Jeremy

Nekane walked up to the door, wondering who it could be. The building was pretty secure, there was no soliciting, and no unwanted guests. If she had guests over she had to alert to doorman, and allow them to come up. The building was pretty strict, but it was for good reason. When people got home they wanted to let their guard down and relax, not worry about salesmen and peddlers bothering them.

As she peeked through the one way peek hole in her door, she saw a very young man, with shoulder length blonde hair. His features were distorted from the fish eye lens, but even through that she could see his nervous demeanor. He was shifting his head from side to side and well as his weight from leg to leg, as if he was nervous to be caught.

Nekane smirked to herself and gave out a little laugh in her mind. She unlocked the door and peeked her head out.

"Oh hello Jeremy"

The young man looked and her with a small amount of bewilderment in eyes as if he didn't really expect anyone to answer the door. His body snapped straight and his eyes quit shifting and looked straight at her.

"Oh, hi Miss Nekane.."

"..."

Nekane paused and waited for the blonde to continue, knowing that he probably wouldn't. She held back a smile as the nervousness grew.

"Can I help you with anything Jeremy?" Nekane finally spoke as soon as his eyes started to dart again.

"Oh! Yeah.. Miss Nekane, can I borrow a cup of sugar?"

"A cup of sugar Jeremy?"

"Yeah miss, I'm making a cake?"

Jeremy was such a dork. She knew exactly what he wanted, but she enjoyed making him squirm. She liked messing with him, but she liked him too. He was young and carefree and naïve and yes, a dork. But he provided a much needed break from her life and career, which could become too serious if she allowed it too. She knew she could fall into the temptation of scrutinizing every move to the smallest detail, and never taking time to recharge. All work and no play eventually becomes counter-productive. She had seen it happen with a few overly ambitious co-workers in the past. Sometimes your mind wore down, and sometimes it was your body, but as ironic as it was eventually if you didn't take care of yourself your work would suffer.

" A cake Jeremy?"

"Yes miss"

"And you needed a cup of sugar, so you thought why not come ask 'Miss Nekane' 8 stories down instead of just asking your parents?"

"Well.. yeah!"

Jeremy had just moved out of from his parent's apartment. Well, that might true but there were some qualifiers. His parents were quite wealthy and owned an entire floor of the apartment building. When Jeremy started university he wanted some independence, so his parent rented him a quarter unit like Nekane had on the floor right underneath theirs. "Moved out". Right.

"And do you need anything else Jeremy?"

"Maybe an egg miss."

"An egg."

Nekane stared at him with a deadpan expression, one she had mastered and could hold forever. She couldn't tell if he was trying to land a joke or pick-up line and failing miserably or if he was truly that awkward and helpless. To be honest she didn't really care enough to find out.

"Anything else?"

"Maybe a recip-"

"Jeremy, would you like to come inside?" Nekane interrupted.

Jeremy's eyes lit up, as if he had just cracked a code or figured out a puzzle and he smiled and said "Well sure Miss Nekane!"

Nekane's stone face broke as she started to smirk. She rolled her eyes and she opened the door and let him in. She made sure to not leave enough room for him to get by without grazing her body with his as she waited for him to pass so she could relock the door.

Jeremy instantly calmed down a few levels once inside Nekane's apartment. As much as she enjoyed picking on his developing social skills, she really enjoyed the laid back, carefree person Jeremy became when he was free from pretenses. Plus, she had other reasons for enjoying his company. He had a slender frame, no where near as broad and as formidable as Sergio, but he was athletic and toned. He swam for his school before he started university, and while he wasn't particularly good competitively, the regular workout did wonders for his physique. He had no external reason for being as shy as he was. In fact Nekane knew that his visits would soon happen less and less frequently as he came out of his shell and the girls at the university discovered him. Oh well.

Jeremy flopped down on the couch and smiled over at her.

Still. She knew he wasn't taking the lead on this one.

"Tell you what Jeremy. Instead of a cake, how about I make some popcorn and we watch a movie. I'll teach you how to make a cake another night. Or would you be too disappointed?" She winked every so slightly as she looked at him. It was so slight she wasn't sure that he would notice at all.

"I'll get over it miss" Jeremy said as he broke into a full smile. He had noticed.

Nekane smirked. Then she broke into a full on smile. It was the first one of the day.