The Grumpy Neighbor Wants the Size 22 Girl Upstairs, and the Walls Are Thin novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: To Your Face

At nine exactly I opened the door.

Costa stood on my landing in a clean gray tee, shaved for the first time since I'd known him.

He had no pad, no pen and no paper in his hands.

He looked like he'd slept on a floor, because he had.

"Come in," I said. "Leave the light on."

He ducked under my doorframe and stood in the middle of my living room, among the framed book covers, with his arms hanging.

"I'm going to say it fast," he said. "Or I won't."

"Say it slow."

He closed his eyes, and then he opened them and looked straight at me.

"I came to this house in February with nothing but a duffel bag. I hadn't slept in three months."

"Every time I closed my eyes I was in that stairwell."

"The second night, I was lying there staring at the ceiling, and I heard a woman laugh at her own joke."

"I slept eight hours."

"It was the first time since the fire."

My hand went to my mouth.

"I didn't know your name for a week. I didn't know your face for a month. I only knew that if you laughed, I could sleep."

"So I wrote it down."

"And then?"

"Then I met you at the mailboxes and I couldn't make a sentence. I looked at you like I owed you money because you were the reason I could sleep."

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