Chapter 1

Diana loved her name. Her first-ever boyfriend in seventh grade, Daniel, teased her by singing “Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson just to get her to blush. She would follow it up with a good giggle then playfully slap him in the shoulder. He would always feign a look of pain back at her. That was their thing. They broke up after four months which was a long relationship for two thirteen-year-olds.

As the years passed, Diana would have her fair share of relationships. As with every stage in life, there are trends. They come and go, like Skidz, parachute pants and penny loafers with no socks. All of which Diana tried in her youth with moderate success. Relationships were a bit less adventurous for her though.

It all stopped though with Robert.

Diana was living on her own for the first time ever. She always had roommates up until she graduated from college. Now, as a recent graduate, she had her first office job as a publisher's assistant. She had a real job and a real apartment with real furniture. Diana loved coming home after a long day and enjoying the view of her apartment. She loved the old trim, the dark wooden plank floors and her little kitchen with the cutest little view of a neighboring backyard.

She’d been living in her new apartment for two months when after coming home from an exhausting day of meetings and having to schmooze a potential client, she heard something she did not want to hear. Drip. Drip.

“Oh no,” she sighed.

She went to the kitchen and the faucet was dry. She went to the bathroom and groaned. There was an exposed pipe under the sink that was slowly dripping. She mopped up the inch of water that had pooled up underneath and grabbed a plastic bucket from her closet and put it under the pipe. She grabbed her phone to call the building superintendent. When the phone clicked over, it went straight to voicemail.

“Great. Just great,” she said to her phone and she plopped it disdainfully onto her futon.

She grabbed a bag of chips from her emergency snack bin and started to pace her kitchen. She heard the next apartment over’s door open and close. She thought, ‘Maybe they’ve just come home!’ She dashed out and knocked next door.

A friendly and tired face answered the door. She felt bad that she had never introduced herself to either of her neighbors on the floor but seeing as she’d only been there for two months, she might be received with some leniency.

“Can I help you, miss?” the gentleman asked.

“Hi. My name is Diana. I live next door. I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself sooner.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Diana. I’m Albert but you can call me Big Al.”

Diana chuckled to herself as he seemed rather small in stature to be considered a big Al.

Al smiled as he noticed Diana’s shy response.

“It’s a joke. No one calls me Big Al.”

Diana smiled which in turn made Al start to laugh.

“I’m sorry to ask but you don’t by chance have a monkey wrench? The super isn’t answering his phone and I’ve got a leaky pipe in my bathroom.”

“Oh no, I don’t, sadly. But, Robert should be able to help you.”

“Robert? Oh great, is he in the building?”

“No, but I have his phone number.” Al shuffled off to a sideboard table by the door and fetched his phone book. “His phone number is 555-0985.”

Diana realized she didn’t have her phone with her to type it in. She apologized and ran back to her apartment to grab it. She typed it in after Al repeated the number once more and hit SEND on her phone. She thanked him as she walked back to her apartment.

“H-hello?”

“Hi, is this Robert?”

“Yeah, who’s asking?”

“My name’s Diana. I’m Al’s neighbor and I have a leaky pipe in my bathroom. He said I could call you?”

“Oh yeah, sure, no problem. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Thank you! I really appreciate it!”

Diana decided to tidy up her living space/bedroom as it was just a studio apartment to bide the time. And since this Robert sounded like a younger guy, decided to give her shoulder-length light brown hair a quick spruce up and put on some lip gloss. Just then, there was a knock at the door.

“Diana? It’s Robert.”

She opened the door and there he was, over six feet tall, big brown eyes and a sexy scruff on his face. He smiled at her and apologized for being a bit short on the phone earlier as he had just woken up from a nap.

He went over to the sink with his toolbox, tightened it up and gave it a clean bill of health. Diana thanked him and asked how he knew Al.

“Al is my dad’s best friend. Well, was. We lost my dad last year to a car accident.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said and impulsively put her hand on his muscular shoulder. He patted her hand and let it sit there for a moment longer.

“Thanks, well I best be going. It was really nice meeting you, Diana. Maybe we can see each other again under better circumstances?”

Diana agreed wholeheartedly. She felt like this guy had something.

As the weather started to warm up, Diana decided to start taking more walks around her new neighborhood. One afternoon, as she was about to turn into her building, she saw Robert. He was walking into the house whose backyard she could see from her kitchen window. She strayed outside just a bit longer to see if he would come out. After a couple of minutes, she decided it best to go to her apartment.

She had built up a bit of an appetite so she decided to make herself some dinner. She told Alexa to start playing some music and started to grab ingredients to make herself an omelet and potatoes. She briefly glanced outside her kitchen window and saw Robert. He had no shirt on and was practicing what looked like tai chi. She quickly inhaled and snuck out the kitchen to catch her breath. At that moment, “Dirty Diana” started to play. She got an idea.

When she reentered the kitchen, she was wearing her sexiest bra and her sleeping shorts. She did a little dance as she approached the stove and started singing to the song. She then grabbed the spatula and used it as a microphone for the chorus. She didn’t know if Robert was looking but she sure did hope so. She was feeling sexy and sassy. She finished making her meal and took it out to the main room and sat down on her futon and enjoyed her dinner thoroughly.

She decided to sleep in that bra and sleep short just so she could fantasize about what Robert was thinking during her little stunt.

The next morning was Saturday and she woke up to her phone ringing. It was 10:00 AM. An acceptable time but inopportune nonetheless.

“Hello?’ she sleepily answered.

“So what song were you singing?”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s Robert. I couldn’t help but notice you from the backyard. I’m sorry, am I being creepy?”

Diana bit her bottom lip and smirked.

“I was hoping you saw.”

“Well, then I suppose your plan worked. I still had your number in my phone. Hey, have you had breakfast? I know a great diner about a ten-minute walk away. Care to join?”

Diana put her phone on her chest for a moment to savor the moment and responded yes. She took the quickest shower and put on a striped tank top with jeans and a light tan sweater. She blasted her hair with the hairdryer and decided not to worry about makeup. She was out the door and ready for her breakfast date.