Ola frowned as a plate full of freshly baked cookies was thrusted into her face. "What is this?"

Ola's mother stood in front of her as she smiled widely. "Hear that?" She pointed over to the front door of their apartment which confused Ola some more since she didn't exactly get the answer to her question. She shrugged in disinterest after she only heard some thuds and groans from the outside, but nothing really related to them at all.

It sounded like someone was moving a lot of things around outside of their apartment.

"I want a cookie." Ola spoke up as she turned to look at her mother who was looking at the young woman with a frown now. "We have neighbors!"

"Hurray." The lack of enthusiasm and her hand which was reaching over to grab a cookie from the plate, got Ola a slap on her hand. Retracting her hand back, Ola glared at her mother, whose excitement came back instantly.

"Go give these to the new neighbors!"

"What? No. I'm busy." Her mother raised up an eyebrow as she placed her free hand on her hip, still holding onto the plate of cookies in her other one. "Doing what exactly?"

Well, that was a loaded question and Ola even knew it as she tried to look around the living room for a specific and believable answer.

"Watching tv." She spoke as she raised her hand to point at the television whose black screen was all that she could really see. Her mother, rolling her eyes at her daughter, pulled her up by her arm. "Go take this next door."

Ola frowned as she sighed to herself. This battle she had lost, but the next she was gonna win for sure.

Grabbing the plate from her mother's hand, she placed on the coffee table. "Let me just get my scarf." She mumbled as she went over to her room to get her scarf.

Ola didn't exactly cover her head anymore the way she used to, but that was just because she didn't really enjoy people staring at her.

In all of her years in high school and then later college, Ola was the quiet person in class who didn't like communication in any form or language. She also didn't like anyone staring at her, so she took the decision of not covering her head anymore, but still at all times kept a scarf dangling from her neck to her front.

She wasn't specific at anything since she didn't really care at all. And as she entered her room, she picked up the first scarf her hand landed on, which happened to be dark blue and soft.

Ola lived in a two-bedroom apartment with her parents at the age of 24. The universe had tried to throw opportunity after opportunity at Ola's face, quite literally in her face. Being an art major, Ola had a knack for design softwares and painting, but after graduating, she didn't feel like doing anything at all.

I couldn't blame her. She was a bit confused with life even though she didn't show it to her aging parents.

Going back outside to the living room, she noticed how her mother was back inside the kitchen probably cooking up a storm. She looked over at the chocolate-chip cookies resting on the plate so comfortably and felt a pang of jealousy.

Picking up the plate, she went straight over to the front door mumbling to herself about how cookies had a better life than humans, since they got to be lazy and just lay around.

Also, eaten, but Ola chose not to focus on that particular aspect.

The first thing that Ola had witnessed as she got out of her apartment door, was the dog that was sat on this large cardboard box with its tongue hanging out of his mouth.

It didn't take long for the dog to notice Ola as he barked once and then went back to what he was doing prior. Salivating on the damn floor. Ola watched the saliva on the floor and felt a shiver go through her. There were many reasons why she disliked dogs, and this was definitely one of them.

But as Ola was busy in her own world where she was trying very hard to not hate on this innocent animal, our other main character came into the picture and slipped on none other than the saliva the dog was responsible for.

Ola didn't really realize what was happening as she wrapped her free arm around the falling woman's waist, while still holding onto the plate of cookies she was more interested in.

Wearing a summer dress with flip-flops, Freda was a visual representation of a beach or summertime and ice-cream. With her reddish-brown hair covering half of her face, she managed to look at her savior as Ola kept her tipped a little, whilst holding her tightly to herself.

It was the perfect way to create some kind of tension. The perfect way to meet the love of your life.

Ola's and Freda's eyes met for only 3 seconds before Ola had straightened the other woman's position. Ola was clearly more worried about the cookies her mother had sent for the new neighbors.

"Thanks." Freda spoke up as soon as she had swiped away some strands of hair from her face. She looked at this woman that had saved her from making a fool out of herself in the middle of a hallway. Ola's shoulder-length hairstyle almost matched her own as she smiled at the similarity.

Feeling like the silence between them had gone on for long, she was the first one that initiated the conversation, with her hand extended over to Ola.

"I'm Freda." Ola, who was a bit confused at why this woman was suddenly introducing herself, reciprocated anyway. "Ola."

"Is that...French?" Ola squinted her eyes at the woman before shaking her head. "Arabic." Freda, nodding her head, with a smile glanced down at her hand which was still there outstretched for the other woman.

Just now realizing the rudeness, Ola clasped her own hand around the other woman's, getting more confused as things went on.

She was sure that it was just her imagination, but she could definitely see flowers blooming mid-air behind Freda, as she looked at the smiling woman.

"I just moved into no. 32." Ola frowned as she realized that the red head had just moved into the apartment next to theirs. She was the new neighbor.

"Alone?" Ola found herself asking since she had been brought up in a household where her parents still held some outdated opinions about things. Freda narrowed her eyes before she smiled brightly, figuring out that there was no ill intent in the question. "Yes!"

Ola felt like the other woman was too bright, and those damn flowers were still there behind her for some reason.

"Uh, here." The woman passed the plate of cookies to the red head as she further explained. "My mom wanted to be hospitable, I guess."

The red head smiled brightly as she looked down at the cookies and then back up at the woman that had given them to her. "You want one?"

It was like Freda had offered up a lung for sale on the black market to get probably a million dollars as Ola's eyes opened wide and a hungry smile came over her face. She nodded frantically as she immediately picked up an unaware cookie. "My mom didn't even offer me one."

Freda giggled as she heard the other woman whine. Both failing to realize that they were still in the middle of a hallway. As if, finally realizing that Freda had more important things to do than to spend some leisure time with this attractive woman in front of her. "Uh, I've got to bring up the rest of my stuff upstairs, so..." She trailed off, hoping that the other woman would understand what she was implying but Ola just stood eating her cookie innocently.

"Can I have one more cookie?" Freda ended up laughing as she moved a hand in her hair, before nodding her head. But then she found herself thinking up of a solution to her multiple visits to the ground floor and then back up.

"You could have two more if you help me get my stuff from downstairs?" Freda smiled nervously at the woman since she wasn't sure if Ola would even agree on that. Ola thought of it for a second before she shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, what the heck. I wasn't doing anything anyway."

The red-head's smile was all the reward that Ola could receive as she subtly tried to cover her eyes from the visual brightness. The universe was giving her very clear as day signs at the moment. Maybe it turned the brightness a bit too much. Just got to tone it down a bit.

Freda placed the plate of cookie next to her salivating dog, who just barked once and then went back to his more important task at hand.

The women made their way over to the stairs which were hell.

Even though they just lived on a 4-floor building, the stairs were killer. Ola was just grateful that they lived on the 2nd floor since it was easier for her old parents to continue living there.

"So, what do you do?" The red head asked up suddenly as they descended the staircase. Ola, who wasn't expecting the question almost tripped on her clumsy feet and got saved by the other woman.

And there they were again, in one another's arms, staring into each other's eyes, a second too short.

"Uh, sorry, I have two right feet." Freda squinted her eyes as she looked at the woman. "Isn't that saying supposed to be 'two left feet'?"

Ola nodded her head before she explained herself. "I always put my right foot first when walking so sometimes my feet end up not coordinating with one another and I try to step forward with both feet forward."

The seriousness on the brunette's face got Freda laughing hard. "You're so weird."

Ola's eyebrow rose in amusement as she tried to put her right foot forward and her left next, as they finally got to the ground floor. "Weird people are the only ones interesting anymore."

Freda unconsciously nodded her head as she walked over to the lobby of the building where a total of 5 boxes waited for her arrival.

"I'll take 3, you can take 2?" Ola frowned before she shook her head. "I'll take 3, since I'm taller and you won't be able to see in front of you."

"How tall are you even?" Freda gave the other woman a challenging smile as she placed her hands on her waist. "Taller than you." Ola smirked as she went to pick up the boxes after stacking one over the other. Freda smiled as she shook her head at the other woman's weird excuse before she grabbed the last two boxes left.

Both of them went back to the staircase as Freda spoke up again, "So, you still haven't answered my question yet."

"Oh man, I'm probably an inch or two bigger than you. Let it go, dude." The truth was that Ola was struggling and she really didn't like carrying heavy stuff and talking at the same time.

Freda smirked as she watched the woman climbing the staircase in front of her struggling. "I meant the question about what work you do."

The brunette frowned as they reached the 1st floor finally. "Well, I'm currently helping you. But usually, I just sit in the living room of my parents' apartment and stare at the TV's blank screen."

Freda didn't want to laugh but she couldn't help but let out a chuckle as they were finally climbing up the last steps to their climb. "So, you're unemployed."

Ola clicked her tongue as she walked over to apartment 22. "I don't like that word." She mumbled to herself, but we all heard her clearly. Why, because the universe has a plan to get her from unemployed to employed in mere seconds.

"We have a few openings in our company if you wanna join." Ola placed the boxes down beside the box on which Mr. Saliva face was sitting on, as she turned to look at the red head with intrigue. "I don't even know what you do."

Freda smiled as she straightened herself up after placing the boxes down beside the ones Ola had just put down. "I work at a newspaper company's design department. We mostly work on designing technical stuff, but we also design business cards, brochures, and all that as a side gig. Ooh, and also cute greeting cards!"

Ola's eyes squinted at the other woman, who was appearing bright and lovely again. She blinked a couple of times before shrugging her shoulders. "Sounds like fun."

"We're still a startup in the cute cards and stuff designs though, but we have lots of clients even now."

"When do I start then?" Ola smiled widely and Freda began to wonder how this woman could get even more attractive than before. "Uh, I haven't even told you what posts we have open."

Oh, Ola wouldn't need to know about that since she just wanted a job. Anything to get her off of her lazy butt. She was ready to work.

"When do I start?" Freda couldn't say anything else as she saw the wide smile on the brunette's face, which was filled with determination.

Yep, determination. 

***********