Work Text:
Shabby Chic
Sunday before noon in a nice suburb of Oslo, weather - bright and sunny, almost too warm for May. Me - sitting my brother's house, willing to enjoy my spare time.
I grabbed a book and opened the kitchen window, then placed myself on the desk in front of the window, legs crossed, holding my nose into the smooth wind that was going.
I recognized some jazzy music playing somewhere and bent forward to look for the source.
It obviously came from the driveway of the little yellow house to my left. The owners had changed several times during the years and I hadn't seen anyone there since I had arrived. Actually I didn't even know how many people were living there at the moment.
Presently a man was working in the driveway. I decided to watch him for a while.
So I turned, leaned my back on the opposite window frame and got comfortable on the desk.
The unknown neighbour obviously seemed to be a rather attractive man!
Sporty but not packed, with tan skin and black curls he almost could be south European or maybe Turkish or something like that.
With a seeming pleasure he brushed down old paint from a dresser or a commode. Apparently he had a weak spot for shabby chic style of furniture.
Ok, fine with me! Fits with the house he was living in.
After a few minutes his music went down, so I was wondering if could entertain us with playing some stuff myself.
I bent down to the CD player that was standing in front of my feet on the desk to check out what my brother had to offer.
Guns'n' Roses! What the...! Hadn't heard them in ages! But why not?!
I switched it on and turned up the volume.
The nice young man in the driveway turned in my direction and raised his hand for greeting.
"Hei! I knew it would pay off to work here instead of the backyard to get to know some neighbours!" he called in plain Norwegian.
So no Turk, or at least one that hadn't met his relatives in a while...
"Nice choice of music!" he added.
I swung my legs out the window and jumped down on my sister-in-law's beloved daisies.
Slowly I strolled over to him.
"Hei! Watcha doing?" I asked stupidly.
"Well, I'm trying to make this dresser a bit more pretty. Wanna join?" he answered with an inviting gesture.
Ok, this was the perfect excuse to stay and learn more about my new handsome neighbour without standing around awkwardly, doing nothing!
He wasn't as young anymore as I had thought first - in his thirties, maybe ten years older than me. But now he was giving me a very bright boy-ish smile, showing the most perfect white teeth I had ever seen.
"Sure!" I replied, smiling back "Could be fun!"
"Soooo..." he started "Maybe you could work on this!"
He took one of the drawers and pushed it over the top of the dresser to me.
As he leaned forward to do so, I could not help but admire his hair!
Lots and lots of black curls and although his head was a complete mess from working, they still looked as if someone had painted them - all shiny and fluffy!
I felt a certain urge to check how it would feel to touch them, but I fought it.
"Here, you can wrap some sandpaper around that block and then scratch up the surface!"
he explained.
I smiled. Should I mention that I never had done any hand craft before in my life?! Well - I hadn't!
I had no idea what he meant exactly with 'wrap around' so I made a fool of myself trying to handle the stiff paper.
He watched it for a minute.
"No, not like that, dummy!" he then said with a quiet, friendly laughter and came around the dresser to help me.
He lent over my arm to grab the block out of my hand. I could feel the warmth of his body against my shoulder, which felt pretty nice.
I took a quick chance to figure out what he smelled like.
He wore no cologne, all I could detect was a scent of fresh washed clothes, a tiny hint of sweat and something warm, like... summer!
Whatever it was, it made me a little dizzy. That's pheromones! my nerd self lectured me.
Ok, anyway...it made my fingers feel even more clumsy when I took the fine wrapped package back from him.
"I'm sorry!" I murmured "I'm completely useless!"
"Naaaa, not completely!" he replied."It's always nice to have some pretty company!"
"Thank you!" I said, slightly blushing.
I started rubbing the drawer.
"Maybe, if you fail completely you could do some dancing for me" he added after a second.
"Ouhh!" I answered with a sepulchral voice "You don't know what you're wishing for!"
We both burst out laughing.
Sense of humour : check!
This one seems to turn out the best neighbour I'd ever had!
We were working in silence for several minutes, although I was thinking desperately about something to talk about. My stupid head seemed to be wiped clean, though.
Beside that, I had a hard time handling this fucking sandpaper! Quietly I mumbled little swears while I was trying not to rub my fingers off accidentely.
When I randomly looked up, I caught these warm chocolate brown eyes gazing at me.
With a tiny grin he stood there, observing me. How embarrassing! How long had he done this?
"It's ok" he interrupted me "You don't need to get all the paint off, just make it raw."
"I'm useless, I knew it!" I giggled ashamed. "Maybe I should think about dancing lessons!"
"I would appreciate!" he laughed
"But meanwhile maybe you could rather try some painting? Or you could just stand there, being protection from the sun burning on my head! I mean.. don't feel forced to work if you don't like it!"
"No, it's fine" I replied "I'll try the painting!"
He had already opened a can for himself and now he handed out a paintbrush to me.
"You take the top and I take the side" he suggested.
I agreed and carefully dipped the brush into the paint.
While I was striking it over the wood I took a heart to finally ask him at least something.
"So you're living here alone?" ... because that was what I wanted to know most eagerly.
He nodded several times quietly before he answered.
"Yup. I moved in 2 weeks ago. Being separated and stuff...you know. I don't even have proper furniture yet!"
He pointed at the dresser
"I didn't mean to get too personal.You don't have to..." But you could - separated had a sweet sound!
"Oh, it's ok "
He hesitated "We didn't had too much in common after all these years. Actually I feel pretty relieved we finally took this step!"
He fell silent and gazed into thin air, licking his lips several times. I felt unsure if he wanted to add something.
"But you don't look like that!" I finally commented.
"Aww, no no! That's for sure! It's just that she took the kids and went back to Sweden. I'm not even sure if it makes sense to buy stuff for their bedroom.."
Wow, that was hard! I felt sorry for him.
"To set up their room will make you feel better I think. At least then you have hope that everything turns out fine."
He gave me a grateful little smile.
"But you chose a very nice neighbourhood for a fresh start" I tried to change subject since we both seemed to feel quite uncomfortable talking such a heavy stuff.
He continued painting
"Yeah, I like it! It's all quiet and green here and neighbours are very friendly... although you are the only one I have talked to actually!" he grinned
"And I don't even live here!" I laughed
"You don't ?!" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"No, it's my brother's house! I take care of it during his vacation. - But I do live in Oslo!"
I added hastily in case he could be disappointed.
Indeed he seemed to be pleased.
"So you come here regularly? That's cool... And there is also a chance, that the rest of your family is as pleasant as you are! I'm not very good at making friends and I don't want to end up here as the weird, tousled hermit you avoid to look in the eyes!"
"Oh, I don't think that will happen!"
Who would avoid to look into those eyes?!
"Well, you never know! There are in fact several people who already think that I'm weird!
No, no, no! Don't cringe like that!" he said when looking at me
"You will discover sooner or later! I seem to be pretty much of a wise-ass! You know, I often get excited over very random things and unfortunately I kind of know a lot of stuff.
Then I try to let others know what is running through my mind, so they... you... what? No! What the hell are you doing there??"
"What, me?" I asked confused when he started to laugh
"Yeah, you! Did you ever use a brush before?"
"Really? Again?" I sighed
"I'm afraid it should be more even, you know... Wait, I'll show you!"
He came around the dresser, placed himself behind my back and set his brush next to mine on the wood.
"Look, like that - one direction, up and down, up and down..."
I giggled. Having him so close made me insecure.
"Come on, it's like a dance... let the music guide you! Up... down... See?"
So we stood there side by side letting our brushes slide over the wooden surface to Slash's endless solo in 'November Rain'.
It was fun but somewhat erotic too... at least to me! I waited for him to put his left hand on my waist, but he didn't.
It was only painting.
When most everything of the top was white, he simply left my side to finish the rest from a better angle.
I moved my shoulders to get rid of the tension I had felt..
"I admit it looks better than before!"
He grinned.
"So this is what I learned today : how to use a paintbrush!"
"You're very welcome! Maybe you could use your new skills to finish both sides while I take care of the drawers.
Oh, wait! " he interrupted himself "I love this song!
Umm-mm-m-mmm sweet child o mii-iiine!!" he sang along with pleasure, adding some air guitar strums.
"Wow, what a voice!" I made round eyes expressing my surprise.
With a loud laughter he picked up the paintbrush again.
"Thank you! My Ex always told me to stop singing!" He shook his head
"Can't help, but I dreamed of having a musical profession all my life!"
"Like...?"
"Being a pianist!...or a rockstar!... or maybe a producer!" he smirked
"At least anything else than what I'm doing now!"
"So what is it you're doing now? That bad?" I asked curious.
"Naaaa.. the job itself isn't that bad! It's more the circumstances. I work at a big architectural office."
"You're kidding me!" I gasped.
"Why? Being an architect doesn't suit me?"
"No! It's just that I started studying architecture last fall!" I giggled in disbelief.
"Oh, really?!"
His face lit up like the sun and with great passion he started giving me a very particular depiction of his latest project.
I understood barely half of it but it didn't matter.
I was all fascinated by the way he was talking - speaking with an adorable serious expression, eyes sparkling, using his hands a lot with sometimes big gestures.
Because he was still holding the brush, he finally managed to splatter paint on his own face.
With a resigned sigh he closed his eyes and wiped the cheek with his forearm.
"Wow, that's so typical!" he moaned
"Looks as if you picked the right profession, though!" I grinned.
"You seem to have a lot of passion for it!"
"I'm so sorry" he replied "I must have bored you to death!"
"No! No, you didn't! But maybe it's better to not combine it with painting!" I suggested.
"You are right! Let's finish this!" he nodded and we went on working.
Every now and then, when I was sure he would not catch me I peeked over to him.
God, this man completely got me! He was so... pretty! - if it was ok to name a man pretty- but never the less manly.
Not to mention these stunning curls that I still wanted to touch so badly!
My head felt incredibly hot, might be caused as well by the sun burning down on us!
"Your face has turned quite red. Want some water?" he suddenly seemed to read my mind.
With a smile he handed out a bottle to me and I thankfully took a big sip.
"Shit, it is way too warm!"
He almost emptied his own bottle in one go and then pour the rest of the water over his head and face.
Man, you shouldn't have done that!
Now his hair looked even more black, more fascinating, even more like something that for the life of me I wanted to bury my fingers into.
Seriously- what I was thinking of was to grab his curls with both of my hands, massage his scalp with slow motions, then pulling him close to me, pressing my lips against his soft warm mouth.
I'd run my fingers all over his head, make him open his lips and I...
"Do you?"
"Eh...what?" Gosh, wake up stupid!
"Do you have something to clean it up? ...Are you ok?"
"Oh, sorry! I had...I was just listening to Axl!"... Thank you, brain for coming up with that and for this CD running on repeat like forever!!
"...to clean up what?"
"Your pants! You ruined them, look!"
I had some trouble loosening my eyes from his face to gaze down at my legs.
He was right. There was a long dash of white from my knee down my shin.
"Uh - no, I don't think I will find something in my brother's mess. Damn! I loved these jeans!"
"Let me see, if we can save your treasure!"
He knelt down in front of me and put some petrol on a rag.
"Put your foot here!" he said and clapped on the tool box standing next to me.
I did.
'He laid his hand on the back of my knee and began to rub my leg in small circles.
I held my breath, not sure which of his touches felt better.
Far too soon my jeans were saved.
He stood up and I stretched out my leg to check the result.
"Hey, you're my hero! I will be very careful with touching anything from now on!"
"There are not many chances left for ruining your clothes anyway. We're almost done here." he answered while he started to clean his hands with the rag.
That I could not deny but what a pity!
I would have loved to spend the rest of the afternoon here with him as well!
No, wait...rest of the afternoon?
"Do you know, what time it is?" I suddenly called out, slightly shocked.
I almost forgot my riding class and it was way to expensive too let it go, however tempting it was to stick here with him!
He fingered his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and checked the time.
"Half past two it is..." he told me.
"So time for me to run!" I said with regret "I have to get ready for my riding lesson!"
"Oh, you are riding - that's cool!" he smiled.
"I love it! Do you like horses?"
"Hmm..." he hummed "They are very beautiful animals, but they are also kinda...big!"
"Ahaha! I know that expression!" I laughed.
"Just you wait! One day I will introduce you to some wonderful horses and then you will learn that there is nothing to be afraid of!"
He lowered his view and blushed a little. Gotcha!
"That- umm...could be fun!" he smirked. "Have a nice afternoon!"
"Yeah, you too!" I called happily "Hope to see you soon!"
I slowly walked back to our house, smiling to myself as I could practically feel his gaze on my back.
"Hey, neighbour!" he called after me.
I turned back. "Yes?"
"You didn't ever tell me your name!"
"It's Vanessa" I answered.
"Vanessa..." he repeated
"Mine is Finn. Finn Weber"
"Nice to have met you, Finn Weber!"
I grinned and waved at him before I left for good.
This could become a nice summer...
