Ted had been living in his apartment in a new city for a few months and was just beginning to feel at home. His place was a modest size but made for a pretty nice spot for a single guy in his early thirties.
Situated on the seventh of eight floors, his unit was at the back of building with only the alley running between his and the apartment complex next door. A gap of only 15-20 feet separating the two buildings made Ted feel almost as if he was having breakfast, lunch, and dinner with his neighbor directly across the way, especially since their schedules always seemed to line up every day of the week.
His neighbor was a man who appeared to be in his mid-forties and also single, as best as Ted could tell. Not terribly pleasant to look at and never seemingly up to anything meaningful or important, Ted always appreciated the days when his neighbor would leave his blinds shut. There were the occasional instances of incidental eye contact through the windows and these events were just about the only thing that made Ted feel ill at ease in his new home.
From the time the sun went down behind the other building each day, there was a clear line of sight into both apartments via the windows. The view was crystal clear at night. From Ted's front door, across the gap of the alley, all the way to his neighbor's front door, the only areas with no visibility on either end were the bedrooms and bathrooms whose doors led out to the main hallways of both apartments.
Both apartments had kitchen and living room spaces nearest the windows where both men spent most of their time, at least when Ted wasn't out with new friends or on a date. When Ted was home, however, his unsightly neighbor was home too.
Ted wondered if he ever left the place at all.
One day Ted walked in after returning from the working out at the gym and noticed there were a few other men across the way. Not just any men, though, these were movers. Ted's lucky day had come!
He realized after seeing the burly men in matching shirts wearing gloves, and, in the case of one man, a back brace, removing his neighbor's furniture piece-by-piece that he'd no longer have to suffer the perpetual presence of the man across the alley. And no more awkward-as-hell eye contact either!