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*****
Summer 1978
The monthly meeting of the Greenwood Tenant Association had ended a half hour before, but Neil Hanson had stayed behind to help with the cleanup. It was, the twenty-three-year-old accountant felt, the least he could do, especially since the gathering had been held in the apartment of Agnes McDonald, who had gone to such lengths to make him feel welcome in the few weeks since he'd moved in. The fifty-four-year-old office manager, along with her late husband, Kyle, had been original tenants when the thirty-family building first opened back in the mid-fifties, and had, in recent years, set herself up as a one-woman welcoming committee for new arrivals. She would explain how the building was set up, introduce tenants to some of their neighbors, and even conduct walking tours of the neighborhood, pointing out as she did the best places to shop and which stores to avoid.
"Well, the kitchen is all done," Janice Wells, another neighbor who had stayed behind to help, said as she walked back into the living room.
Janice, six years younger than Agnes, lived just down the hall in one of the smaller corner apartments. Never married, she had moved into the Greenwood about ten years ago and had become older widow's best friend. Five three with free flowing, shoulder length red hair and a still bodacious body, Janice owned a small lingerie boutique uptown. She was also, as Neil had learned, a notorious flirt.
"I'm just about done here too," Neil added as he tossed the last of the plastic cups and paper plates into a trash bag.
"It was nice of you to stay and help," Janice said as she tossed the smaller bag in her hand into the larger one that Neil was holding.
"It seemed the right thing to do," Neil said as he proceeded to tie the bag. "In fact, I was surprised that more people didn't offer. After all, Agnes didn't have to let them use her apartment while the community room is being painted."
"It's hard enough to get most of them just to come to the meeting," Janice noted, "much less get them to stay after it. In fact, I was really surprised that you did -- I mean, it is Saturday night, don't you have a date or something?"
"Let me take this out to the trash chute," Neil said, ignoring her question as he lifted up the bag.
As Janice opened the door, stepping aside to let him pass, the short haired, bearded blond could almost feel her eyes on him as he did so. Neil was never sure if the forty-eight-year-old was serious in her flirtations or just playing with him, and to be honest, he was a bit afraid to find out. While he wasn't a virgin, Neil's experience with women had been pretty much limited to those close to his own age. He had no idea how to really deal with one nearly as old as his mother.
As he walked down the hall to where the chute was located, Neil reminded himself how lucky he'd been to get the second-floor apartment he now occupied. True, it was only three small rooms, having originally been the maid's quarters of a larger apartment that was later subdivided, but it was a vast improvement over the friend's couch he'd been crashing on. Also, it was only two train stops from his office, whereas his friend's place had been an hour and a half long bus ride on two different lines.
After dropping the trash bag off, Neil headed back towards Agnes's apartment, catching a glimpse of her entering it as he turned the corner. After the meeting, she had taken it upon herself to walk Mrs. Healey, another tenant, back to her rooms on the floor below. The white-haired septuagenarian had recently begun to use a cane to get around, and even so was still a bit unsteady on her feet. It was the sort of helpfulness that Neil had come to expect from his new found friend in the short time he'd known her.
"Is there anything else I can do?" Neil asked Agnes as he stepped back into the living room, glancing around to see if there was any trash that he'd missed.
"No, I think we're good here," Agnes said with a smile as she looked to Janice for confirmation.
"Good as gold," Janice, who had just stepped up beside her,
agreed.
As the women stood side by side, Neil couldn't help but compare the two. In addition to the age difference, they were, in many ways, physical opposites. Agnes was tall and slender, standing nearly five inches over Janice. In fact, she was even two inches taller than he was. The younger was slightly stocky, but with all her curves in the right places, whereas the short haired brunette had an almost androgynous frame, with only a pair of small breasts to reflect her gender.
Their contrast also seemed to extend to their personalities as well. In the short time that Neil had known them, he had found Janice to be extremely outgoing, almost to the point of being aggressively so, while Agnes had a much more reserved personality. Although that wasn't to say she was a pushover by any means; he had seen her demonstrate a decisive strength of will when a situation called for it.
"Well, if you don't need me, I guess I'll get going then," Neil said with a smile.
"Ah, so you do have a hot date waiting," Janice laughed, a suggestive glint in her expression.
"No, just a comfortable chair and a good book," Neil answered, knowing, even as he said it, how lame that sounded.
Rather than make a comment, Janice and Agnes shared a silent look. They had been friends long enough for each to know what the other was thinking without saying a word. Janice gave her older friend an almost imperceptible nod, after which Agnes turned to face Neil.
"You know, Janice and I were just going to have a glass of Chardonnay and relax a bit," Agnes stated. "If you really don't have plans, you're welcome to join us."
Agnes' offer was as unexpected as it was welcome, as Neil really wasn't looking forward to yet another Saturday night alone. Still, as much as he wanted to accept the invitation, he felt that it had merely been made pro forma, just another way to make him feel welcome in his new home.
"I wouldn't want to intrude," he finally replied, thinking it was a safe answer, not really saying yes or no.
"You wouldn't be," Agnes countered, "Good company always makes a good wine taste even better."
Neil didn't know the first thing about wine, but he really could use the company. He glanced in Janice's direction and, seeing no objection to Agnes' invitation in her face, gladly accepted it.
-=-=-=-
"I hope you enjoy this," Agnes said as she poured a generous portion into Neil's glass before doing the same to her own. "It's an unconventional vintage, but one that I've always enjoyed."
"I'm sure it's great," Neil replied as Agnes lifted her own glass from the table and seated herself.
"What are we drinking to?" Janice asked, flashing a smile at Neil.
"How about new friends?" Agnes suggested.
"Works for me," Janice replied as she raised her glass a little higher, echoed the toast and quickly drained nearly a quarter of its contents.
Agnes followed suit, though with a smaller portion, then turned back to Neil.
"New friends," he repeated as he took, first a small sip, then a larger sampling.
"So, what do you think?" Agnes asked once he lowered his glass.
"This is really good," Neil said, not having expected, at least based on past experience, that it would be. "In fact, I don't think I've really tasted anything like it."
"Good, I'm glad," Agnes said as she leaned back against the back of the couch and took another sip of her own.
They began talking about the meeting that had just ended, Agnes again bringing up her disappointment that her proposal to prohibit nude sunbathing up on the roof had only garnered a handful of votes. Neil wasn't even aware it was an issue before the meeting, but evidently a trio of young women who shared an apartment on the top floor had taken to doing so in recent months. The general consensus among the other tenants was that, even though the roof might be construed as a public place, and technically, public nudity was illegal, did anyone really want to make a big deal out of such a harmless activity?
"I wonder how many of those men who voted against the proposal find some excuse or other to be up there when they're working on their tans," Agnes asked.
"That's between them and their wives or girlfriends," Janice said. "I really think you're making too much of it, Agnes. If you keep going on about it, people might start to think you're some kind of prude."
"I am not a prude and you know that," Agnes insisted. "I have no problem whatsoever with what anyone does in the privacy of their own home, but I'd hate for this building to gain that sort of reputation."
As he listened, Neil tried to remember if any names had been mentioned as to who exactly it was that had been using the roof in that manner, and more importantly, if he had met any of them. Unfortunately, he couldn't recall any being used, or even any mention that they were even at the meeting.
"You know, there were a few times when the weather was really nice that I considered going up there myself," Janice offered. "So, I don't really see it as a big problem."
Agnes didn't reply, but finally let the matter drop.
Neil had the opposite reaction, however, as he suddenly found it impossible not to try and imagine Janice up on the roof in the manner described. In fact, he was so engrossed in his visualization that he didn't realize that not only had Agnes changed the topic, she had directed it back on him.
"What?" he finally said when he finally realized that he had been asked a question.
"I asked how you were adjusting to life in the city," Agnes repeated as she refilled his glass, which he hadn't even realized that he'd drained, and then topped off both hers and Janice's. "I imagine it's a bit of an adjustment after having grown up in a small town."
"In some ways yes, in others not so much," Neil replied from the other end of the couch. "But then again, I've spent so much time at work these last couple of weeks that I really haven't been able to do much exploring."
"Well then," Janice interjected from her chair on the other side of the coffee table, "you're just going to have to find the time. The city has so much to offer, and I'm sure you've heard the old saying about all work and no play."
"I'm sure he'll get to it in his own good time, Janice," Agnes said from her side of the couch. "Right now, he just feels that work should come first, and I'd have to agree with him. As I remember, you spent so many hours in your boutique when it first opened that you might as well have moved in."
"But that was my shop, so whatever I put into it benefited me, not someone else," Janice countered.
