Cozy Affairs of the City

The first time Leo saw Eleanor, she was holding an umbrella and staring at the ground. The second time he saw her, she was staring out of the window of a moving car. He made a mental note of her face, her hair, her body language. He thought it would be useful for future reference.

She had a way about her that he liked. A little bit of strength and a lot of vulnerability, with big wide eyes that seemed to ask for help and tell secrets all at once. She made him curious.

The third time he saw her she was walking down the street. He slowed his pace and watched her walk by. She looked up into the sky and smiled. Leo chased after her, "Hey...you're Eleanor, right?"

"Yeah?" she turned around and looked at him curiously.

"I'm Leo."

Eleanor looked him up and down, "Hi."

"Hey," he said as they walked down the street towards work together, "do we work in the same building or something? I think I've seen you before but I can't remember where..."

"Yeah...I work on the seventeenth floor...on the east side."

He knew exactly where she worked but he wanted to hear it from her lips anyway so he nodded along like he knew what she meant. He wanted to know more about her anyway so he asked, "What do you do again?"

She told him about how she was an accountant for a small non-profit organization that helps people sell their houses faster than usual. She told him about how sometimes if an agent says they're going to auction off someone's house they'll buy them back out and make them sign a new contract because they don't want to lose money on the deal or they just don't want them to have to go through all that hassle so they'll pay them cash money to take over their contract instead. She told him about how once someone had found $20K in an old shoebox in their attic and had called them to ask if they could keep it because it wasn't theirs anymore even though technically it still is until their house sells but turns out someone bought it from them before they found the money so now someone else has $20K that doesn't belong to them anymore and how no one is quite sure what happened there but she hopes if it ever happens again she'll be there when it does because that would be pretty cool.

 Leo smiled as she talked about all this stuff but mostly he just stared at her mouth when she talked and stared at her eyes when she looked away and stared at everything else when she wasn't talking so really he didn't really hear much of what she was saying anyway. He did however notice that most of what she talked about involved houses which meant that he might have a chance later tonight if they could just make some plans or figure something out because every girl likes a good house story right? So he decided to try anyway, "So are you going home after work today or do you want to get dinner or something?"

 "Oh..." Eleanor looked up at him with wide eyes filled with surprise "um...I mean I don't know...let me check my schedule real quick..." She pulled out her phone and started tapping away at it with one thumb while still holding onto the handle of her umbrella with the other hand like maybe if she dropped either one of them something terrible would happen so Leo just stood there patiently trying not to stare too hard at anything in particular until finally Eleanor lifted her head up from looking at her phone and said, "My husband's picking me up around six thirty so I guess we'll have to meet before then."

 Leo nodded along like this made perfect sense even though it didn't, "Sure! Yeah! Sure!" He said cheerfully like this was great news or something, "Six o'clock? That's not too bad!" Then he added quickly when he realized it might sound like too much enthusiasm, "Or whatever time you want really! Whatever's good for you!"