Propinquity: noun: nearness, closeness, affinity, kinship; also meaning nearness in place or time and nearness in relationship

OOO

Niles eyed his closet with discontent. It was bad enough that he no longer had the glorious walk-in closet at the Montana, but to be forced to condense his wardrobe into this piffling pocket of space was adding insult to injury. He'd had to put many of his possessions into storage when he moved to the Shangri-La; most of it just wouldn't fit in the tiny apartment.

Letting go of his antiques and his art, his ten piece crepe pan set and his Portuguese bud vase collection, he could live with that. That was the price of his freedom. But that didn't make it any easier to look into that pathetic closet and realize there was only room for a fraction of his summer-weight selections.

And worse, dry cleaning cost money (it was alarming, Niles had discovered, how very many things cost money when you didn't have enough of it) and the Shangri-La did not boast a washer and dryer in the apartment. Instead he had to take his laundry and his little bottle of soap and walk down to the communal laundry room.

Niles sighed. It was Saturday night and Maris was probably out at some party or another, on the arm of the latest in a series of men since Schenkman had left her. In the meantime there he was, pondering an exciting evening of laundry and reading while he watched the dryer spin. Hell, even Frasier had a date. Niles was sure he'd hear all about it when they had coffee on Monday, but until then there was only the empty stretch of the weekend ahead of him.

He gathered up his laundry soap, quarters, and clothes basket, and nudged the door open with his elbow. Shuffling down the hall, he could hear laughter coming from the rec room, and catcalls over someone's lousy aim at darts. The lady in the apartment by the stairs was yelling at her kids again, and someone was making spaghetti because the whole floor smelled of the sauce.

The laundry room was at the end of the hall and he trudged in and set his things down on the table just inside the door. Then he looked up, and saw her for the first time.

She had her back to him, and his eyes traced her from the ground up. Long, slender legs, smooth beneath a simple cotton dress that hugged her hips and swirled around her knees enticingly. He stared at the way the fabric shifted and slid over her back as she folded clothes into a basket. Her hair tumbled loose over her shoulders, a rich brown that shone even in the grim fluorescent light. Her waist looked the perfect size to fit his hands around, to hold just so, and then he'd slide them down a bit, he thought. His fingers twitched at his sides and he swallowed hard, making a dry click in his throat.

"Oh, hello," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him.

Niles jumped and jerked his gaze upward. "Hi," he wheezed.

"I won't be in your way much longer," she said, "I'm almost done."

"Take your time," he replied, and offered her a dazed smile. "Um… I don't think we've met."

She turned to face him fully, still shaking out a freshly dried towel. Her eyes were a deep coffee colored shade, warm and sparkling, and her smile made him clutch at the table for support. "No, we haven't," she said. "I'm Daphne Moon. Are you new here?"

"Um," he said. "Yes, I just moved in. Apartment five?"

"Oh, Gary's old place," she said, nodding.

"Yes," Niles agreed. "My name is Niles. Crane. Niles Crane. Um, Doctor Niles Crane. I mean."

Her smile widened into something close to laughter. "Good to meet you, Doctor Niles Crane."

"Call me Niles," he said, and stuck out his hand.

She took it and he forgot to feel embarrassed over his bumbling introduction. Her hand was soft and warm in his, strong where Maris had always been cold and frail. He had to make himself let go.

"Well, Niles," she said, "I guess we'll be neighbors. I live right across the hall from you."

Niles could feel himself grinning like an idiot, but he couldn't seem to stop. "Well," he said. "Good! I mean, that you… I'm glad to, ah, get to know my neighbors."

"Likewise," she replied. "Have you lived in Seattle long? It's a beautiful city, I'm still learning my way around."

"All my life," he said. "Where are you from? That's a lovely accent, is that Manchester?"

She flashed him a pleased smile and he stood a little taller. "Yes, how'd you know?" she asked.

"Well, I'm quite the anglophile." He hesitated, and then added, "You know, if you need someone to show you around the city…"

"Oh, that would be too much trouble," she said. "I mean, you're a doctor, you've probably got patients and, you know, surgeries and rounds and so forth."

"It's no trouble," he insisted. "I'm not that kind of doctor, actually. Well, I am, but I practice psychiatry, not general medicine."

"Oh," she said, nodding. "Well that makes more sense. I kept seeing you sitting at a desk, writing things down on a little pad, and you're never wearing one of those white coats."

Niles blinked a couple times and tilted his head to the side. "What?"

She laughed. "Oh, sorry, I should have explained. I'm a bit psychic."

"Oh," Niles said. "Well, that's…"

"It comes and goes," she continued. "Me Grammy Moon had it strongest of all, and she said it always carries down to the girls in me family. Of course, I'm the only girl in the family now, and none of me brothers got a bit of it. Simon was convinced he did for a while, and he kept saying he could use it to beat his mates at poker, but then they found out he was just stacking the deck and being psychic didn't have a thing to do with his lucky streak. They got him back for it though! They all tied him up, stuffed him in the car, and then put him in one of those nasty little portable toilets they have at construction sites. Tipped it over on the door so he couldn't get out and made him spend the night there. It took a week of showers before he smelled right again."

She chuckled and put the last towel in the basket, then smiled brightly at Niles.

"Oh," he said again, bemused. "Um. Okay. That offer still stands to show you around, if you like."

"No thanks," Daphne said, shaking her head. "I appreciate the offer, but I couldn't take up your time like that. We've only just met!"

"Okay," Niles said. He dredged up an understanding smile. He supposed he really should have known better-expecting a beautiful woman like this to spend time with him? It had been foolish to even ask, and he never would have tried if he hadn't been so completely awed by his first sight of her.

"Maybe after we've gotten to know each other better," she said.

Niles looked back up at her, hopeful again. "Oh?"

"I'm sure we'll see each other all the time, being neighbors." She gathered her things and put them on top of her basket of clean clothes. "There you go, washing machine's all yours."

"Thank you," Niles replied absently. He glanced at it, and then looked again, frowning. He had done his own laundry before. Not often, but he'd done it. A coin operated machine was new, though, and he eyed it warily.

He could feel Daphne watching him and heat rose in his face as he flushed in embarrassment. Now he was going to utterly fail at something as simple as doing laundry, right in front of her. Way to make a great first impression, he thought ruefully.

"First time?" she asked gently, and Niles shot her a sheepish look over his shoulder.

"No, no, of course not," he said. Then he sighed, and admitted, "Well… yes."

She chuckled, but it wasn't derisive. "I get the feeling you're used to having someone do this for you."

"Is it that obvious?"

"It's all right," she said. "Here, you have quarters?"

"Oh, yes," he said, fishing two out of his pocket. "Where do they go?"

"Give them here." He dropped the quarters in her hand, feeling a tingle run all the way up his arm as his fingertips brushed her palm. She showed him where they went in the machine, fiddled with the dials a bit, and soon the thing was humming agreeably.

Niles gave her a grateful smile. "Thanks," he said.

"Anytime," she replied. "Good meeting you, Niles."

"You too," he said, and she was gone, gliding gracefully down the hall with her laundry basket propped on one hip. He watched her until she disappeared into her apartment (indeed right across the hall from his, he noted with delight) and then he sat on the lone metal folding chair and let out a long sigh.

Suddenly, life at the Shangri-La didn't seem so bad.

TBC