My Neighbor
"Boy I wish this apartment building had an elevator." I grumble silently as I walk my fourth box up the stairs to my sixth floor apartment. I'd graduated Columbia last month and moved to Montreal for a job, this was the first apartment that was all mine. I'd lived in the dorms at Columbia and an apartment with three other girls in my senior year. I was going to share an apartment with Eli but we'd broken up in my Freshman year for the last and final time, I hadn't spoken to him since. Actually I'd distanced myself from just about everyone from DeGrassi in the last four years. After Adam's death and graduating I think I just wanted to put it behind me and move on. I'd kept in touch with Drew through my Freshman year but Drew had moved to Los Angeles and we only kept in touch through facerange now. I was excited about having my own apartment but I was beginning to regret getting a sixth floor apartment and not hiring movers, not that I had all that much to move, I didn't even own any furniture yet. Still this box of mostly books and clothes was getting heavy and six flights of stairs was a lot. I'd made it half way up the fifth flight of stairs when I lost my footing, screeched and started to fall backwards but I was caught by the waist and prevented from falling.
"You alright?" Says a voice from my past, like a ghost from DeGrassi I haven't heard from in years, yet the prospect of seeing him sends an unexpected excited shiver of excitement up my spine.
"Yeah thanks," I reply as he rights me and I turn around.
Upon seeing each other our eyes go wide and we smile big, our eyes lighting with recognition and he takes the box from me.
"Clare?! It's good to see you, you look incredible!" Dallas grins looking me over.
"It's good to see you too," I smile.
"So where are you headed?" Dallas asks.
"My apartment is 6G," I tell him.
"Really I live in 6F, guess we're neighbors," he remarks.
"Guess so," I smile.
Dallas lifts my box onto his shoulder and hauls it the rest of the way to my apartment. I open the door and he sets it down looking around at all the other boxes.
"You should have hired movers," he remarks.
"I know but I wasn't thinking it would be so hard, after all I have no furniture, I sold it all in New York." I tell him.
"So what are you sleeping on tonight?" He asks.
"I ordered a bed it should be here soon," I respond.
"Well how much do you still have to bring up the stairs?" He questions.
"Four boxes," I tell him.
"No problem," he says with a confident smile.
He follows me down to my car and carries up three boxes while I take the last one and lock my car. After he carries them up, he helps me unpack and helps me decide where to put the bed when it's delivered. We talk and catch up while he helps me settle in, I find out he works for a local sports clothing company and he's still in touch with Drew and the Torres family. I also find out that much to my disappointment he has a girlfriend, a fashion model that lives in New York, how could I possibly compete with that? I tell him about Columbia, breaking up with Eli, the few guys I've dated since and that I moved to Montreal because I got hired by the Montreal Gazette and was now working as a reporter. Dallas thought it was quite brave of me to move and become a reporter after Asher. I order food in and Dallas stays late into the night helping me unpack and get settled.
"Call me if you need anything, or just knock on my door," Dallas says after we exchange not only contact information but spare keys to be safe.
"Thanks Mike for everything," I smile kissing his cheek before he goes and I might have been imagining things but I could have sworn I saw him blush.
After that night I barely saw Dallas for the next few weeks, I'd pass him in the hall or we'd run into each other at the mailboxes but that was about it. Despite my attraction to Dallas he has a girlfriend and I am soon dating a fellow reporter at my job. One of the things I do find out is that our bedrooms share a wall and they are fairly thin so we can hear each other making love. After the first couple of times we sort of start competing, screaming loud and banging against the wall on purpose. Of course the next day we'd purposely avoid each other. Our washrooms also share a wall which really wasn't a problem because you could only hear things like the toilets flushing.
That is until one day four months after moving in, as I was getting out of the shower I trip on the bathmat, slip on the tile and let out a blood curdling scream as I collide with the counter and the floor. As I lay there trying to catch my breath, and figure out what exactly I hurt because right now everything hurts, I hear my front door open.
"Clare?!" Dallas calls in with a worried tone.
I grab a towel to cover my nakedness, screeching in pain again as Dallas comes running into the washroom. I didn't manage to cover myself and I'm still lying on the floor. I try to sit up but putting weight on my shoulder hurts and I falter, Dallas catches me, scooping me up and placing me on the bed.
"I tripped on the bathmat and just fell, my shoulder hurts, and my ankle and everything." I tell him in a slightly whining tone as I try not to throw up.
"I think you dislocated your shoulder," Dallas says looking at it and then looks at my ankles. "You definitely twisted your right ankle; I think I had better take you to the emergency room."
He goes to my dresser pulling out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt then helps me dress. It's a slow and painful process but he's patient and gentle, when I'm dressed he takes me down to his car and drives me to the closest emergency room. He fills out my forms, waits with me and comes back to the room with me. Thankfully my dislocated shoulder and twisted ankle are the worst of my injuries but I've got a few other bruises. After leaving the emergency room Dallas takes me home, carries me up the stairs and puts me in bed. Of course by this time I am quite high on pain relievers.
"I think I'd better stay here tonight," Dallas remarks after tucking me in bed.
"What would your super model super girlfriend think?" I ask with a giggle.
"Actually we broke up a couple of weeks ago," he tells me.
"That's terrible, why'd you do that?" I question but I'm still giggling, whatever they gave me has me higher than a kite.
"Because I realized I had feelings for someone else," Dallas says.
"Lucky girl," I pout.
"I sure hope so," he says and then crushes his lips to mine.