I was just getting home from work when I saw him. He walked past my car towards the front door of the building and I damn near ran into a wall I was watching him so closely. He was a honey, hot with a capital H. Hot, hot, hot. He vanished into the building and I quickly parked and followed him in.
I was too slow. The elevator doors closed as I was coming in through the front door and the elevator took off. I stood and watched for a few moments, wanting to see what floor it went to. Every fucking one of them as far as I could tell. That would be the bloody Johansen boys, pushing all the buttons again. Little bastards.
I headed up to my own unit and went inside. Jimmy, my beloved husband, was already there. After we greeted each other properly I mentioned the stranger.
"Saw someone new entering the building earlier. Do you know if there are any new tenants?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. I haven't seen him but I heard that a unit on the tenth has just been let. That's probably who you saw. What did he look like?"
"Um, not sure," I told him. "Tall and blonde is about all I could say."
"Mm. Why don't you have a chat with Janice later? That woman knows everything that goes on in this building. Sometimes even before the people she's gossiping about."
"She's just very sociable," I said.
"Uh-huh," came the dry reply. Jimmy thinks that Janice is an inveterate snoop. I wouldn't say that myself, but that's because I do try to be polite.
After dinner I went for a walk and just by chance I happened to stop by Janice's place.
"Sophie! How're things going? Did you hear that we have some new tenants? Two units have been let."
"Two, uh? Um, I may have seen one of them earlier."
"Which one?"
"How do I know? They're new."
"Man, woman, child? Describe who you saw. We've got a single man in one unit and a family in the other."
"Well, I saw a man. Tallish, I suppose."
"Tallish? What sort of description is that? Anyway, that's bound to be Zane. I heard the manager refer to him as that. Think, girl. What did he look like?"
I sighed.
"Okay, I only saw him for a moment. Tall, six foot at least. Slender without being scrawny. Blue eyes and a very nice smile. Very nice tan on him. Um, think of Terrence Hill in his early movies before he put on weight. That's who he reminded me of."
"I see. You just got the barest glimpse of him and that's why you find it so hard to describe him. Any other little detail you might have left out?"
"Um, nice buns and he was hot."
We both started giggling.
"You're sure he's not the married one?" I asked.
"No, I saw the family. He's perfectly average. This guy's got to be the new single tenant. Did you hear about Mrs Johansen? Picked up for speeding. Again. By my reckoning she's now got enough points on her license to lose it."
My heart bled for Mrs Johansen. As a near victim to her need for speed I was all in favour of her having her license suspended. Hopefully for a couple of years. We gossiped a bit more and then I continued on my way.
I saw the new tenant several times over the next few days, but always in passing. Never at a time where we could stop and talk and I could get to know him. Janice didn't seem to have that problem. The next time I saw her she knew everything about him, probably right down to his underwear size.