Vanessa sighed, braced herself, and hefted the box of books from the back of her new Impala. A bit on the pricey side, but she considered it worth it. Taking care not to run into the car door she turned to carry the box into her new apartment and nearly bumped into the man standing almost directly behind her.
"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to get in your way." The grin that spread on his face was undeniably charming, and it was difficult for Vanessa to not return it. The grin belonged to a man that could have been right at home in an underwear ad with sculpted features that seemed to have been made of stone. Standing about 6'2", with brown hair and sea green eyes, the man had an undeniable magnetism that even Vanessa wasn't immune to. She noticed the reaction her body had to his smile, not altogether unpleasant.
"I'm Eric, I live upstairs with my roommate. He'd be here too, but had to work today. I brought cookies." Only then did Vanessa notice the paper plate in his left hand full of what looked like homemade chocolate chip cookies.
Afraid that she would drop the box before getting it inside, she hitched her head towards the open car door. "Bring a box on your way in." With that she huffed up to the second floor complex and settled the box on a kitchen counter. Taking a minute to catch her breath, she couldn't help but cringe at the thought of unpacking all the boxes that now filled her almost too small living room and most of the counter space in the kitchen. Since the front door opened to the living room that's where most of the boxes had been dropped. Down a short hall leading off the right of the living room was her room and bathroom along with a hall closet at the very end. Not much room, but Vanessa didn't need much.
Herself at a respectable 5'11" with a pixie short cut of dark brown hair, Vanessa had once been stopped in a mall from an older woman who could have sworn she looked like Jessica Alba. A full, pouty mouth with enough natural color that she could usually go without lip gloss adorned her face along with chocolate brown eyes a man could sink into if he looked long enough. A pert little nose stood front and center and added to the pixie look with a slight upward tilt at the end of it. With a slim body and high pert breasts, Vanessa mostly accounted her built body to good metabolism; she didn't go out of her way to exercise, but enjoyed being active outside when she could.
"Where should I put this?" Vanessa had almost forgotten about Eric and tried not to blush at the grin he shot her way.
"Um...anywhere, really. Like, um, on that box is fine." Eric seemed to put it down with the unstated ease of being practiced in lifting heavy things. An almost awkward silence had quickly come up. "I'm Vanessa, by the way. I'm new here and am still moving in." As soon as she said this she realized how inane is sounded, and tried not to blush under his intense gaze.
"Yeah, I picked up on that." Eric chuckled. With that, he picked up the cookies he'd put on the box before carrying it in the apartment, and wound his way around the piles of boxes to the small kitchen where Vanessa was still standing. Vanessa seemed to almost hold her breath as he walked around her to place the plate on a countertop that was quickly losing working space. "Where are you moving from?"
"Um... Greenfield. Not far from here, but far enough where the commute would kill me. The gas prices aren't friendly to people who decide to drive to work these days." Vanessa tried to act casual and leaned her butt against the counter next to the stove. Eric mimicked her, only chose the counter that was perpendicular with that. He seemed to choose that spot only to unnerve her. Her breathing was becoming more difficult to do with him so close. She tried to look anywhere but at him, but that only served to make the silence even more awkward for them. His breathing didn't seem to trouble him at all.
"Where would you have had to commute to if you'd decided to stay in Greenfield?" Eric's voice seemed to drop an octave when he said this, probably because he was so close to her. Vanessa looked up to answer him, but knew when she looked in his eyes that it wasn't because of his proximity to her. His eyes seemed to have also changed with his voice, and were now the color of storm clouds.
