neighbour

She was my neighbor...

Doe. Before I moved into my current apartment in Southern San Diego I had virtually no interest in her. Sure I had heard of her and seen many scantily clad images online, but being barely three years her junior I had never really had the opportunity to see her sexual appeal during my budding hormone filled masturbation sessions that punctuated my teenage years. Now don't get me wrong, she is absolutely gorgeous and I would never turn down the chance to pop out some kids with her, but I was past the point in my life where I spent the majority of my free time ogling naked boobs and shaven pussies on my computer screen.

My story with the lovely Playmate begins in San Diego. I moved there for a job somewhat hesitantly. Being a right-wing born in the north that grew up in the south, I certainly had no interest to move to the left-skewed state of California. But it was my job that pulled me in. I moved there simply for work, who hasn't? It was a good job working as a courier for a factory. I ran messages and various other things across the company campus. It was a largely mobile position, one that kept me driving a neat little Yamaha 4x4 across a few acres of large factories and administration buildings on a daily basis. The hours were odd, as I went in around noon and generally clocked out around midnight, but the pay was good (only because of my experience and history with the company) and my manager was one of the nicest guys I knew, an old friend from high school. It was almost impossible to say 'no' to him, back in the day as well as working for him now.

I had been living in my apartment for just over two months when the neighbor next to me was evicted because of an "anonymous tip" on the steadily growing meth and cocaine business he decided to house there. His weekends were dominated by late at night, narcotic ridden parties where he and his friends had competitions of who could get the hottest prostitute to stay in bed with them the longest. The walls between his place and mine were a lot thinner than one might think, you could almost hear a pen drop if everything was silent. So naturally, the sound of loud dubstep and sexual escapades just became a regular staple of my weekend. About eight or nine weeks into this, I finally got fed up with having to explain my sluggish and drowsy behavior to my boss every Monday that I called the cops on him. Sure enough, the guy had hundreds of thousands of dollars in just about every illegal substance you could get your hands on.

When they let me walk through it after all of his shit had been cleared out, I was very surprised at the places condition. He had taken good care of it, despite his activities, and it was quite the luxurious apartment, even though it was a carbon copy of mine in terms of layout. All of the amenities were much newer than mine, and there were many features as well as just a generally cleaner look to the place that made it a mansion compared to its twin next door. When they offered it to me for over four times the price of my current abode, I happily declined. From that point on the place was empty and quiet. It was actually a little hard getting back to the routine of being able to go to bed before 2 AM for a while.

Then, she moved in. A neighbor from two floors down who I was good friends with had been spreading rumors some famous model had just moved to our area. He kept up with that stuff a little more in depth than I think he liked to admit openly. Then about a week later, the superintendant put a note in all of our mailboxes in the lobby informing us that the famous Doe had purchased a place in our building. The note was very detailed in warning us to both act like good neighbors and not harass her, or we would be swiftly kicked out, as well as receiving whatever legal lash back she could think up. Or maybe that was just a specific warning to me, her soon-to-be only next door neighbor. Our apartment complex was a small place, and because of some architectural error, apartments were stacked two to a floor, with a staircase and elevator being the only access to each level. Kind of like in the show "The Big Bang Theory", but not exactly. When I first moved in the layout reminded me of the setting and so that's what I best attribute it to.

Needless to say, finding out I would be living next to a famous Playboy Playmate was quite the news for a bachelor of just over three years in a row. I hadn't been with another girl in any real sexual way in a painfully long time, something I was somewhat disdainful of. Then again, I was an abnormal person and only attracted a certain crowd in high school and college. It wasn't the chubby girls, the Goths, or the emos, it was the quirky drama girls. I loved acting and had almost pursued a career in the theatre business way back when I starting on my own. But this and that happened and it fell through. I still enjoy seeing good old fashioned plays once in a while and will not hesitate to critique a piece of acting. Long story short, my last girlfriend turned out to be psychopathic, so I dumped her and shut myself away from the dating scene for a while, focusing on work and other things. That focus led to me being the runner-boy for a company that gets paid on average $80,000 a year. Hard to believe, but I can heartily say that that situation would not be the case if I was still dating the bitch I thought I loved three years ago.

So, despite nearly losing my mind on initial intake of the information, I simply put it in the back of my head and continued on with my daily grind.

After about a week, and after a particularly boring work day, I came home to find the door of the apartment next to mine open with many moving boxes littering the area around it. I took a deep breath and continued walking towards the door into my home, trying to not stare into her place like a creep or something. Like always it was really late, so I imagine someone who was moving things around this late wouldn't take too kindly to her new neighbor staring into her apartment like paparazzi anyway.

I pulled out my keys and after a few quick fumbles got the one to my apartment into the keyhole, and unlocked the door. I opened the door and walked into my humble hacienda.

As I set down my daypack and walked into the kitchen, I heard a noise from through the wall.

Now, normally I would have frozen in place just from the fact that until this point no one had been living in the room next to mine, and so noises emitting from the wall would be a tad out of the ordinary. This time however, I froze for a completely different reason. I waited a few seconds staring at the wall in front of me.

No more noise.

I took a step closer to the wall and listened.

Nothing.

I shrugged and walked to a counter nearby that had a derelict water bottle from that morning on it. I picked it up and took a long swig then set it down. As I did so, I heard a grunt following by a swift BANG come from the wall again.

I snapped my head to the empty wall and waited again.

Nothing again.

I took a step toward the wall. I was about a foot away from it. I heard small movements followed by another small grunt and a sliding sound. Almost like someone was moving furniture.

And quite unsuccessfully by the sound of it.

I waited until I heard another strenuous grunt and then did something I regretted a second afterward.

"Excuse me, everything allright?" I said somewhat loudly into the wall.

The sliding movement stopped.

I took another breath and waited, my mind doing summersaults.

"Who is that?" came a female voice.

My head was swirling. I struggled to comprehend the situation for a brief moment and my subconscious took over.

"It's the next door neighbor."

All was silent for a second.

"Oh," the voice said "Well I actually could use some help if its all right?"

I blinked twice and tried to find words to respond.

"Uhhh yeah sure, hang on." I said, throwing my backpack in the next room and nearly bolting out of my kitchen.

I slowed down as I entered the open door of the apartment next to mine so I wouldn't look insane, and briskly walked into the main living area. The place was almost a duplicate of mine, but was flipped There were boxes everywhere, and pieces of disassembled furniture lining the walls. I looked around for adjacent rooms and made my way down a small hallway I deduced to be where the cry for help originated.

As I passed a room, I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a bed frame oddly propped against the wall separating my apartment from the one I was in. And there she was. The beautiful Doe, wearing way more clothes than I had ever seen her in on the internet, standing there looking at it almost like a puzzle. As soon as I came into view, she turned and got a huge look of relief on her face.

"Oh thank god, Hi!" she walked towards me.

I met her halfway and extended my hand. "You must be the new neighbor."

She took it and shook it briefly. Her hands were so soft, I felt like shuddering. It was like being a teenager again.

"Hey, I'm Doe." She said

"John." I replied.

"Nice to meet you John!"

I smiled "Nice to meet you too Doe"

She took a step back "You already knew my name didn't you?"

I laughed. "Yeah, but with someone like you moving in it would be almost impossible not to."

She giggled. "Yeah I thought so. Did good old Mr. Jones warn everyone I was coming?"

I shrugged "Well, he warned me at least. Though I am your only next door neighbor."

Her smile widened and I stepped closer focusing now on the bed she had obviously been struggling to move.

"So, you always move into a new place at 11 o clock at night?" I quipped.

She laughed and I heard what sounded like a sigh of approval.

"Definitely not, I've been here all day, and just now decided to put the bed up."

I nodded "Ahhhh a sincerely unwise move indeed."

She leaned back against a partially assembled dresser and tilted her head.

"Tell me about it. Do you think you can help me?"

Almost immediately her words spurred images of cheap, corny porno's in my head, with Doe as the highly popular pornstar watching me as I lifted the bed with one hand and set it perfectly in the center of the room, followed by some snide comment like "If only there was someone who could help me break it in" or something stupid like that.

Suddenly I realized I was daydreaming a little too obviously and broke myself out of it.

"Uhhhh yeah, no problem."

She could tell I had hesitated, and at me embarrassingly. "That sounded kind of porn-esque didn't it?"

How the hell?

"Uhhhhh what?"

She caught me and walked up, sticking a finger in my face. "Oh no, you hesitated, and don't think I can't see that little imagination at work..."

I shrugged. "I apologize, not the best at making good first impressions with women."

She laughed and put a hand on my shoulder. "Oh you're doing fine! I set myself up for that anyway..."

She sure was taking it a lot different than I imagined she would, though I'm sure she could see I was nervous talking to her and was cutting me some early slack. I refocused on the bed.

"So, where do you want it?"

She raised an eyebrow at me suspiciously.

"... I mean the bed" I said without changing expression.

She quickly re-acquired her cute smile and laughed once. "I know, just fucking with you..."

I smirked and was slightly surprised with her sudden language. I mean, cussing didn't faze me. In fact, it made me feel more comfortable around someone. But her early drop of the F-bomb put me in a state of ease I had never taken on this early with another girl, especially one as stunning as her.

She leaned on one leg and stared at the bed with me.

"Hmmmm I wanted the head to be up against the wall and it to be basically facing where we are" she explained.

I looked at her and seriously wondered if she had been spying on me the week before she moved in.

"Really?" I said "If that's the case then my bed will be mirroring yours right across that wall."

She looked over at me "Seriously?"

I nodded.

"No, I don't believe you..." she said with a grin.

"Want me to prove it?" I challenged her.

She nodded almost instantly. "Yeah, show me right now."

I shrugged and started walking out of her bedroom. "Okay, come on."

She followed me out and right next door. As we entered into my apartment, I could sense her slow down slightly and look around as she walked behind me.

"Wow, this looks just like mine!" she exclaimed.

"Oh it does, I went into your place a few weeks back when it was empty and thought the same thing."

As she followed me into the living room, I was so scared the appearance of my living style might warrant silent judgment. Boy was I both right and wrong in my assumptions.

"Man this place is so clean!" she complimented. "Are you gay?"

I laughed "Not even close."

"Oh, good!" she said, with alarming amounts of relief in her voice.

That red flag that should have popped up in my head didn't initially, but in the following days I spent way more time than I wish to disclose thinking over those single two words and the way she said them.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not some overweight or nerdy slob, but I wasn't exactly some Don Jon type workout obsessed jock either. So, the way she seemed to be acting compared to how I had been treated by women in the past, in retrospect, really was odd to me.

We walked into my bedroom, and I motioned to my bed, which was indeed, laid out the exact same way she had entailed I move hers.

"Wow... I don't know whether to be scared or..." she trailed off mystically.

I took a shot in the dark...

"Yeah, just think we'll be sleeping only a foot away from each other..." I said

She laughed "Hey now, that is IF I want my bed put where I initially thought I did..."

I sighed. "Oh damn, I guess that's a good point."

She walked up to the wall and knocked on it. She turned to me, a little curious.

"How thin are these walls?"

"Waaaay thinner then you think." I replied sheepishly

She looked at me shocked. "Really?"

I nodded "Yeah, wouldn't recommend putting your bed right against the wall... for both our sakes."

She giggled "And why might that be Mr. John?"

I tried to recover from the now obvious implication I had just given off.

"Uhhhhh I'm a snorer on occasion so."

She burst out laughing. "Ohhhhhh okay..."

I narrowed my eyes "Why, what were you thinking of?"

She blushed ever so slightly and just looked at me.

I also felt myself blushing as well and cleared my throat.

"Anyway, did you still need help with your bed... seeing as I never moved it..."

She shook her head slightly as if waking up.

"Oh yeah, right..."

I smiled and followed her out and back into her own apartment.

So I moved her bed, and we genuinely hit it off. I didn't have anything to do, so I spent the next few hours helping her unpack all of her stuff and just shooting the shit. We talked about everything from our lives up to that point, current events, and other odd and off the wall topics. She was in San Diego working as a recurring model for Playboy on a three year contract. She usually had around one photo shoot a week, so she was planning on spending a lot of time either at home or exploring the town. Seeing as I was new to the town myself I felt a similar "freshman-like" feeling as her. Time flew by, and before either of us knew it, it had been a good 7 or 8 hours, and the clock had just ticked past midnight.

I folded together one of the final boxes in her living room, and carried it out to the hall, and added it to a large pile that had accumulated over the past couple of hours. I walked back in and caught her in her bedroom hanging up a piece of artwork across from a newly made bed. She yawned and turned to me.

"Come here, does this look aligned evenly?"

I stepped back and centered myself with the picture.

"Yeah, looks fine."

She sighed and turned to me.

"All right good, I can barely tell I'm so tired."

I snickered once. "Yeah, I'm getting to that point myself."

She arched her back and stretched. I looked quickly at her boobs stretching upward and struggling with the shirt she was wearing. I looked around and back at her. "Well, the last box from the other room is done."

She looked over at me and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh okay, great!"

She walked up to me and hugged me. It felt odd seeing as we had only met hours earlier but with the way were getting along it really didn't seem odd enough for me to resist in any way.

"Thank you so much for helping me!" she said exasperatedly.

I smiled and returned the hug. "Yeah, no problem. Wouldn't want to make a bad first impression."

She giggled and leaned back, "Oh you certainly haven't given me a bad impression. Quite frankly I'm glad I got you and not some obsessed fan that would be listening for my every move and documenting it in some creepy notebook."

I laughed. "Trust me, the walls are so thin I don't have to listen for it if what you're doing is loud enough."

She laughed with me. "Oh okay, I guess I'll have to be quieter than I'm used to."

She leaned against the wall and shut her eyes, yawning again.

"Oh man, you have no idea how much I was dreading doing all this by myself!"

I shrugged. "Well, I'm glad I could ease the process."

She groaned "Oh you have no idea how grateful I am! I definitely owe you one!"

I smiled and thought a second, "Well, you know... you could always "accidentally" walk out into the hallway naked one of these days when I leave for work..."

She gasped and lightly pushed my shoulder. "Oh you'd like that wouldn't you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's kind of what I was implying."

She blushed slightly and narrowed her eyes. "Come on, you want to see me naked just go on the internet."

I sighed. "Yeah, but why run to the internet when the real thing is only a dangerously thin wall away."

She shook her head and shut her eyes. "Oh, you boys and all your penis-related hormones."

I shrugged again. "I do the best with what I was given."

She laughed once and walked over to me. She leaned up and kissed my cheek ever so briefly.

"Thank you for your help John" she said, "I think I'll be going to bed now."

I blinked a few times, taking in the moment. "Of course, I will probably do the same."

I turned and took a few steps towards the door out of her bedroom.

"Hey!" she called as I reached the doorway.

I stopped and looked back.

"Remember whose now only a few feet away from you when you're in there." She warned, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.