The house is pretty run down, but it was cheap. Mum doesn’t approve of the area obviously, “to many crimes,” “you’ll get robbed.” Yes mum that’s kinda the point. Mum doesn’t know about my job, I doubt she’d be very happy to find out her youngest son in thief. Robbie the eldest is a neurosurgeon (whatever that is), Chris runs his own radio station and has thousands of regular listeners, and Mike (that’ me) appears to be unemployed when is in fact an expert robber.

What mum doesn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

My clothes are shoved into the wardrobe, the only thing I have in the kitchen is a loaf of bread and a coffee maker, and I’m yet to require sheets for my bed. It’s a work in progress. Very slow progress. It’s a flat in one of the most ugly apartment buildings I’ve ever laid eyes on, I thought Nickolas was going to refuse to move in when he saw it. Nickolas is my cat, a lazy thing but my only form of living contact seeing as I know absolutely no one who lives here. I also haven’t seen anyone else who lives in the apartment blocks, no one coming in with groceries, no one knocking on my door asking for a cup of sugar. Which is probably fortunate considering I couldn’t give them one. It’s a bit odd though, I feel like I’m the only person who actually lives here.

The quiet suits me. Gives me space to think about my next heist. A small jewellers on the corner of Crows Row. It mostly just sells watches but they are very expensive watches, around £25,000 each. Would help me buy some proper furniture for this place and you know maybe some food. I love caffeine but I can only survive for so long on coffee and uncooked toast.

I grab the blueprints of the jewellers off my kitchen counter and step outside on to the fire escape. I got the prints from the building contractors who redid the jewellers before it was a jewellers and was a tattoo parlour. Their archives are more poorly organised then their firewall is coded. It took me six minutes to hack it.

I lean over the railing staring at the plans I hold in my hand, not the most complicated heist I’ve ever done. Disable the alarms and security cameras, throw in some some smoke canisters, smash the display cause, grab a few watches from their stands and bam no more living in an empty apartment. The watch stands seem to be all blocked together, rookie mistake, I can grab more that way.

As I was thinking about how much time I should spend in the shop as to not seem suspicious, maybe even buy a small ring. But my thought process was cut short by a raised voice coming from above.

“No Rosa for the last God Damn time we are not smoking the place!” A male voice yells, they have a strong Scottish accent. I tilt my head up.

The apartment above has their fire escape door open and were speaking about something I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to be hearing.

“Why the Hell not it’s the safest way to get everyone out while remaining inconspicuous.” A female voice answers back, a strong Brooklyn accent… which makes sense seeing as we are in Brooklyn. “Come on Rick help me out here.”

“I’m good thanks, I know better then to intrude on your little couple fights.” Another male voice, same Brooklyn accent.

“We’re not a couple.” The Scottish voice again. A sharp edge, a topic better left untouched.

“Oh as if your not dying to get your hands on me.” Says the girl, Rosa.

A pause, I can feel the tense energy even from down here. I hear creaks, someone’s moving about.

“We are not smoking the jewellers Rosa that’s my final decision, last word.” Says the Scottish accent. Wait jewellers as in the jewellers I’m about to rob, are they thief’s as well?

A burst of rage suddenly screams from the room. “SERIOUSLY ARTHUR!!! Your gonna use a last word on something as stupid as a watch heist!” Screams Rosa.

“Come on Arthur that’s a bit extreme don’t you think.” The male Brooklyn accent appears again, he hadn’t spoken in so long that I had forgotten he was even there.

“Stay out of this Rick” Arthur says. “We used smoke bombs on our last job, if we use the exact same ones their going to make a connection and start looking for the same suspects.”

There was some logic that I could see in Arthur’s explanation, Rosa couldn’t see it.

“THEN WE’LL BUY SOME NEW GOD DAMN SMOKE BOMBS.”

More creaking floorboards.

Someone steps out on to the fire escape a lit cigarette in their hands, they take a long drag before breathing out and tilting their head back. There wearing black baggy jeans and some sort of black T-shirt with a design on it but I can’t see it properly. They have blond hair that sticks up in every direction and I can’t help but make the assumption that this is Rick. Considering that the female and Scottish voice are still screaming at each other inside.

A smashing comes from the room, rick grimaces and knocks his head down as the screaming continues. His cigarette still placed between his fingers.

Our eyes lock.

Rick is really cute.

He tilts his head to the side and narrows his eyes, they then find the blueprints that are still in my hands he lets outa breathy laugh like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. He looks back to my eyes and gives me a teasing smile.

Without looking away from me he calls out behind him towards the screaming. “Hey guys?” No answer, he lets out a huff and turns quickly towards the inside of his apartment. “HEY GUYS!” The screaming comes to an abrupt stop. Having earned their attention he turns back to me and resumes talking, “you remember that new neighbour we got about a week back. Well I reckon we’ve been quite rude, time to say hello.”

Sudden footsteps echo and suddenly another man stands on the fire escape, his pale fingers grasp the rail as he leans down to look at me, he has dark hair that’s cut short, I don’t think the hairstyle suits him. He’s wearing black slacks pants with a a plain white button up, pretty fancy. The gold rimmed glasses make him look very professional even though he can’t be older then 25.

Anger coursed through his brown eyes behind the glass, even though I have never seen him I assumed that this was a constant thing. He doesn’t really seem like the type of guy to have fun. He sees the blueprints as well, his knuckles whiten and I think he might break the bar he’s gripping it so tightly.

“Arthur meet the new owner of flat 3d” says Rick, he takes a another puff of his cigarette and blows it off to the side that Arthur is standing. He waves his hand through the air dispersing the smoke, while still glaring at me.

“Who the fuck are you?” Arthur snarls.

“Didn’t you hear Rick? He’s the new owner of flat 3d.” A voice says behind me.

I turn around quickly to be met with a girl, holding my cat. If her accent is anything to go by this must be Rosa. She’s got dark skin with braided hair, the occasional gold band running through them. She’s wearing a leather mini skirt and a white tank top, and lots of bracelet.

“How’d you get in here?” I ask. From above me I hear Rick say something along the lines of ‘omg he speaks.’

“I picked the lock of course, I would have just come out onto the fire escape but you know… wearing a skirt… didn’t really wanna flash you.” She smiles while stroking Nickolas, that traitorous cat.

I hear Arthur call down to her, “he’s got blueprints for the Crow Row job.” Rosa eyes say she’s surprised, but it looks like an act like she already knew.

She laughs to herself as she lets Nickolas jump out her arms and slowly starts walking towards me. “You know” she starts. “When most people buy watches,” she’s right in front of me, taking the blueprints out of my hands. “They don’t go to the trouble of acquiring plans of the building.” She’s so close to me pushing me right up against the railing.

She traces her hand along my jaw and smiles at me. “Now won’t you help me out here.” She leans into whisper in my ear. “Where did you get those blueprints.”

I sidestep out of cage and grab the blueprints from her hands. “That would work better if you were guy, sorry seduction isn’t a great tactic with me.” I say straightening out the plans.

Rosa lets out a huff and leans back against the railing.” Arthur, Rick get your asses down here!” She shouts up. Sudden footsteps clamber above and the outline of the two boys disappear from the fire escape.

“Sorry about the whole,” she waves her hands in a dismissive manner. “Honestly getting kinda sick of the whole pretty girl routine.”

“Why do it then?” I ask.

“It’s a good distraction.” She says sadly. “But honestly it doesn’t even work half the time, most guys now are gay or racist pigs.”

I lean against the bar so I’m beside her. I take a bet and hope she doesn’t punch me. “I’m sure if you spoke to your boyfriend about it he’d find a different distraction.”

She doesn’t punch me so that’s cool.

But she dose freeze and stare at the floor. “Arthur isn’t my boyfriend.” Rosa says quietly. Like she doesn’t want to say it.

I just shrug and start walking inside as I hear Rick and Arthur’s footsteps coming down the stairs, Rosa didn’t close the door behind her. “Could have fooled me.”

Arthur bursts into my apartment, Rick follows behind him seeming very unbothered about the whole ordeal. Arthur’s eyes scan from me, who is placing the blueprints down on my kitchen counter, to Rosa who is still looking glumly at her worn out black converses. He immediately turns on me stalking towards me. His hands are in a fist like he intends to punch me.

Thankfully he doesn’t. Instead he just snarls at me and asks me who I am.

“My names Mike.”

“Last name?” He persists.

I huff and roll my eyes. “Mike Lowen.”

“Well Mikey would you mind telling us what your doing with the blueprints to the shop that we’re robbing?” Asks Rick, did he seriously just call me Mikey?

“I think you mean the shop I’m robbing.” I counter, I see a hint of hesitation in Arthur’s eyes. Rosa whips her head that was currently facing Arthur to me, Rick raises his eyebrows in surprise.

“Just you?” Rosa asks

“Just me” I confirm. I’ve never tried working in a team, I’ve wanted to. But you can’t really go up to people, tell them your a thief, ask them if their a thief and then ask them if they want to help you steal something.

“Can you get blueprints for any building?” Rick asks. I’m about to answer but before I can Arthur explodes (figuratively.)

“Absolutely not Rick, he don’t need his help.”

“I’m just saying dude, a talent like that could be helpful.”

“We don’t even know him!”

Rosa walks over to me and hops up onto the kitchen counter with her legs dangling over the edge. She picks up the plans and looks at them. I walk over to her. Arthur and Rick are so caught up in screaming that they don’t notice me hoping up on the counter beside her.

“What are they fighting about?” I ask.

“Whether you should help us on the job or not.” She says. Rosa says it like it’s no big deal but to me this is like the coolest thing ever.

“Yea, having blueprints like this could be hella useful.” She says again eyeing the plans in her hands.

“I don’t just do blueprints you know I can do security tapes, get you fake Documents.”

“Ricks the fake ID guy but we need someone for the tech stuff.”

“If Rick is the fake ID guy what are you and Arthur?”

“Well I’m the distraction as we have already been over, and Arthur’s the plan guy. All of us go in though, we are all physically able for running and shit like that.”

“I could be your tech guy.” I say. Holy shit this is it, well at least I hope it is. I’m not going to become part of a gang thing. Besides there’s safety in numbers less likely to get caught. And every great spy movie has a team of thieves instead of just one guy. But that might just be the movie business, no one wants to watch one person rob a bank by themselves. There’s no interaction, boring!

Rosa looks up from her plans and looks at me with a startled look that quickly turns into happiness. She snaps her head around to face the boys in my apartment that are screaming at each other.

“SHUT IT!” She yells.

Both boys turn to face her a startled look on their face obviously hopping for a few more minutes of screaming.

“Mike’s joining out heist, and future heists. Final word.”

I have no idea what the whole final word is but Rick and Arthur have very different reactions to this. A very angry string of curse from Arthur and a smug laugh from Rick directed at Arthur.

“You can’t last word something like this Rosa!” Arthur defends, I find it quite concerning how desperate he is to keep me out of this. Oh well that only makes me want to define him more. I can tell I’m gonna love pissing him off.

“Dude you literally used a last word like ten minutes ago.” Rick laughs.

That seems to put Arthur at a lose for words. Which gave Rosa the opportunity she needed to cut him off. She jumped off the counter and walked towards him. She traced his chest with her hands and smiled up at him.

“A smart guy like you should know that this is a win for us.” She says wrapping her arms around his neck and pushing against him. One hands takes his glasses off while the other strokes his neck. Arthur keeps his hands firmly at his sides, but his fingers twitch he wants to touch her. To hold her. “Don’t you want to make me happy darling?” Honestly I understand why she plays the distraction.

Feeling suddenly really awkward I look past them to Rick.

He’s already looking at me.

He takes a breath of his cigarette while still holding eye contact. He looks me up and down as he exhales and I feel myself blush and tense up.

At some point Arthur has pushed away from Rosa, or she let him go, I wasn’t paying attention to them.

“The only reason you want him on the team is to piss me off” Arthur tells her. And turning to Rick he accuses him as well. “And you only want him cause you think he’s cute.” I blush again.

“Yea” says Rick. “That and blueprints would be hella helpful on jobs.”

“Also he’s quite sweet.” Adds Rosa who has walked back over to me and taken the prints. She nods her head towards the door. “Come on we’ll show up around the apartment.”

Fucking awesome.