Move-in day!
Thirty years old and I finally had a place of my own. It was a nice condo in a development that was only a couple of years old. The place had a pool, club, tennis courts, and golf course, just about anything you could want. It was a two story duplex on a little cul-de-sac with a two car garage (well actually, two one car garages side by side and a mirror image unit on the right. Each duplex was separated by a small side yard and on the back side, a deck with a little wooden slat divider to provide some privacy. The first floor had a bathroom and an open floor plan with a living room area, dining room, and a kitchen with a breakfast bar. The kitchen had a slider that opened up to the deck. The second story had one master bedroom with a bath, and then two smaller bedrooms that shared another bathroom.
I had graduated from college with a degree in computer science and had gotten a job working as a network engineer for a large cable company in the network operations center. Even though it meant working shift work, it paid really well and provided me with an opportunity to move up and in fact, I had recently been promoted to a manager position. After living in several rather small apartments in some questionable neighborhoods, I had saved up enough money to buy a condo in a nice area because the previous owners had to short sell. Although it was in a suburb, it was still close enough to Boston that I had easy access and if I wanted, I could take the commuter rail in instead of driving.
My family lived on the West Coast and I did not get to see them but maybe two or three times a year for the big holidays. I'd had some girlfriends but my work had kept me pretty busy so dating had kind of taken a back seat. Still, I did find time to work out regularly and even though I worked a desk job, my 200 pounds was pretty well distributed over my six foot frame.
All those squats and deadlifts had paid off, I thought as I carted in the few possessions that I had. Even though I had been out of college for a few years I had never really bothered to buy a whole lot of furniture figuring I might eventually want to move back West. I finished bringing in the last of it, and after looking at the pitifully empty condo, I locked up and went outside to pull my SUV inside my garage.
It was then that I first met my next door neighbor. She had pulled up in her black Mercedes S class and got out. I almost laughed because my first thought was that I had moved next door to Miranda Priestly out of "The Devil Wears Prada." She had silver shoulder length hair and a black knee length dress with platform heels and black nylons, finished off with a white silk scarf and sunglasses. I did notice that she had a little cushion around the middle but that was more than offset by a great pair of legs and of course some major league hooters that must have been at least a 38D. As long as they extend past the belly, I'm good to go. I guessed she was in her early 60s but still not too bad. The term voluptuous came to mind. I of course, was wearing an old t shirt from Sloppy Joes in Key West, gym shorts and sneakers and with a two day growth of beard, probably looked like a blonde surfer dude fresh off the beach. I smiled at her as I walked up and extended my hand. She looked at me with one of those dismissive looks down her nose that I thought only possible in a movie.
"Hi, I'm Chris Smith, your new neighbor," I said.
Looking at me over her glasses, she did not take my hand and said in a rather haughty tone "You can call me Mrs. Kramer."
"Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Kramer, I apologize for my attire but I've been working."
"I can see that," she said as she gave me a disapproving look, "Oh and don't forget, your vehicle is supposed to be parked inside at night. "And with that she wheeled away from me and walked off.
Wow, I thought to myself, I guess we won't be borrowing cups of sugar from her will we?
The realtor told me that my next door neighbor was a widow who owned a dress store or something like that.
Well she gets points for style and looks, but gets major failing grades in the social department.
I had her pegged as old school, especially since she dressed to the nines and was still using her married title.
Over the next few months I would occasionally run into Mrs. Kramer either coming home or leaving for work, after a run, or whatever. Still, she would not wave or acknowledge me first but would always respond if I said something first, so at least she wasn't totally rude.
Gradually, I started to get the place furnished and my parents came out to visit me for Thanksgiving with my sister who was a senior in college. They came for an entire week so my Mom was thrilled to be able to spend my money to decorate the place and even my sister seemed to enjoy it. My Dad was pretty well bored with it all but was a good sport. Interspersed with shopping, I showed them the sites and at night, my Dad and I would watch sports on my new HD TV in the upstairs man cave which also doubled as my sister's room. I had put my parents up in my other spare bedroom.
Anyway, Thanksgiving Day came and we had gone out the day before and bought all the stuff to have a traditional dinner. On Thanksgiving, my mom got up early to get the turkey started so I volunteered to make a run up to the donut shop and get some coffee and donuts for all of us. When I got back, I noticed that the lights were on in Mrs. Kramer's unit and that she was probably up. That's weird; I thought to myself, she must not have any family or anywhere to go.
I came inside and set everything down on the counter.
"Mom, you know my neighbor I told you about?"
"Oh yeah, hon, come to think of it we haven't seen her."
"Well she keeps to herself a lot, but I think she's home and doesn't have anyone to spend the day with."
"Oh that's terrible, hon," she said. "Why don't you go invite her over here for dinner?"
"The dragon lady?" I said. "She would as soon kill me as have dinner with us."
"Oh stop it. You go right over there and ask her. I didn't raise you to be rude."
Smiling, I kissed her on the cheek and said ok and went out the door. To say I was nervous was an understatement as butterflies were dancing around my stomach like a bunch of square dancers.
I walked up to the door, and rang the bell and stepped back so that she could see through the peephole who it was. I heard some steps coming to the door and then nothing for a moment. I figured maybe she had decided to ignore it and started to turn when the door opened revealing her in a long black robe and slippers. It was a silk robe that revealed a nice set of cleavage...I started thinking that she had some really nice boobs when she snapped me back to reality.
"What do you want? Do you know how early it is? You scared the life out of me?"
"I'm so sorry to bother you Mrs. Kramer, and yes it's 8:00 and a bit early but I thought you were up. Anyway, I.."
"Well come on, I don't have all day and its cold with this door open."
