First attempt at this... first submission, too. I might write more if the response isn't too harsh! Thanks!
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Never before, in his thirty-five years, has mail posed such a problem. Yet, here he was, at the end of his drive-way and staring down at what was most likely a bill. The week before he had did a number on his back at the gym. He knew better than to take a racket ball challenge from Steve, they were always too competitive.
"Dan, how are you doing?" a deep male voice brought him out of his mail-time thoughts and lifted a hazel colored gaze to the man coming toward him.
"Hey there, Frank, could be better, yourself?" Managing a smile as Dan stood at the end of his drive in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Frank grinned back as he reached his mailbox. The man was about ten years older, dark hair and brown eyes, a trim mustache and dressed similarly to the way he was.
"Can't complain, dropped some mail there," Frank would point and Dan would sigh.
"I did, but I threw my back out so it's going to stay there, just like everything I've dropped in my house and the grass clippings in the pool." Light eyes gave the mail a death glare before Frank chuckled and came over to his neighbor.
"A real mess, huh? Tell you what, I'll send Rose over in awhile to see if she can help," Frank would say as he bent to get the bill for him and handed it over.
"You don't have to do that, I doubt she'd want to waste her time," this made Dan pause a moment as he took the mail. "Though, I'd be willing to pay her. What seventeen year old wouldn't want some money for the mall?"
It was Frank's turn to laugh again, Dan smiled. "Good point, if I let her up there as often as she wanted. I'll send her over in a bit. Feel better, Dan."
"Thanks, Frank," the men parted and would head up their respective driveways to their homes.
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Rose was ready for her father to go to work. She was home schooled - except for gym and science - and he was like a hawk during those hours. She was seventeen and wanted to slack off like teenagers do, take some times to daydream instead of working on algebra or whatever alphabet and numerical soup that was in the book before her. He had gone out to get the mail and in that short time, she'd let her forehead hit the page and groan, soft ginger locks falling over the book.
It was almost summer break for the regular kids, though her school went year round. It was a pain in the butt! Her father was so strict, not that she knew anything else. Her mother ran off when she was four and he had been wildly over protective since then. She couldn't totally blame him, she might do the same thing in his shoes, but boy, was she tired of it. The door opened and her head snapped up and she tried to clear the glazed over look in soft blue eyes.
"Rose, I think we're finished for today. I have to head into the office, but Dan next door threw his back out pretty bad and I said you'd give him a hand," Frank smiled at his daughter as she looked half put out, the other half she wasn't sure about. "He said he'd give you some money for helping," and there was the smile on her pink lips.
"Alright," she'd say, closing the book and all but running past him to the door to get away from her math work. She had been over to Dan's house many times, he let them use her pool and during neighborhood gatherings she would help bring food and drinks in and out of his house to the deck in the back. He was a nice man, cute, too, but she had always had that school girl crush on him.
Coming up to his front door, she'd absently straighten the white tank top and blue jean shorts she wore. Knocking, out of the corner of her eye she could see her dad's black SUV back out of the drive way and off down the road. At least she was out of the house, Rose thought as the door opened and a smiling Dan appeared.
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It wasn't until the last year that Dan noticed how much Rose had grown up. From an awkward girl to soft curves and rounds and sweet smiles. It always struck him upon first glance, whether it be her on the side of his pool sunbathing or just going to get the mail, like now when he opened the door to his current wreck of a home. She'd smile back at him and her back even felt a little better.
And then he felt like a cad, because she was young and to her, he must be a very old lecherous man. "Hey Rose, thanks for coming over. Your dad told you I'd pay, right?" Making sure she knew he wasn't going take advantage of her kindness. She'd smile wider at him, white teeth flashing between pink lips. He'd step slowly aside and her smile would fade a little.
"Yep! Really did a number on your back, Dan?" She'd tilt her red head as she watched him move and she'd walk into his house. It wasn't as bad as she imagined it would be, but there were obvious things out of place. A few books or magazines on the floor, cups and plates on the coffee table.
He'd ruefully smile as he nodded a little and closed the door. "Yeah, no fun getting old," he'd joke and she'd laugh. It made her cheeks turn a bit pink and he couldn't help but smile more at it. He was such a dork, Dan thought.
"You aren't old, Dan," Rose would quip back before she'd look back at him, "Let me get started. I'll pick up stuff and then you can tell me where to go with it and where you cleaning stuff is." She loved it when he smiled at her, it made her feel tingly all over, a new sensation, but pleasant all the same. He'd agree and off to work she'd go as he went over to the couch to sit down.
His home was an open layout, the living room connected to a hall that lead to a set of bedrooms, a half bath, and then a large bathroom attached to the master bedroom. The other part of the living room was attached to a small dinning area that bled into the kitchen. From there the deck just beyond a sliding glass door and his nice backyard with pool. The washer and dryer were in the basement where the game room was and another family room like area.
"I guess the dishes go in the kitchen and you can just pile the books and mags on the coffee table next to the laptop. The normal places, if you don't mind. The dishwasher is clean, the bottom drawer, I couldn't unload it."
"Not a problem," Rose replied, "Its a lot less worse than I thought it would be," she'd laugh as she said it, reaching into her pocket to pull out a hair tie and she'd absently twist her locks away from her face. It was now that she started getting things together and Dan was absorbed by her. Watching her bend and twist to pick things up.
She had grown, he thought again, that heart shaped ass in the air and he felt like a man in the desert dying for water. Another downfall to having screwed up his back so badly - he hadn't felt like calling his semi-regular friend with benefits. He felt like an old man and wallowed in his pity, but then he was left here lusting after the ripe peach that was his neighbor. Granted, he would be doing that regardless.
It didn't take her too long to pick up the living room and kitchen, she was helping him back up from the couch to go to the other part of the house. "You don't have to worry about the basement, I can't get down there," he'd smile at her as he lead her down the hall. "Or that bathroom."
"Okay, what about this room?" She'd go to the second bedroom and look in. A weight set and bench press were in there, some instructions tacked to to a cork board, mirrors lining one wall and then a strange black half barrel item on a mat was in front of the mirrors. It had a flesh pink stripe of plastic - or it looked like plastic to her - on top of it with little groves and bumps. "You have work out room!"
"Uh, yeah," Dan started as he followed her, having forgotten his ex-girlfriend's sybian machine was in there. When he saw it though, he flushed red and started to fumble how to get her out of the room. "Nothing needing picking up in here," he'd start.
"What's this? I recognize the rest from gym," she'd point to the one in the corner by the mirror before looking back at the man. She was petite, but he wasn't all that tall for a man. He was red-faced and she'd move forward concern masking her pretty features, "Are you alright?"
"Uh, its for.. ah, meditation, my ex left it here," he started and when she turned on him, he felt a little more faint, as if he was caught in a lie. Which he would be, but instead those sweet features looked concerned and he'd shake his head some. "I need to sit down, here, I'll show you the bedroom," which sounded just as sleazy as telling a teenager that a masturbation device was for meditation.
Leading her to his bedroom, he'd sit on the unmade bed. It was more books and cups, papers and the like spread around the room, the bathroom had the usual usage cleaning needs. "Do you need anything?" She'd ask and his head shook, the flush going away and his hand lifted to push back a flop of dark brown hair from his brow.