After getting dressed, Amy gave another heavy sigh as she mustered up some courage to go speak to the construction manager.
"Excuse me. Where can I find the person in charge?" Amy asked the first construction worker she saw. He pointed in the direction of a white pickup truck, where two men were arguing about something while they pointed at big sheets with floor plans on, spread on the bonnet of the truck.
Amy, walked over to where they were arguing. Not knowing how to start the conversation she waited for them to finish arguing, about two paces away. Finally, the one guy saw her, and elbowed the other, who finally looked up from the floor plans.
He was tall, muscular, with one half of his hair shaved clean and the other side was shoulder height black hair. He was wearing a long sleeve white button shirt, with silver cufflinks and dark jeans. Amy surmised he must be covered in tattoos since she could vaguely see them through his shirt and any part that wasn't covered, had tattoos all over.
"Oh uh, hello. Are you the construction manager?" Amy asked with the most polite smile you ever saw. Her strategy was to kill them with kindness.
"No, owner. He's the manager" he answered with an irritated expression on his face.
"Oh well then. Hi I'm Amy your next door neighbor. I live..next door to you in ... the building next door to your... building." she tapered off as her inner voice took over... 'Good job, Amy you used "next door" a million times in that sentence. Like he wouldn't know what neighbor means! Now this guy not only thinks your a moron. HE KNOWS IT!' her inner voice shouted.
He only nodded and turned his attention back to the drawings.
"Riiiight, so your the manager. Nice to meet you" Amy continued and extended her hand to the other gentleman.
"What can I help you Miss?" he asked as he lightly shook her hand.
"Well, you see. I uh..., it looks like you may have accidentally turned my water supply off."
'Well Done Amy!... cheers all round. You managed a full sentence!' Amy's inner voice sarcasticly applauded.
"Well miss, I'm sure we can sort that out for you" the manager answered with a smile.
'Phew' Amy thought, at least the manager is nice.
"Great, thank you so much. I really appreciate it" Amy smiled and started heading back, but she managed a "nice to meet you" as she passed her new neighbor. She gave a few confident strides when she thought they might still be looking and then moved quicker. Amy couldn't get back to her place quick enough. 'Thank goodness that's over' she sighed as she closed the shop door behind her.
Beth arrived at eight. The moment she entered the shop door, Amy started. "Oh my Beth! You will not believe who I met this morning! The new owner of the place next door!!"
Beth raced to Amy, "Tell me everything!" as she clasped her hands excitedly.
"Well I don't know if he'll be moving in or just lease the property, but with all the construction going on, I think he'll probably be moving here", Amy continued.
Beth nodded excitedly as Amy continued. "He was completely covered in tattoos! He's probably a gangster!"
"No way! Was he hot?" Beth asked.
"Well.." Amy had to think about it a bit. She didn't really think about that when she first met him, she was more concerned about her plants at the time.
"Yeah" she finally said, "but in a dangerous sort of way".
"Ooh sexyyy" Beth replied. Beth was also in the same boat as Amy. Neither of them had been dating for some time, so any eligible bachelor was fair game.
"I could do with a bad boy" Beth's eyes sparked.
"Cool your horses, hehe" Amy chuckled, "he wasn't very nice, he didn't even really greet me".
"Ooh fun, he's probably got a hard shell. It's going to be fun cracking that!".
"Haha, he's not some crustacean you can to eat!" Amy, put her hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter.
"Speak for yourself! haha. I'm going to crack him like a lobster" Beth laughed.
"Lobster Landlord. Haha" Amy spurted out as they both burst out in laughter. "Ahh man, now that image is going to stick in my mind! How am I going to keep a straight face when I see him again?" Amy managed to say, as they both started laughing again.
After Amy managed to regain her composure, she tried the tap again and she got the same gurgling sounds instead of water. It's been nearly three hours. Amy gave a heavy sigh again.
"What's wrong?" Beth asked.
"Oh..." sigh, "the people next door turned our water off by accident. I already asked the manager to turn it back on, but they obviously didn't do it yet" Amy sighed again.
"Ah, you were probably way to nice about it. You need to be more angry." Beth replied.
"Either way I need to go over there again", Amy sighed again and then got up. Beth stepped in before her.
"Right boss. You need to be angry!" Beth got her fists up in a boxing stance.
"I need to be angry" Amy mimicked Beth.
"You need to be mean!" Beth loosened her neck and started bouncing on her toes like boxers do.
"I need to be mean" Amy mimicked her again.
"Good! Show me your mean face".
"Raawr!" Amy did her best to make a mean looking face, while her hands made claw like movements.
"Haha, go get'em tiger!" Beth clasped Amy's shoulder as she said it.
All psyched up, Amy strutted forward confidently.
As she exited the door Beth added "Say hi to Lobster Landlord for me!". Amy chuckled as she closed the door behind her.
Amy spotted the construction manager straight away, luckily Lobster Landlord wasn't with him. Amy waved at the manager the moment he saw her.
"Hi there sir. It's me again. Sorry to bother you again, but the water still hasn't come back on" Amy gave the most pleasant smile you ever saw.
"We've been a bit busy, miss, we'll get to it shortly" the manager replied.
"No problem, I'll just wait with you until you get to it". Amy had learned a long time ago that if you annoy someone long enough, you'll get your way and because she struggled to be confrontational, this was how she navigated difficult situations.
The manager sighed, it was clear this girl wasn't going to let it go and he really didn't have time for it. He beckoned one of the other workers over and told him to check the water lines and turn the water to neighboring property back on. The worker nodded and Amy followed the worker to make sure it got done. After thirty minutes Amy was back, and so was the water.
Construction continued for another month. Amy was looking forward to that being over. Her plants didn't like it and she didn't either. Waking up to drilling weren't fun. Amy feared the worst, they painted the exterior walls pitch black. So there was a good chance it was a bar or something else equally dubious. She couldn't move, the lease she signed was for three years and she didn't have the cash flow to pay the penalties. All she could do was brace for impact.
The day after the construction crew left, a mover's truck arrived. Amy and Beth watched with anticipation. They could hear a Harley Davidson's engine noises from a distance as it came closer and pulled in next door. Beth was first at the window.
"Ooh sexyyy. Motorbike, black leather jacket, muscular... take off your helmet already, mystery man" Beth waited impatiently. Amy was now also peaking through the display window.
"Damn" she said as he took his helmet off "It looks like our new neighbor is Lobster Landlord".
"What are you talking about? He's a hottie. Mama's gonna get her some lobster" Beth licked lips.
Amy chuckled, as they both stared at him. At that moment he turned and glared at them. Caught red handed, Amy immediately averted her eyes and pretended to fix something on the window display, while Beth shamelessly winked and smiled back. After that they went back to work. Amy had another wedding on Saturday and they still had to make all the aisle decorations.
It was Friday so as usual they closed a little earlier. Amy baked cookies for they're "end of the week"-coffee.
Beth took a bite from a cookie. "Oh Go.." she muffled and swallowed it whole.
"What?" Amy looked concerned "Does it taste bad?" she added nervously.
"It's rock hard!" Beth gasped for air as tried to keep the cookie down.
"Oh scraps!! I'm so sorry Beth! Spit it out! She gave Beth a couple slaps on her back.
"S...stop helping" Beth let out while coughing profusely.
'Good job Amy, you managed to make military grade concrete with household materials' Amy's inner voice added another blow to her self esteem.
"Phew. I'm ok. I'm ok" Beth said after taking a couple big breaths.
"Oh thank goodness!" Amy let out a sigh of relief.
The two drank their coffees. The sound of multiple motorbikes pulling in interrupted their serene afternoon. Within minutes they could hear load metal music coming from next door.
"Looks like your neighbor is having a party next door" Beth commented.
"Probably a house warming party. Hopefully it doesn't go to late. I need to get up at 4am tomorrow." Amy sighed.
Amy couldn't be more wrong. Amy tried hiding her ears under a pillow, but the muffled noice was so loud it felt like she was right next to the speaker. She checked the time. 1:30 the clock read. "Nooooo" she wanted to cry.
She got up, put an oversized hoodie on, to hide her pink teddy bear nighties. "Just kill them with kindness" she told herself as she started down the stairs. 'Or you could just throw your cookies at them, that should wound a few, at least' her inner voice added.
She knocked on the door and waited. Lobster landlord opened the door.
"Good evening sir" Amy started, but she was to tired to put all her usual effort in to be extra friendly. "Would it be possible for you to turn the volume down please. It's almost two in the morning and some people have to work in the morning." Amy finished with droopy eyes.
He mearly responded with "hmmm" and closed the door.
"Okayyy then" Amy said to a closed door. "guess I'll just call the cops... bastard" she muttered as she made her way back to her apartment. Amy has never had to do that, but she was at the end of her rope. As soon as she got to her apartment she got her phone and dailed the police.
"Hello, I'd like to report a noice desturbance"