The tumbling of the large industrial laundry machine in our building's laundry room made so much noise that I didn't hear Mr McIntyre before he cleared his throat, which turned into a quick bark of a cough.
That startled me and I let out a little shriek, turned around, holding the towl I had been about to fold up like a shield in front of me.
My neighbor smiled. "I hope I didn't scare you, Miss Wagner?"
I flushed and answered with an embarrassed smile myself. "To be completely honest, you kinda did, Mr. McIntyre. I couldn't hear you come in." I vaguely gestured at the washing machine and the dryer. "That's my last load of laundry, won't take much longer. You don't mind throwing it into the dryer when it's done, do you?"
Mister McIntyre waved his hand dismissively and shook his head. Slowly, he walked over to the large wooden table where I had spread out my now clean laundry - some folded up, some still in a heap as I had taken them out of the dryer, but all warm and smelling amazing. He sat down on the high chair with one of those typical old-man-groans and said: "Don't worry, I can wait a bit. I don't mind. Especially not in company that nice." I smiled and grabbed another towel to fold it up. "Here, let me help...", he said and before I could say anything he had already grabbed a few pieces from the pile of dried clothes. Again, I flushed because of all the things in there he had managed to grab several of my panties. Well, at least they were clean.
I protested: "You really don't have to, Mr. McIntyre", but he had already folded up a few of my panties with quick, practiced motions and put them into a neat stack at the edge of the table. "Come on, miss, no need to flush - we're all adults here. And besides... I've seen several of these things already anyway."
I stared at him. "How... what... what do you mean, Mr. McIntyre?"
"Well, you know that our living room window is just across from yours. And occasionally, I have seen you walk in your underwear from your bathroom to the kitchen or vice versa. Just the other day I told my wife: 'Hasn't the view drastically improved since the young Miss Wagner has moved in?"
I started to feel a little offended - had my neighbor just confessed that he had been a peeping tom from his appartment? "Mr. McIntyre, you're not spying on me, are you? I wouldn't have taken you for a dirty old man!" I offered him a smile to soften the insult. "But maybe I should thank you for the compliment?" "Oh, you're welcome. Too bad that your blue underwear isn't here, I am particularly fond of that." I threw the folded towel onto the stack and grabbed the next one. "Well, you're out of luck, it's not in the pile. I'm wearing it right now, so nothing for you to see." Mister McIntyre raised his bushy grey eyebrows. "Oh really? And I'm supposed to just believe you?"