Breaking The Ice Between Us
“Morning, Captain.”
It was Ms. Beckett—my neighbor from three doors down. Early thirties, single, always wore heels like she had somewhere important to be, even when she was just taking out the trash. She had a tight bun in her hair and those reflective sunglasses that made her look like a sexy FBI agent.
“Morning,” I called back, offering her a lazy nod.
She smiled as she walked past us, heels clicking on the pavement like punctuation marks. Perfume trailing after her—floral, expensive, too sophisticated for this dump of a complex. She glanced at James briefly, polite but uninterested, then kept walking toward her own car.