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New in Town

Chapter 1

"Um, excuse me sir," The young brunette woman said to a man passing by trying to get his attention. The man simply put his hand up in a gesture that said "not interested" and kept on walking. She turned to look the other way and spotted another man walking toward her. "Sir, excuse me, can you…" She began but the man didn't even spare her a glance as he walked away. "Miss, do you…" She said to a woman that crossed paths with the man she'd been trying to talk to. The woman simply looked the other way as she walked by. Sydney Curtis let out a breath as her shoulders sank in defeat. She'd only just landed at the airport less than an hour ago and she was already lost. The cab driver she'd had didn't speak much English and she tried her best to communicate the address her brother lived at. She got out of the cab when he pulled up downtown, thinking maybe her brother lived around here. It didn't take her long to figure out that the cab had taken her to the wrong place and to make matters worse, people around here weren't very friendly and didn't seem to want to help her out.

"You look like you could use some assistance," She heard a male voice say behind her. She turned her head and was faced with one of the most attractive men she'd seen in quite a while. He had an adorable smile on his handsome face, his curly hair resembled a small afro and his relaxed clothing did nothing to camouflage his fit form.

"I could but no one around here is very helpful." She said with a small smile.

He grinned and spread his arms wide in a welcoming gesture. "Well you are in luck. I happen to be the most helpful guy Tampa."

She gave a small laugh and rolled her suitcase behind her as she walked closer. "Well I'm looking for my brother's apartment but the cab driver dropped me off here." She said as she showed him the piece of paper in her hands that held the address her brother had given her.

He looked down at the piece of paper and looked up again with an eyebrow lifted in surprise as he recognized the address. "You Johnny's sister?" He asked.

She looked at him with interest. "You know my brother?"

He chuckled a little. "Sure do. He's one of my best buds."

"Do you train together?" She asked curiously.

He nodded. "Yeah, we used to be a tag team in fact." He stuck his hand out. "Derrick Bateman," He said as an introduction.

"Oh yeah, my brother's mentioned you before," But he forgot to mention how good looking his former partner was. She shook her hand and introduced herself. "Sydney,"

"Like the city?" He asked.

She smiled. As if she hadn't heard that one before, "Like the name," Was her response.

He grinned. "Well Sydney, how about I take you to Johnny's place?"

"Oh no," She said. "I couldn't ask that of you."

"You didn't ask, I offered. "He countered.

She smiled. "Still….If you could just point me in the right direction then that'd be great."

"I'll do you one better, I'll take you there myself." He said as he reached out, grabbing the handle of her suitcase and began rolling it down the street.

Sydney had to run to catch up with his long strides. "Okay, but at least let me carry my own luggage." She said, reaching for it.

"I got it. Besides, my car's just over here." He said, pointing ahead to a small parking lot. She followed him to his car and got in the passenger seat of his SUV as he put her suitcase in the trunk. "So Johnny said something about you moving here?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I've lived in Maine my whole life and I'm kind of ready to start fresh. Johnny offered for me to stay with him here for a while and I just jumped at the chance."

"Well I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of each other then," He said with a laugh. "I spend a lot of time at Johnny's place." Oh she only hoped he was telling the truth. She wouldn't mind seeing him every day.

"So what were you doing downtown?" She asked as the conversation died down.

He let out a sigh as he made a right turn. "Looking for a gift for my girlfriend," Dagger to the heart. Of course he had a girlfriend. Well there went her daydreams of them locking eyes, falling in love and having lots of little babies with curly hair. "Man, it's just so difficult. I found a scarf in a store that she might like but I don't know anything about what women want. You think a scarf is ok?"

The last thing she wanted to do was give him advice on what to get his girlfriend. But she was a big girl and she had to remind herself that she barely even knew this guy. "Well that depends, what kind of girl is she? Sporty? Girly? Business?"

"Hmm," He said and he honestly looked stumped. "Well, I guess girly." She resisted rolling her eyes. She could already picture her: tall, blonde, stylish and perfect.

"Well, women love jewelry."

He shook his head. "I just got her a…a…man, what do you call it? That thing that's on a necklace that opens up and holds a picture?"

She laughed; he was such a guy. "A locket?"

He snapped his fingers at her. "Yeah that's it. I just got her a locket for Christmas,"

"Hmm…" She said thoughtfully. "Well I mean a scarf could be good but you have to get her something else to go with it. Maybe a shirt or some shoes or something."

He nodded. "I wish I could just get her a gift card or some money and call it a day."

She smirked. "You definitely don't want to do that."

"Well I know that but wouldn't it be nice for women just to be able to go spend the money themselves and buy what they want instead of lying and keeping something they don't like or coming up for reasons why they need to return it?" He questioned.

She nodded. "I see the logic but women like the thought put into things. So even though we might not like it, we appreciate that you tried."

He thought it over for a second as he pulled into Johnny's apartment complex parking lot. "I still say money is the way to go."

She smiled. "Hey, I'm only trying to help. You do what you think is best."

"This is Johnny's official spot," Derrick announced as he pulled into a parking spot. "But it might as well be mine cause it's the only place I park when I'm over."

"Where does Johnny park then?" She asked as they climbed out of the car.

He grinned at her as he opened the trunk. "Not my problem." She laughed and rolled her eyes as she accepted her suitcase as he set it down in front of her.

"Well thank you for the ride Derrick, I really appreciate it." She said with a smile.

"No problem. I think I'll come upstairs with you and wait for Johnny to get home." He said once again taking her suitcase and began walking towards the stairs.

"You just hang out here when Johnny's not home?" She asked and couldn't help but hope he said yes. She would look forward to spending more time with Derrick without Johnny around. He has a girlfriend, she mentally reminded herself.

"I sure do. Not only does he have good food in his fridge, but his couch is way comfier than mine and he's hooked up with all the premium TV channels." He proclaimed as he stopped at the top of the stairs to make sure she was behind him. "Here, let me help you." He said as he reached for her hand, helping her make the last step which was oddly enough much steeper than the rest. "That last step's tricky."

"Thanks," She said as she followed him down the hall, trying to forget how tingly her skin felt when he held her hand. "Oh here, Johnny sent me a key. It's in here somewhere," She said when they stopped at Johnny's door. She zipped open her purse and started to rummage through it.

Derrick put his hand on hers to stop her rummaging. "It's okay, I've got it right here." He said as he brought his keys out of his pocket and put one of them into the lock on the door.

She lifted an amused eyebrow. "You have a key?"

He smirked. "We have each other's key's in case of emergencies. But obviously I abuse my privileges." He said as he pushed the door open, motioning for her to go in first. She hadn't expected much when it came to her brother's bachelor pad but the one thing she hadn't expected was the mess.

"This place is a pigsty." She said simply as she walked in.

"Hence the reason I only come over for food and TV." He said as he closed the door behind him and set her suitcase next to the wall.

She shook her head as she set her purse down next to her luggage and looked around to assess the damage. "Has he ever cleaned?"

He laughed as he walked into the living room and reclined on the couch. "I doubt it,"

She figured she'd have to clean it up at some point and when she walked into the kitchen to grab something to drink, she knew that time was now. She walked into the living room and stood with her hands on her hips. "Alright, all hands on deck," Derrick was mid-reach for the remote when she spoke and he looked up in confusion. "Damage control. We're cleaning."

He lifted an eyebrow and pointed to himself. "Me?" She nodded and walked back into the kitchen to look for some cleaning supplies. "But this is not my house." He said as he followed her.

She turned to him and thrust a large trash bag in his hands. "No but you did say you are here a lot so I'm assuming you've had some hand in this." He had yet to actually take the bag from her so she put her hand on his and forced him to grab it. When he finally took a hold of it she patted his hand and smiled. "Get to cleaning big guy."

Thirty Minutes Later

Johnny Curtis opened the door to his apartment with a smile. "Yo! Derrick, man you really got to stop parking-" He stopped his thought as he looked up and saw his friend in his living room putting trash into an already full garbage bag. "Dude…why are you cleaning my house?"

Derrick looked up with a slight smile and shook his head. "Your sister's a little firecracker."

Johnny frowned at his friends words. His sister? Derrick didn't know his sister. And what does that have to do with him cleaning his apartment?

"Jonathan Curtis, I cannot believe you live in this pigsty." Sydney said from behind him as she walked out of the kitchen. She talked in a stern voice though she had a smile on her face from seeing her brother again.

He turned around and grinned as he saw his sister. Even though they'd just seen each other for the holidays, it was always nice to have family around considering that didn't happen too often. "Hey Syd!" He said as he embraced her in a hug and spun her around. "What are you doing here? You told me you were coming January eighth." He said as he sat her on her feet.

She shook her head at him. "Johnny, it is the eighth!"

He frowned but the more he thought about it, the more he realized his sister was right. "Ah shit, I'm sorry, I've got my days confused. Did you get here ok? I was only at the gym, you should have called."

"Well I got a cab but he didn't know where he was going. He dropped me off downtown and luckily for me, I ran into your friend and he gave me a ride over." She said with a smile as she gestured over to Derrick.

Johnny looked over and saw his friend wearing a mile-wide smirk and his arms spread wide. "Hey man, no thanks necessary." Derrick announced.

Johnny just turned back to his sister without responding to his friend. He would thank him later. "Come on, let's go get something to eat and catch up," He suggested but she shook her head.

"No sir. We are not going anywhere until we get this place spick and span." Johnny looked over and saw Derrick with the trash bag still in his hand and he seemed to now understand what his friend had been saying earlier.

"Aw, come on Syd, we can do that later." He complained.

"No we can't, especially not if I'm going to be crashing on that couch." She pointed to the couch that was dirty and littered with food particles and wrappers.

Johnny looked over and nodded, understanding why she wouldn't sleep on that. "Alright but at least let Derrick go, there is no reason to hold my friend hostage."

She nodded and smiled when his friend immediately dropped the trash bag and threw his hands up in excitement. "I'm free!" He exclaimed.

"Thanks for your help Derrick. But don't expect to hear from Johnny until this place is spotless." She went into mom mode.

"What?" Johnny asked. "Come on, we gotta take a break sometime. This could take days!" He exaggerated.

She shrugged and then innocently looked at Derrick. "We could get this done faster if we have three people."

Derrick looked from Johnny's now pleading face, that asked him to stay and help so they could actually hang out tonight, to Sydney's smiling face, that, though he could never admit it out loud due to his relationship status, had him weak at the knees. He let out a sigh before picking up the trash bag and continuing his duty.

Syd clapped her hands. "Great, let's get moving!"

A/N: New story, yay! Let me know what you guys think so far.