I turn around and head back to the coat closet. My coat’s hanging up inside since I didn’t wear it to work last night. I move the coat aside and reach into the pouch hanging behind it, fishing out my titanium picks. Haven’t needed these in a while, but I like to keep ‘em on hand, just in case.
By the time I get outside, New Girl is by her car, still talking on her phone. I head to her door, extracting a tool from my wallet-sized pouch of criminal gadgets. Haven’t picked this lock before, but I did pick mine just for the hell of it and hers should be the same. We’re not exactly staying at the Ritz, so these cheap-ass locks are nothing. Not that any lock I’ve encountered has been too great a challenge.
New Girl must be curious what I’m doing over here because she sneaks up behind me. I’m tired and she needs to get to work, so I ignore her and finish my work.
“Um, what are you—?”
Before she can finish her question, I push her front door open and shove my pick back into its case. Her jaw hangs open as she stares at my tool kit, then her open door.
“You just broke into my apartment.”
Nodding once, I let go of the screen door and turn back toward my own apartment. “You’re welcome.”
“That’s an interesting skill you have there, MacGyver.” For some ungodly reason, she’s following me to my apartment instead of rushing into hers to retrieve her lost keys so she can haul ass to work.
“Nah, with these it doesn’t take skill. I could’ve done it without these and really impressed you,” I remark, opening my own screen door and heading back inside my apartment.
The damn girl follows me right inside. “So, are you a burglar? You just pretend you’re some player, coming in early from random hook-ups all the time, but really you’re out burgling houses?”
Glancing back at her over my shoulder as I walk over to turn the heater dial, I ask, “Aren’t you late for work?”
Frowning, she rubs her hands up and down her arms real fast. “God, it’s freezing in here. Are you part penguin? You must be a terrible burglar if you can’t even afford heat.”
“I am not a burglar,” I state.
“Well, you have what I’m assuming is a lock pick set and you just broke into my apartment with apparent ease. That’s not really something they teach at Lothario School.”
I roll my eyes. “I am not a lothario. That’s so lame; I can’t believe I even just repeated that.”
Grinning, she leans against the front door she closed behind her. “You’re so James Dean you can’t even stand it, aren’t you?”
“I don’t remember inviting you in,” I point out, raising my eyebrows and nodding toward the door. “Also, your front door is open out there. You should probably go get your keys so you can go to work.”
“Oh, I’m fired.” She says this without concern, pushing off the wall and walking further inside my apartment instead of outside, like I just indicated I would prefer. Even though we’re inside, she hugs her white coat against her slim body. “Man, it is so cold. I think it’s actually warmer outside. How did you manage that?”
“Why are you still here?”
“God, you’re grumpy.”
“Well, some maniac just woke my ass up from a dead sleep to help her out. I’m cold, I’m tired, and I’m not up for company.”
Nodding toward the door, she says, “My apartment is probably still warm. If you want, you could come over there for some coffee while your place warms up. I make a mean breakfast scramble; I’ll even feed you.”
“I don’t want food, I want sleep.”
“Well, I’m not going to invite you to use my bed. Though, apparently you could just unlock my door and invite yourself inside if you felt like it,” she says, lightly.
Now that she’s gone and brought up her bed, I find myself taking a second look at her. I’m certainly not going to fuck her; I don’t fuck my neighbors—too uncomfortable. Still, she put the idea in my head, so I look her over again. Her coat is fitted to her body so she still looks damn good in it. Dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect eyebrows, classically pretty. Her lips are plumper, but this girl could easily be Meg or Mia’s sister. Maybe that’s why I don’t like her. I won’t lie and say I avoid fucking girls who look like Mia—sometimes I seek them out—but I’m always a little meaner to girls who remind me of her. This girl with her fucking chipped finger nail polish and big blue eyes, with her messy blonde bun and Mia’s fashion sense, not to mention she seems quick-witted, pushy, and friendly like Meg—this girl is my worst fucking nightmare.