine groans, tossing and turning, trying to ignore the sounds of her alarm. After a few more failed attempts at drowning out the horrible sound, she eventually caved in, peeking one of her eyes open. The bright light of the sun's reflection nearly blinding her. Janine would seriously have to request some curtains. Maybe black or blue?

Janine rolls over, looking at her phone, glaring at the phone, and if she didn't need it, she would have even chucked it across the room. She sits up, grabbing her phone, '9:00 am! I thought I turn off this damn alarm! This working schedule.'

She mutes the alarm disabling it until she was ready to use it again.

Janine would have gone back to sleep, but since today would probably be a long damn day, she mumbled curse words and stood up. Janine lets out a groan stretching her limbs as she stands up.

After hearing a few cracks and pops, feeling satisfied, she bent down, picking up her blankets and placing them neatly on top of the dressers.

Janine scratches the back of her head, walking into the bathroom. She turns on the light and walks towards the mirror. Janine could've sworn as she looked in the mirror, she saw a ghoul, but it was just her reflection.

She chuckles a bit, trying to straighten her bed hair, but it was going to take more than a few strokes. She grabs her toothbrush and toothpaste.

After grooming herself, she goes downstairs. A simple pair of shorts and a tank top was the outfit for today. She'll maybe have to change later, but it depends on the weather.

Janine goes into her kitchen, and as she passes, she almost trips. "What the hell," she questions? She looks down, noticing the boxes from last night. The ones she is supposed to take out today. Janine rolls her eyes, kicking the box back in place as she walks into the kitchen.

She yawns, opening her cabinet. The assortment of all sorts of tea and coffee stared back. She grabs the French vanilla coffee grains and some original coffee creamer.

Janine places both items on the table, going to the bottom cabinets to grab her coffee maker. After fixing her cup, she cleans up her mess before pouring her sugar and adding her creamer. Usually, Janine loved her black coffee, but she had a bit of a sweet tooth.

Finally finishing her cup of coffee, Janine washes her cup, placing it back where it belongs before looking at the boxes. "Damn, I guess it's unavoidable now. Time to stop procrastinating."

Janine walks towards the boxes kneeling to pick some of them up. She would crush and fold them to make them smaller and easier to carry. She did this same process with four of them before walking towards her front door. She had on her house shoes; she opened her door, stepping outside by now the sun was shining bright.

Before she could even make it off her front lawn, someone speaks, "Do you need any help!?"

This startles Janine causing her to drop a box as she turns to the motion of the voice ready to go off. 'Now who the fuck- HOLY SHIT!'

Running towards her was this fine ass man. Janine could hardly describe the man she saw, a tall, dark structure with sexy ass physic. Not to mention the mother fucker had his shirt off, and that chest and those abs look solid as fuck. Janine wondered if she was white, would her whole face be red, and if she was a dog, would she be drooling?

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Seen you carrying all of these and just thought I could be of assistance. Names Demarcus," he tells Janine. The smile he wore nearly blinding her. 'Damn, I'm a sucker for guys with pretty whites.'

"I'm Janine, and I guess, but if I have to pay, then you can go ahead about your business," Janine tells Demarcus as she shoo's him away. She watches him knell down to pick up the box she dropped. Demarcus laughs, picking up the box and taking the remaining ones out of her hands.

"Nah, this is free of charge."

"If you need anything else in the future, of course, maybe a little pay will be charged," he says, playing along causing Janine to laugh.

After placing the boxes in the garbage can, Demarcus offers to drag Janine's garbage closer to her home. "Thanks, I appreciate you are helping me out," Janine says as she looks over at Demarcus. 'Damn, how can a sweaty nigga be so appetizing?'

"No problem," Demarcus said as he wipes the sweat from his forehead. He was hot as hell after working on his car all morning. He could only imagine the sweet comfort of a nice shower and his bed. However, seeing the neighbor struggling plus a cute one, he couldn't help but want to help her.

"So, how long you've been living out here," Janine asks Demarcus. The man seemed to be lost in his Lil world for a moment. Demarcus parks Janine's garbage can on the side of her house.

"So, how long have you been out here?" Janine repeats herself, something she hardly ever did. The second time she asks, he looks towards her, his smile as big as day as he tells her, "Fifteen years my wife and I moved out here when most of this here was all nothing but green land." He motions to the houses on the block.

Janine smiles, 'Wait a damn minute, a wife?'

"Yeah, so I'm the neighborhood watch around here, always looking out for everyone and just making sure the people out here are good. You know what I'm saying?" Demarcus says, pulling Janine out of her thoughts. She smiled at him, still kind of disappointed at the fact he has a wife.

They talk a little bit more about unimportant things and laugh at each other's antics. She learned he was forty even though she highly doubted it. However, Janine still had a lot to do; she had to make it to the store, so she told Demarcus, "Well, it was nice meeting you, Mr. Neighborhood watch; thank you again for taking out my trash and bringing my garbage can closer.

I must be on my way now though I've got millions to do."

Demarcus smiles at her before telling her, "Oh, okay, and don't hesitate to ask me for anything."

"We're neighbors from now on, so we'll be seeing more of each other."

'I want you to do more things for me than you know. DANMIT! Janine, stop the man married, but he best stop smiling at me like that, or I might commit adulatory.'

Janine laughs, nodding her head before walking away while Demarcus watches her before going his separate way.

After entering her house, Janine's first thing she did was go and get ready to go out again, and now Janine was in her car pulling into a home depot. She walks into the store and heads straights for the paint section.

Janine picks up two cans of blue paint and black paint. She was going to try to decorate her patio, maybe paint it like an aquamarine theme. Janine was talented in the art section. She would still have to go to Walmart to pick up some things from there, like some chef man, a couple of bar stools, and some more bar stools.

After paying for her items, she exits and makes it to her final destination. After receiving her items from there, she goes back home. The time was around 3:00 pm, so she still had enough to decorate some of her rooms. 'Damn, Walmart supposed to be cheap, but that shit is high when you have so much to get.'

She opens the door but not before popping her trunk and turning off her ignition. She steps out of the car going to the back of her car. She looks over to her neighbor's house, but sadly he wasn't outside, and neither was the red Honda, so maybe he left. Janine starts to focus on the task at her head as she gathers some of her bags, bringing them to the front door. She pulls out her keys, bringing them towards the lock.

She unlocks the door as puts her keys back in her purse before gathering the bags and walking in. For the next few minutes, it was back and forth until all of the bags were out of her trunk, plus her big stool boxes put a strain on her back. She wondered if her neighbor could put them together, she'd pay him, of course, but she wasn't the smartest when it came to the building.

Janine walks back outside, going to close her trunk, and as she does this, she spots her neighbor's red car pulling back into his driveway. Janine pauses for a moment to watch, and as she does. She notices a Demarcus and an unknown woman step out of the car, although she couldn't see the woman's face. The woman who Janine had now suspected must be his wife had a small but excellent petite shape. And long gorgeous black hair that stopped midback.

She also wore a black dress with an oversize black hat with feathers on the top. 'Must have gone to a funeral to be dressed like that or church?'

Janine watches as Demarcus kisses her cheek, smiling widely, showing them perfect whites as they turned and walked into the house together. Janine scoffed, beaming her thoughts collided with each other.

She didn't know whether to feel happy for the woman or jealous, so she decided to be both as she said, "Lucky ass, how the hell her small ass manages to pull someone like him."

Janine walks into the house, locking her door, and starts to decorate. After decorating what she could, she sits down to enjoy a nice cup of black tea. It was quiet, and she enjoyed the lovely quiet evening; it was around 5:00 pm.

So she had finished her decorating of the kitchen faster than she expected. Her feet were hurting and throbbing, and she still had paint on her, but gladly it was dried up. Black tea was perfect for these types of problems, and the aroma was everything.

As she takes a sip of natural liquid glory, she couldn't be sure whether her chest was warm because of the liquid or the feeling of all the credit. However, she couldn't help but think back to Demarcus he was friendly and sweet, and then she thought back to his wife.

Hopefully, she was the same and had the same energy as her husband; Janine could use a couple of new friends. She takes a sip of her tea, letting the warmness slip through her, not knowing whether it was her heart or the tea itself.