All characters appearing or mentioned in this story are 18 years old or older. This story is a work of fiction and any reference or description to actual persons is unintentional.
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If you are enjoying these stories, leave a comment about what you liked or didn't, or things you want to ready more of. I'll take advice into consideration when I'm working out the next parts of the LoP stories.
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May 1998
I lived in my apartment for a little over a year and a half. In all that time I didn't really pay attention to any of my neighbors or their comings or goings. My apartment was on the second floor, but I had a window by the front door that showed my neighbors door and the stairwell we shared. I could see out and down the stairs normally, but on this afternoon I couldn't see anything. A large mattress was blocking the way and it looked stuck. Repeated back and forth actions of this seemingly free floating mattress did not help matters.
I went outside and called to the other side of the mattress.
"Would you like some help," I asked the mattress.
"For shits sake, yes please!" said the female voice of the mattress.
"I assume you're going into the next apartment?"
"Yes, the doors open but this thing is stuck."
I grabbed a side and helped maneuver the queen size mattress up the exceedingly narrow stairway. Once it was on its long side I got a look at the person hauling it up the stairs.
She was maybe a couple years older than me, fair skinned with a round face, an easy smile, and round sea green eyes. Her hair was a large pile of very curly brown locks that was currently let down and blowing in the wind.
"Hi," she said after getting the mattress on the landing. "I'm Leila."
"Paul," I replied. "Just getting moved in?"
"I've actually been here over a week. Today was the first day I actually had off to get my apartment sorted out."
We slid the mattress inside her place which was a mirror of my own apartment. We slid it into the bedroom where it flopped heavily to the floor.
"Thanks," she breathed gratefully, "that was a pain getting it even that far up the stairs." She held out her hand, which I shook. "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise," I said, shaking her hand. Looking around her apartment I noticed that there was close to nothing in there. Some old takeout boxes, a phone, and some mail on the kitchen counter.
"I know its pretty sparse," she said, noting my looking around, "I'm in my final year of nursing school and I was at the hospital this entire week. I only came home to sleep and then back to work. Night shift mostly, which is probably why we haven't met before now."
She jumped up on the counter to sit a moment, the only place to sit it seems. She was short, maybe 5'3", but had impressive curves from what I could tell. She was in jeans and a t-shirt so it was difficult to gauge accurately.
"My stuff is still in transit somewhere between Chicago, my last home, and here. The company promised to deliver yesterday, but called at the last minute to say it's gonna be delayed a few more days.
"I was tired of the blow up mattress so at least I have something soft to sleep on while I'm off the rest of the week."
It being Monday and after school and all, I decided to be neighborly. "You know," I started, "I know you don't know me, but there is a great place a few blocks away for rolled tacos. Good snack for after moving. Would you be interested? My treat."
Leila cocked her head at me a moment and smiled. "That sounds good. Especially if you're buying." She hopped down from the counter. "I'll meet you out front in a few minutes."
I stopped by my apartment to grab my keys and met her on the landing. She changed her shirt to a more (much more) low cut t-shirt that showed an impressive amount of cleavage. I of course did that auto-glance thing that all guys did but recovered quickly.
We walked down to the taco spot unhurriedly. It was a 15 minute walk, but that was typical for blocks in southern California; distance was measured in time traveled, not actual distance.
We chatted idly about her nursing program and I answered her questions about Rancho Hills. It was a typical suburb but had some fun spots as well. After tacos we stopped and played a few rounds of pool. The pool hall was typical for a town in that its where high school kids hung out to smoke in public cause they couldn't reliably get alcohol. This, Leila mentioned, was a commonality of every pool hall so we had a good time playing. She probably didn't have to bend so far over the table for a few shots, but I am certainly glad she did.
On the way back she asked about the pool at our complex and I mentioned it closes at 9. It being 7:30 meant there was time though and I offered to go swimming with her.
"I'd like to," she said, "but most of my clothes, including swim suits are still in limbo."
"Well," I said, "I have a few suits from when I had friends over. You can use one of those; they're clean and I think they'd fit."
She pondered this a moment. "Would these be the ones belonging to the woman I've spotted coming and going to your apartment?" She had a hint of playfulness in her voice.
I'm pretty sure my face reddened a bit. "I assure you those bikini's aren't what I wear to the pool," I said.
"I'd guessed that," Leila said. "Besides, from what I hear coming through the walls, I'd be surprised if your voice gets that high." She didn't even break stride as we walked back to the apartments. "I thought it might have been cheesy horror movies, but you mentioned you don't have a TV, so I put 2 and 2 together."
My face definitely reddened a bit at that statement. "So, you can hear that well?"
"Only when it gets really loud," she said. "And from what I can tell she seems to enjoy it, so congratulations on that."
"Thanks," I muttered. "Anyways, I'm sorry about that, mostly cause it probably happens when you're sleeping. I'll ask them to try to keep it down."
"Them?" Leila started. This made her break stride a bit. She walked on a few more steps to keep up. "That makes sense," she said finally, "it did sound like a fairly different voice each time. But still," she looked my way, "well done."
"Anyways," I said, trying to avoid further embarrassment, "you're welcome to use one of them. So how about it?"
"Sounds fun," she said smiling.
We chatted more about her job, highs and lows of it, my plans for after school, things of that nature until we got back to the apartment. I invited her inside while I changed in the bedroom. I wore my usual board shorts and got out the various bikinis Amber and Sarah and Ashley had left over.
I exited the bedroom and I could swear Leilas eyes darted down for a moment before she acknowledged me and went into the bedroom to change.
A few minutes later she emerged wearing the one and only bathrobe.
"I figured if you were gallant enough to buy dinner, you'd be fine with me using your robe," she said with a smirk, sashaying toward the door. I grabbed the towels and followed her to the pool.
Being me, I did my typical jump in and get use to the water quickly routine. Leila was more timid about it. She dipped a toe and and, judging it acceptable, pulled the cord and dropped her (or rather my) robe to the ground.
I could not help but stare at her. She choose probably the skimpiest bikini available. The bottoms were a red Brazilian tie side, and the top was one of the black string bikini ones which barely covered her ample breasts. Looking at her now in this new light I could see she was at least a DD cup and probably the 36-24-36 measurements associated with typical desires of most men.
In any case, she was striking and she knew it. She turned nearly all the way around dipping another foot in the pool before she slowly made her way down the stairs.
"Glad you found something you liked," I commented.
"Well," she replied, "it covers more than my usual bikini, but it'll work well enough." She dove under the water and swam towards me. Rising from the water she looked like every slow motion emergence of a woman in a commercial I'd ever seen.
She probably did it on purpose. She seemed to be playful in that sort of way.
We swam around for a while, me stealing furtive glances at her when she wasn't looking. I'd like to think she did the same, but honestly, girls just don't do that in my experience. Still, swimming with an insanely hot chick was way better than anything else I had planned.
The clock on the wall eventually started to get near 9 so we headed back to my apartment. Once inside, I offered the use of my shower.