What Skylar Needs

by Lanee Lane

  What Skylar Needs

  Lanee Lane

  Published by Lanee Lane, 2018.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  WHAT SKYLAR NEEDS

  First edition. January 5, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 Lanee Lane.

  Written by Lanee Lane.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELEVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  EPILOGUE

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  To my mom. Thank you for sharing your love for books with me and always believing in me.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Skylar turned up the sound on the T.V. He was trying to have a relaxing Sunday evening of football and beer with his brother. His neighbor apparently had other plans.

  “A new chick moved in upstairs. That must be her listening to her teenybopper music. Don't people have any respect for their neighbors anymore?”

  "I don't know, bro; guess not. You could take a broomstick to the ceiling. You know, like the movies," Brendon answered back.

  Skylar got up from the couch and grabbed the broom from the kitchen. Back in the living room, he banged the broomstick on the ceiling a few times. The music turned down, so he set the broom beside the T.V. and reclaimed his seat on the couch. The Bears were playing, and he didn't want any distractions while watching his team. He was taking a pull of his beer when the music started back up even louder this time. Then there were loud thuds.

  "What the hell is she doing up there? Is she running freaking laps in her living room?" Skylar growled out.

  "Sounds like more than one person, bro. Maybe she's having a party."

  "I don't care if she is having a party! I’m trying to watch the game. I'm going up there to tell her what she can do with her party and her music."

  "Tell me if she's hot or has hot friends up there. I'd be willing to join them."

  Skylar rolled his eyes at his brother. Hot or not, she was going to get an earful. He slipped on his slides and headed out the door toward the stairs. He took the stairs two at a time, his annoyance mounting with every step. What a waste of my time, he thought. Normal people had common courtesy, but nooo, not my new neighbor. She just had to be a boy-band-loving disturbance.

  At her door, he knocked with three loud raps. He could hear voices and the music turned down a bit. The door swung open and a short woman with brown skin and curly black hair stood before him. She smiled up at him and for a moment he forgot he was even angry.

  "Hi, you must be the pizza guy. If you want to step in for a second, I'll go grab my wallet."

  Leaving the door open she turned to get her wallet. Was this chick serious? For one, he didn't have any pizzas in his hands. Two, who just left their door open for complete strangers even if they were the pizza guy? He stepped into the threshold waiting for her to return. The pizza guy walked up at the same time she reappeared. When she looked up from her wallet, there was a look of confusion on her face.

  "Good evening," the man with the pizzas said. "I have one pepperoni, one supreme and an order of cheese bread. Your total is thirty-two even."

  She handed the guy two twenties.

  "You guys training tonight?" the curly haired half pint asked.

  "Um, no," the pizza man said. "I'm out delivering by myself tonight."

  She looked over at Skylar. "Huh, so who are you then?"

  "I'm your neighbor."

  "Well howdy, neighbor!” she said as a big smile spread across her face. “Come on in. You can join us for pizza if you want. I moved in this week and I haven't met anyone from the building yet."

  She took the pizzas from the pizza guy's arms and thanked him. She turned into her apartment and once again left her door open for him to follow. This time he followed. He’d come up here on a mission, and he was going to say what he came to say. It didn't matter that she was clearly oblivious to his annoyed mood and that her smile was friendly and inviting. He wasn't here to make friends. The mission was to get some quiet for his football viewing.

  In the kitchen, he saw two other women gabbing at his new neighbor. One had fiery red hair and was a few inches taller. The other was the tallest of them all with straight brown hair and freckles scattered across her cheeks and nose.

  After a moment, they turned and noticed him. The one with the red hair looked him up and down. There was no shame in her ogling. He went out to local clubs all the time and had a pretty active social life. Women checked him out all the time. He wasn’t conceited, but he thought he was a good-looking guy. Anything he may lack in looks, which he doubted was much, he made up for in his physique. He prided himself on keeping in shape. Running was part of his morning routine and he liked to hit the weights a few times a week as well.

  "Helloooo, handsome. To what do we owe this pleasure?" Red asked.

  "Good grief, Claudia, must you be such a floozy?" His neighbor asked while swatting the redhead on her behind.

  What the hell had he walked into?

  "Ladies, this is my new neighbor. I invited him to have pizza with us."

  "Ugh, Melanie! You know this is supposed to be a man-free zone tonight," Red whined.

  "Claud, I know, but I can't exactly be rude to my new neighbor. I need to make a good impression."

  The ladies carried on for a moment as if he wasn't even in the room. He snorted at what Melanie, as he now knew her as, had said. Too late, he thought, you already blew the first impression out of the water and not in a good way, lady. As for rude, she had kind of killed that one as well with the loud pop music seeping through his ceiling.

  "Do you have a name, neighbor?" Claudia asked.

  Skylar was not sure how he had gotten pulled into a full out conversation with these women. He’d simply gone up there to tell them to keep it down. He could have said what he needed to from the door. He needed to tell them the deal and get out of here. Alas, he could tell it wasn't going to be that easy.

  "Skylar. My name's Skylar."

  Indifference was obvious in his tone. He didn't want them to get the idea that he was being friendly or wanted to make small talk.

  "That's a nice name, Skylar. I'm Claudia, and this is Jade," she pointed to the woman with freckles. "This here is my BFF and your neighbor, Melanie. She is single and ready to mingle by the way." She waggled her eyebrows at him suggestively.

  "Claudia!" Melanie slapped a hand over her friend's mouth, and Claudia let out a big belly laugh.

  "I'm so sorry, Skylar. She recently had surgery to remove her foot from her mouth, but there is some recovery time."

  As she let go of her friend's mouth, there was another knock at the door. The ladies looked at each other wondering who could be at the door. Melanie left the kitchen to go see who it was. The door opened and Skylar heard a familiar voice.

  "Hi, is Skylar here?"

  A moment later, Brendon walked i
nto the kitchen. Skylar shook his head. This was getting out of control. He was missing the game because of these three.

  "What are you doing here, Brendon? I told you I would be right back."

  "Dude, you were taking forever. I came to make sure you were still alive and didn't get lost."

  "I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth.

  "Who are you?" Claudia asked Brendon.

  "Oh, sorry for my manners, ladies. I'm Brendon, Skylar's brother."

  "Makes sense, you're pretty easy on the eyes like your brother."

  To Skylar's dismay, his brother flashed what he called his ‘panty-wetting’ smile. For fuck’s sake, why couldn't his brother have stayed downstairs? At this rate, they would never get to watch the game.

  "Brendon, I just invited Skylar to stay for pizza. You are welcome to join us if you’d like," Melanie said as she handed him a paper plate.

  "Well, if it's not too much trouble, I'd love to."

  Skylar rolled his eyes. His brother was such a traitor. A few women and some pizza and he abandoned their football game for a girls’ night. If Melanie pulled out a beer, he thought his brother might ask to move in. Now he was stuck. If he left and his brother stayed, he would look like a jerk. If he stayed, he was going to be in a shit mood.

  "Come on, man, we have a game to watch. I bought snacks for us to eat."

  "Uh yeah, but you don't have pizza and pretty ladies," Brendon said as he bit into a slice of supreme pizza.

  "Whatever, man, I'm going to go watch the game."

  "Come on, big guy. Why don't you stay and hang with us? We are about to start the karaoke back up. You can have the first song." This came from Claudia, who was sitting awfully close to Brendon.

  "No, I came up here to ask you to turn the music down. I'm trying to watch the game and you guys are up here listening to teenybopper songs and stomping around."

  "Excuse me, but we weren't stomping. We were doing choreographed moves," Melanie said with a look of shock.

  She had the nerve to truly look taken aback at the fact he would call their dancing ‘stomping’. This chick was really touched.

  "I am sorry that we were disrupting your game. We were just breaking in my new apartment and having a breakup party. We'll try to keep it down from now on."

  Skylar gave a curt nod.

  "I'd appreciate it."

  With that, he walked out of her apartment leaving his turncoat brother behind.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Melanie sat up and turned her alarm clock off for the fifth time. After her ‘girls’ night-turned-coed’ party, she was tired. Thankfully, she didn’t have to be at work too early. Picking her schedule was a perk to having the most seniority at the boutique.

  She shopped for, and styled, women of all shapes and sizes, but her passion was helping other plus size women like herself. Being a size sixteen, she knew what it was like to struggle to find fashionable clothes that she loved.

  In the kitchen, she put the kettle on to brew her green tea. The aftermath of her get-together was everywhere. Empty pizza boxes and glasses littered her kitchen island. She took a few minutes to put the boxes in the trash and add the cups to her dishwasher. While her teakettle warmed, she ran her trash down to the dumpster.

  As she was walking out the door to the apartment building, she came face to face with none other than her neighbor. He was shirtless. His skin was damp from what she assumed was sweat. His body was solid, and she had the sudden urge to wrap her hand around his bicep and squeeze. Realizing she was staring, she spoke up.

  “Hi, nice to see you again.” She offered up her best smile, but the face looking back at her didn’t return it. “The weather is nice today. Seems like it’s finally starting to heat up again.”

  More staring from him. Tough crowd, she thought. Glancing up at him, she realized just how tall he was. He towered over her five-foot two-inch frame. The grim look glaring back at her was a bit intimidating. A nervous laugh escaped her.

  “I guess I’ll just scoot on by you. Have a good day.” Flashing another smile that she was sure looked like a grimace, she slipped past him. When she was about halfway to the dumpster she looked over her shoulder to see if he was still there. Sure enough, he was. She wiggled her fingers in a wave and hightailed it the rest of the way.

  Two hours later, she walked into work ready to take her first client. The client was a woman she had worked with a few times before. There were files for each of her clients with their style preferences on her computer at the boutique. It was important to Melanie that the women she worked with were comfortable and confident with her abilities.

  There was a light knock on her door, and she looked up to find her boss, Barbara, standing there. Black, tailored slacks covered her bottom half and were paired with a bright, abstract kimono top. Her brown bob was straightened to perfection. She was so elegant.

  “Hey, Barbara. How are you today?”

  “I’m doing well, darling. I’ve just been scouting out some new designers we may want to carry in the boutique.”

  That was one of the things Melanie loved most about Barbara and Finesse & Flare. She tried to give up-and-coming designers a chance to get their work out there. There were several designers that had been featured in their little boutique that were now doing very well for themselves. Melanie would often feature them on her blog as a way to have unique styles as well.

  “Find anyone that’s tickled your fancy yet?

  “There are a few with some potential, but we’ll see.”

  The two spoke for a few more minutes before Melanie went back to preparing for her client. She flipped through the pages, making a mental list of what they had in stock that would suit her. It didn’t take long to set up her plan of attack. She grabbed a clothing rack from the back room and began to place items on to it. Once she had enough pieces, she wheeled it to the front just as her client was coming in.

  With a warm smile, she greeted her client. They were an upscale boutique, so they had an assistant that offered drinks and snacks during their appointments. The woman was shopping for a vacation with her boyfriend, and she wanted to look ‘smoking hot’ in her own words. She confided that she thought he may pop the question on the trip so she needed everything from a classy evening dress to slinky lingerie.

  Melanie was able to help her find the perfect wardrobe for her potential pending engagement. Getting to help women feel and look good for so many important moments in life was her favorite part of the job. The client promised to bring back pictures from her trip as she left the boutique.

  The rest of Melanie’s day quickly passed. She had five more clients that day, and in between appointments she helped the walk-in customers and posted on her social media sites. Sites like Instagram were good for both blog traffic and actual business. She’d been considering doing some independent personal styling, but hadn’t quite made the jump. When she decided to do that, she would have no problem finding clients. Her inbox was filled with multiple emails a week inquiring if she did any personal styling.

  When seven o’clock rolled around, she and Barbara locked up the shop and headed to their cars. Since it was a slow evening, they were able to get all of the closing tasks done before seven.

  “Any big plans tonight, love?”

  “No. You know me; just working on some blog posts and then curling up with a book.”

  “Darling, you are too young to be living your life through romance novels. You have to get out and live for yourself. Find yourself a real-life romance.”

  This was a lecture that Melanie had heard many times from her boss. The older woman had been married to her husband for thirty years. Of course, she thought it was as easy as just going out and finding someone; she hadn’t dated in forever. Melanie had a news flash for her; dating in this day in age was hard. Adding a plus size figure to the equation made it even harder. She’d rather live in a fantasy world than dive into the fiery pits of Tinder.

  “Not everyone is as lucky as yo
u to have found the love of their life at twenty-two, Barbara. Maybe the old maid life is for me.”

  “No, Mel, it’s not. You are much too beautiful of a girl, inside and out, to be alone. Your Prince Charming is going to come and, when he does, I can’t wait to witness it.”

  On her way home, Melanie thought about what Barb had said. Her mind wandered to her brooding neighbor. He was living proof that she did not have the desired effect on men. He nearly burned a hole in her giving her the stare-down that morning. Maybe she deserved it. They had kind of interrupted his quiet with their karaoke night. They didn’t mean any harm; just a little girl fun. Plus, she invited him to stay. How much nicer could she have been?

  She decided to stop at a local deli to grab something for dinner. Most nights, she enjoyed cooking. Monday’s were her exception. Inside the deli, she ordered a warm panini and soup. A case full of baked goods lined the wall and she made a spur of the moment decision.

  Twenty minutes later, she was knocking on Skylar’s door. She didn’t know what the hell possessed her to do so, but there she stood with a vanilla cupcake in hand. Voices and movement came from behind the door. After what felt like several minutes, the door finally opened. The face that greeted her was not Skylar’s.

  A tall blonde stood in the door of Skylar’s apartment. She had piercing green eyes, toned legs that were showcased in a short black skirt, and perky breasts that were quite exposed by her V-neck top. She was stunning and was Melanie’s polar opposite.

  “Um, hi. I’m Melanie, the neighbor. I came to speak to Skylar.”

  The blonde stood there staring at Melanie. Sizing her up as if she was trying to figure out what the hell a short, black woman was doing at his door. Why hadn’t Melanie thought about the fact that he may have a girlfriend and a live-in one at that? Of course he did. He may be mean, but he was sexy. That couldn’t be denied.

  Before the blonde responded, Melanie heard Skylar ask her who it was before appearing in the doorway. When he saw it was her, his expression went blank.

  “Candace, go ahead and relax on the couch. I poured you some wine. I’ll be right there.”