It’s the middle of the night when Antonio meets Liah.
Antonio has a very strange sleeping schedule. He’s up during the day, working on his business plan, taking calls at his job and sometimes crocheting. He sleeps in the evening and is usually up in the middle of the night doing something.
Tonight it’s reading. He’s reading a novel from a website he found while looking for a new author to read and he was loving it already.
Tonight he was giving himself a break, he’d been working all week and was putting the finishing touches on his business plan. He had three meetings on Monday with different companies and he was ready for this.
He made a cup of tea, lit some candles and put on his favorite playlist as he curled into his couch with his book.
He was a big fan of this author, a black woman in her 20s who’d gone viral for her book reviews and short stories. He wasn’t on the internet much but when he was, he watched her videos.
Antonio had recently moved to New York from St Louis, it was first time away from home and he was still adjusting to the business of the city. He lived in Manhattan, in a beautifully built condominium that was still working on configuring their fire alarm system.
Just as the characters in his book are about to kiss for the first time, the alarm goes off.
He knows he has to put the book down and go outside or someone might break his door down and then find every excuse in the book not to replace it.
He throws on the closest hoodie to him, sliding his crocs on and grabbing his keys and hat. Not because he’s bald but because his durag is already on and his ears get cold easily.
He files out with the rest of the complex, everyone groggily and muttering grievances that won’t change anything.
The procedure is standard, they wait until the fire department declares an all clear and they all go back inside.
Antonio isn’t mad at the fresh air even though he can see his own breath. He’s upset he left his glasses upstairs because he didn't register who just sat next to him on the concrete edge of the stairs.
He looks and sees it’s a woman who’s wearing a sweater and too small shorts for the weather.
She looks tired, and cold as he can see her legs vibrating with shivers.
“I like your hoodie.” She whispers, her voice soft but shaky, probably from the cold.
Antonio doesn’t know what compels him to do this but he unzips the hoodie, his favorite Black Panther hoodie he got from Comic Con, and drapes it over her cold legs.
He wishes she could make out the details on her face as she looks up at him.
He smiles and hopes he doesn’t look like a fucking idiot.
He can make out the fact that she’s beautiful. Brown skin, big brown eyes that he wishes he could see and she smells good. He can make out two large tattoos on her thick thighs but his hoodie covers it now.
He crosses his arms over his chest.
“Better?” He asks her.
He feels her head land on his bicep, the frame of her glasses cold against his prickled skin.
“Thank you. I wasn’t expecting it to be this cold.” She says from his arm.
His entire body feels very warm suddenly. His heartbeat is picking up as he feels her cheek against his skin, her breathing softening.
He doesn’t dare move, he’d rather stand here for the rest of his life than disturb her.
He doesn’t need to see her to know that the way she’s managed to affect him in the last five minutes is more than he’s ever felt in his life. He doesn’t want this moment to end, he’s praying the fire department takes more time than necessary so he can stay in this moment.
It has been a while to say the least since Antonio had any genuine affection. He had made a few friends in the building and some at work but nothing was really sticking yet.
It had been even longer since he had a girlfriend and he was happy to have some form of attention, even if the chances of this happening again were basically zero.
“Alright folks; it’s all clear, have a good safe night.” A firefighter calls about 10 minutes later.
Antonio still doesn’t move until he feels the woman shift and lift her head.
He watches her hop down, revealing her true height and holding his jacket in her hand.
“You’re very sweet for this, thank you.” She says, her voice dripping with honey.
He smiles down at her. “You’re welcome love.”
He thinks she smiles, he hopes she did.
She waves as she walks away, disappearing into the other building that’s across from him. He waits until she’s fully gone before he turns to walk to his own building .
Antonio spends the rest of the evening thinking about her.
He thinks about her when the characters in the book kiss, breaking every rule in society to get a piece of happiness for themselves. The hopeless romantic in him smiles. The longing lonely man in him sighs, thinking of the girl with the soft voice.
He’s not saying he’s hoping for another fire alarm but he kind of is.
It’s late again, he slept until 8pm and now he’s up at midnight cleaning his apartment after coming back from the gym.
As soon as he’s finished showering, the fire alarm goes off and his heart picks up again.
He makes sure he has his glasses on and he brings his Black Panther hoodie and puts on his regular black one.
Everyone is filing out, irritable and upset by the intrusion.
Antonio sits back on the bricked stoop, blowing cold air from his mouth when someone plops down next to him.
Brown thighs spread across the brick as his eyes travel up to meet sleepy brown ones.
Antonio’s breath catches in his throat. He wasn’t expecting her to be this pretty. He chews on his lip, unable to find something cool or worthy to say to her.
He feels her soft cheek rest on the bicep of his hoodie again, missing the skin to skin from the previous week.
“Does this happen often?” She asks, her voice softer, filled with exhaustion and accompanied with a wide yawn. Her nails are long and pink. Her hair is covered with a dark pink bonnet with a silk scarf underneath. He can definitely see the two tattoos on her thighs. One of a book and the other he can’t really make out but it looks like a face.
“Yeah, it does. They said it should be fixed soon.” He tells her, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt. He draped the extra jacket on her shaking legs and stood still.
Her breathing softened, burying her face into the sleeve of his hoodie as she slept quietly, he wondered why she was so tired.
It was amazing to him that she could sleep in any setting, especially on a complete stranger but he’s not mad about it.
Something about this unspoken arrangement felt sacred, like it was supposed to be happening. He didn’t mind her laying on his for warmth and comfort, it was nice to be needed, he’d missed it.
He looked down at her, shifting his arm slightly to reposition her neck so it wouldn’t hurt when they were called back.
Antonio soaked the minutes in before the fire department was announcing the all clear.
The woman stirred, sniffling and rubbing her face. She stretched, the jacket falling from her lap.
She hoped down, bending to pick it up and turning to face Antonio.
He swallowed. He would curse himself in a minute for not saying something to her, why was he so nervous?
“Thank you again.” She says softly, turning to walk back into the building.
Antonio just watches her go.
He sees her in a different setting the following week. She’s in full gym get up, her hair is red and pulled back into a ponytail and she’s typing away on one phone while holding another.
Her entire outfit is pink, even her headphones and she, as usual, looks pretty. She doesn’t look up when she enters the elevator until the doors close.
She locks both phones and takes a long breath.
“Floor?” He asks, she still hasn’t looked at him.
“Um–first please, thank you.”
He silently presses the button.
He can feel the tension radiating from her. She’s breathing heavily and fidgety. Her eyes are closed as she bops her head to the music.
Antonio watches her. Her hands gripping her own hips over her pants, calves flexing in the tights she’s wearing as she bounces on the balls of her feet. She’s breathing as if she’s trying to relax but he knows she isn’t.
He wondered but he didn’t know her well enough to ask so he let the elevator touch the bottom floor and the doors open.
She left without saying anything and Antonio bit his lip, sighing.
He usually wasn’t like this, he was very grown, he was very good looking and knew how to flirt. Women liked him when he actually put in the effort to be liked.
But she seemed busy. This wasn’t the first time he saw her outside of the fire alarms. He’s watched her come in and out with stacks of paper or always on the phone speaking boldly to someone. She’d come downstairs and type away on her computer by the pool or he’d see her reading her kindle while on the elliptical. He didn’t want to bother her but the desire to be near her was becoming so strong, he considered pulling the alarm himself just so he could speak to her.
Luckily, God is listening.
The fire alarm goes off that same night he’s actually trying to get some sleep. He’s got meetings and interviews for tomorrow, a lot of work to be done and he needs the rest.
He is frustrated as he throws on a hoodie, grabbing a second one on instinct and leaves his warm apartment.
He leans against the bricked stairway, clutching the hoodie with his eyes closed. The air around him feels warm from the previous wind chill that just passed and his eyes open and look right into brown ones.
She’s smiling at him, her shoulders dropping a bit.
He smiles back, hoping he doesn’t look too drowsy.
Now that he’s really looking at her, she looks very familiar. Although he has been non-creepy watching her the whole week, he doesn’t really get a chance to see her face straight on.
And while she is absolutely gorgeous, she is also very familiar.
“I just got here, that’s why I’m wearing pants,” She says, her voice sweet as usual.
He chuckles. She takes off her bag and sits on the concrete edge next to him, her head finding his bicep immediately.
“Had a good night?” he asked, finding his voice and his courage through his exhaustion.
“Busy. I’ve been writing a script that has to be done by the end of next month. I was with my editors for the last four hours.” She tells him.
He nods. “What kind of script?”
“Book adaptation.”
“That’s really cool.” He says, looking down at her. She looks up, resting her chin on his arm and smiling.
“Thank you.”
“Alright everybody, all clear. This shouldn’t happen anymore after tonight, I’m so sorry for any inconvenience it’s caused.” The fireman says.
Nobody acknowledges his words, they file back in silently.
The woman hops down, turning to Antonio and reaching to take the jacket from him.
He raises an eyebrow at her.
“So you have an excuse to talk to me again since the fire alarm is clear.”
She bats her long lashes at him, grinning before turning on her heel and walking away.
“Can I at least know your name?” He calls after her.
She pauses, running back to him and handing him a card. She leans up and kisses his cheek before taking off.
He looks down at the card, his eyes widen.
He’s back in his house in minutes, picking up the book he’d just finished from his coffee table and flipping to the back cover.
Same name. Same smiling woman.
He knew she looked familiar.
He looked at the card. A number was scribbled on it next to a little heart.
Despite it being almost midnight, he dials the number on his phone anyway.
He answers after the first ring.
“Miss me already then?”
He chuckles. “I just wanted to say it’s very nice to meet you Liah, I’m Antonio. I enjoy your work.”
“Antonio. Thank you for saying that. Are you calling because you’d like your hoodie back?”
“Oh by all means please keep it. I did however call to see if you’d like to have dinner with me tomorrow night.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” He would never tell her that he was sweating with the hopes she’d say yes.
“Okay.”
He silently cheered, pumping his fist.
“Okay how about 7:30, I’ll pick the place and we can uber if you don’t wanna drive.”
He hears her giggle. “Bring flowers and I’ll see you at seven thirty. What should I wear?”
“A dress. Maybe some heels, my hoodie.”
She laughs full out now and he loves the sound of it.
“Roger that. Get some sleep Antonio.”
“Goodnight Liah.” He says.
The phone is silent for a minute before either of them hang up. She finally does and he jumps up and down like a teenager.