Chapter 286

It all happened when he had just graduated from college, and was in his first job, his first apartment sharing it with a couple of his friends as it was not possible to afford one with his salary. He almost knew all the guests living in the building as most of them were wither old whom he and his friends used to help by carrying their groceries up to their apartment or they had kids who ran up and down making a lot of noise. In emergencies they had to even baby sit which was quiet profitable. Neither of them was home on weekends and their room was always locked and given their age everyone knew they are either partying or hanging out with their girl friends. They were quiet happy that they never threw a party there and the noise and the crowd would have been a pain for everyone. Winter was the worst part of it all. As it if were written some old man or lady either got hospitalized or died in winter and the guests were crowded and parked on the parking lots that they had cleaned. Within a couple of months someone always moved in and life went on as usual.

In one such occasion, someone moved in to the apartment directly opposite to his. It looked like she was alone, hardly had any luggage, just a couple of boxes. She was roughly ten years older than he was looked very professional and had a great dress sense. She was tall and lean, with brown wavy hair dangling just above her shoulders, with red heart shaped earrings that looked as if they were glued to her ears with a matching pendant adoring her slender sleek neck. She had long legs that were quiet strong indicating that she walks a lot. Her face indicated her age and the circles around her eyes were apparent that she probably spent many sleepless nights. Her bags slipped out of her hands while she struggled to open the door with the key and in frustration dropped everything and concentrated on opening the door. He heard some noise and peeked through the window and hardly got a glimpse of her. He was busy cooking and didn’t bother to come out to see who that was and continued with his work.

Three days later he ran into her when he was leaving for work. He introduced himself and greeted her. He let her walk down the stairs first as she was also leaving for work. He started a conversation and found out that she was taking the same bus as he was but they were getting down at different stops. She was somewhat friendly which gave him a sense of uneasiness but he liked her. He observed the mark on her finger where there used to be a wedding ring, and the expression on her face and the way she conversed all indicated that she was not happy. He felt sad. He felt pity for her and wanted to help her feel better as it was apparent that she was in lot of mental pain which reflected through her eyes. She had sparky eyes; beautiful fish shaped black eyes that gave her a personality and sophistication. She seemed to a little shy in general and he was thinking about her even after he had gotten of the bus and sitting at his desk working. He thought about her while cooking and he often peeked through his window to see if she was there. He was completely drawn to her after the first time he met even though they hardly spoke anything. This continued for weeks and all they met were at the bus stop and smiled at each other and went their separate ways. The more distant she was the more attracted he felt. As he was a good cook, he cooked some Chinese food, packed it up nicely and walked over to her apartment and knocked on her door. It took her almost five minutes to open the door, and her face looked a little swollen, her eyes sunken in and her lips adorned an artificial smile. It looked like she had been crying.