Howdy Neighbor
It had been a shitty day.
It all started out when he had tipped up his go cup of coffee for a sip before walking out the door. The lid on his cup hadn't been secured, and the piping hot brown liquid soaked his face. The front of his work uniform was wet now too, and he had a nice sized brown stain on it. He put his cup into the sink and began the process of taking off his clothes as he walked back to his bedroom to find something to change into.
Ten minutes later, he strode into the kitchen wearing an exact replica of the now stained uniform. He quickly filled the sink up with cold water and dumped a little liquid laundry detergent in the water, before adding his stained clothes to it. He almost fell on his ass in the kitchen when he realized there was spilled coffee on the floor as well. He dipped a clean hand towel into the soapy water, wrung it out, and then dropped to his knees to begin wiping the floor clean. He threw the hand towel into the washing machine and promised himself he'd wash all that shit tonight when he got home.
He tried hailing a cab, but because it was pouring, he was basically invisible to the quickly moving yellow cars. Thankfully, he had brought his umbrella, and he began walking to the closest intersection in hopes of getting a cab from there. When a cab finally did stop and let him in, he couldn't remember being happier.
A co worker called in sick and then posted on Instagram a photo of her and her husband kissing at the top of the Statue of Liberty. He commented 'I hope you feel better soon' on the picture out of spite. Not that she would care. His boss had been hounding him about things that needed doing. People that needed to be seen. Notes that needed to be typed up. Running around in every direction all day long. And then checking in with him after he was done so he could give him another long list of shit to do. In other words, his boss wanted him to do his job for him.
People were assholes.
Maybe it was just the people in New York?
He didn't know, and right now he didn't have the luxury of letting it be more than a passing thought in his brain. He checked in with everyone he was supposed to and did all the errands that needed to be done. He let his boss know the news, to calm his busy ruffled feathers. Then he got down to business with his own work.
When his stomach growled hours later, signaling it was time to take a break he walked to the refrigerator in the break room to heat up his Chinese leftovers from the night before. Instead of finding his lunch where he had put it when he arrived at work earlier that morning, someone had stolen it from the refrigerator. Whoever the hungry thief had been, was thoughtful enough to leave the empty container, as if saying please refill this for me. He threw it back into the refrigerator and sighed loudly. Fucker!
He walked three blocks over and grabbed a hot dog and a soft drink from a vendor outside. It had stopped raining, so that was something decent. He ate as he walked back, begrudging the idiot who had eaten his intended lunch. Hating him for leaving the dirty empty dishes in the refrigerator.
He trudged through the rest of the day, submitting his work to his boss, and walked out the door at six thirty. Only an hour and a half after the normal quitting time today. Some days it was much later than that. He couldn't wait to get home, eat dinner in peace and quiet, and go to bed early. Oh! And do the damned laundry.
He grabbed take out at the Mexican restaurant on his street and walked the rest of the way home. If he had any leftovers, he would be leaving them at home where he knew they would be there when he returned. He walked into his apartment and had just gotten settled at his tiny round kitchen table when he heard screams coming from the apartment next door.
He threw the plastic fork onto the table and sighed. Fucking hell! Not again! He ran his fingers through his hair as frustration seeped out of his entire body. "Not tonight!" he mumbled angrily.
It would have surprised him to hear screaming, but he always heard screams coming from the apartment next door. Sometimes it sounded like a wild porno in the making with lots of excited oooooh's, ahhhhh's, and give it to me baby. Other times it sounded like someone was being murdered. This time is was the latter.
He really didn't have the strength to deal with this tonight. Not after the kind of unbearable day he had already lived through. He could hear every word they said, which made it infinitely worse. To know a complete stranger's personal business as you sat and minded your own was unnerving.
The woman who lived in the apartment where the loud voices were currently coming from was a tiny little thing he had briefly met a few months ago in the lobby when they both happened to be getting their mail at the same time. She had spoken to him first, saying hello. He had repeated her cheerful
greeting back to her with a smile. And then she disappeared down the hall towards her apartment. That had been it. Short and sweet.
There was nothing short and sweet about this argument though. It had been going on for over a half hour already, and it didn't sound like the end was anywhere near. Apparently, her boyfriend was visiting again tonight and the two of them had found something to disagree about loud enough that damn near the entire building could hear. He wondered if the super would tell them to shut the hell up? He wondered if he should call him and ask him to?
He didn't want to be that guy, but he had to get some sleep tonight. Last night had been the porno kind of screaming and sleep evaded him as the sounds of...whatever the hell they had been doing to each other easily snuck through the cracks of the thin walls that separated their living spaces. He had never prayed for someone to orgasm before in his life, but finally, at two a.m. they reached their peak and he slept for three solid hours. He couldn't do another sleepless night tonight.
He heard the man yell, "if you would just give me a chance to explain it to you!"
Obviously, those weren't the magic words to end the argument, because she went on a five minute tirade about why he wouldn't have anything to explain if he had been where he was said he was going to be in the first place. As he sat at his window with his chin resting on his palm, looking down at the darkened city, he had to admit that that made perfect sense. He stood up quickly, realizing he had been listening intently to their argument and had gotten sucked into it somehow. He had to get the hell out of there or get them to stop screaming at each other.
He was not about to be run out of his home just because two adults were having a knock down drag out fight like a couple of assholes. He went to his door, opening it wide and knocked on his neighbor's door. The ridiculously loud voices immediately silenced, and the male asshole answered it. He had on blue jeans and a plain white t shirt. A five o'clock shadow darkened his jaw. He probably hadn't had time to shave with all the variations of screaming lately? "Yea? Whaddya want?" The asshole asked as he stared down the stranger on the other side of the doorframe.
He hadn't really figured out what he was going to say, so he just went with the obvious. "Hey. I live next door, and was wondering if the two of you could keep it down a little bit please? I didn't get any sleep last night because of...well, it doesn't matter why. If you could just not yell as loud as you have been, that would be great."
"Who is it?" The female asshole asked.
Her voice sounded much more pleasant when she wasn't screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Some guy. Says he's your neighbor." He said, looking over his shoulder into the apartment behind him. He opened the door a little wider and the small woman, who looked nothing like an asshole at all, popped up from under the man's arm.
"Hi." She began. "I'm really sorry we were being so loud. We're having a bit of an argument and it kinda got out of control."
"Hi. Yea. It was a little loud. I'm not usually one to complain, I just didn't get any sleep last night from all the noise either." He explained.
"Last night?" She seemed to recall what she and the asshole had been doing the night before. Color bloomed across her face as the memory hit her like a ton of bricks. "Right. Last night. I'm sorry about that too."
"No problem. New York housing has paper thin walls." His face turned horrified and he spoke quickly, trying to explain. "Not that I was listening. I wasn't! I'm not a listener. Not at all! I just meant...Shit."
She smiled at him. He was cute when he was embarrassed. So, he had heard them having sex last night? It was a good thing it was fantastic, because it was also the last time she would be heard with the moron beside her. She had been waiting for a good reason to dump his ass and he had provided it by lying to her. She eyed her handsome neighbor up and down quickly and decided he probably was so tightly wound because he needed to get laid sometime soon too? She'd have to think about that after she got rid of the moron. She shrugged lightly. "It's okay. We're all adults here. Besides, I can hear you singing when you make blueberry pancakes every Saturday morning."
He stared at her through narrowed eyes. "I can completely understand how you can hear me singing, but how in the hell do you know what I'm cooking?"
She smiled at him, liking his inquisitive nature already more than she should. "I could smell them."
"Bullshit. There's no way that's true!" he said disbelieving.
"Yea, it isn't." She giggled. "I also saw you at the grocery store a few times buying a pint of blueberries towards the end of the week."
He couldn't help but chuckle at her. She had the cutest giggle he'd ever heard. He leaned comfortably on the door frame, still smiling at her. "So what you're saying is you like to spy on me in public places?"
He came off as sweet and innocent, but she had a feeling there was more to her mystery neighbor than met the eye. He seemed to be...flirting with her? With her current boyfriend standing right there no less. Her smile grew bigger at the realization. "You were speaking in another language and I was being nosey. I might have followed you around a little bit? From a respectable distance, of course."
She followed him around the grocery store? Now wasn't that interesting? "Of course. See, I call my mother every Saturday. She pretty much demands it even though I'm in my thirties. And she only speaks German to me even though she can speak perfect English. It can get annoying at times."
He hated to break up old home week, but the asshole cleared his throat. "Are the two of you all caught now on each other's lives?"
The neighbor stood up from his leaned position on the doorframe and said, "Yea. Sorry. Like I said, if the two of you could keep it down just a little, I'd really appreciate it."
"No problem. Sorry to have kept you up at night." She said smiling at him. She started to close the door and then stopped and stepped towards him, sticking out her right hand. "I'm Olivia, by the way."
He took her soft tiny hand into his and pumped it up and down gently. "Fitz." He replied.
"Great name. Very unusual too. Are you named after someone in your family?" Olivia asked.
"No one cares." The asshole called out from inside the apartment.
He chose to ignore the asshole. Smiling, he shook his head back and forth. "No, but I like to think creative minds are given creative names."
"I didn't say it was creative. I said it was unusual." She flirted.
"And what kind of name is Olivia? Besides, creative and unusual?" He really didn't want to leave her door, but knew his ass was pushing it by standing there continuing this conversation. She obviously had an argument to finish.
He was kinda sexy when he tilted his head to the side and grinned like a little kid. She really needed to close the door and kick the idiot in the next room out to the curb. But this man, Fitz, was talking to her like he was genuinely interested. And about something stupid like her name. "I don't know anything about how I got the name or what it means. But it's what I've got to work with in life."
"And what do you do for work in life, Olivia?" He asked playfully.
"For chrissakes! Why don't the two of you go to dinner one night and catch up on all the gossip with each other!"
Olivia turned around and angrily yelled, "Shut the fuck up!" She turned back to face her handsome neighbor and whispered, "Sorry about that. You won't hear us arguing any more after tonight. I'm dumping his sorry ass."
He smiled at her. "That saddens my soul to hear."
"You're a bad liar, Fitz." She giggled. "I gotta go. We'll keep it down. I promise. Nite."
"Goodnight. And thank you." He half walked half floated back into his own apartment with a huge grin on his face. Olivia. This night hadn't been a total waste after all? He had discovered some new found boldness he didn't know he possessed, and he straight up flirted with the enchanting little woman next door whose name he now knew was Olivia.
Five minutes later, the screaming started back next door, loud as ever. Fitz grinned as he laid down in his bed and fell comfortably to sleep.
Please give me some feedback on this one. I'm anxious to know what you think about it. Let me go ahead and disclaim that any medical stuff in this story will always come from Google. Thank you for reading the first installment. You guys know I love you for your amazing support & endless encouragement!
