Between Two Men

Chapter 2. 46th Evergreen Lane

Now I want you to imagine a five story apartment building, one of those little ones that are crammed against dozens of their same kind. At the front of the building, in a little wooden sign above the door, reads the words "Meyers and Son Carpentry." When you open the door, you can see why.

Both walls that would have made up a hallway has been knocked down. There are, or at least used to be, two rooms on either side, in the middle lies a staircase. Both of these "rooms" are littered with carpentry tools, planks of wood, and finished pieces of work like wooden ornaments or furniture.

The air smells of sawdust and there is a plank of wood on the staircase that you've got to walk around. Walking up to the second floor, the smell of sawdust is replaced with that of cigarettes. I take all the fault for this, because really there's no one else that smokes in the building to blame. Plainly said, I'm the writer that smokes, everyone calls me Harry.

On the other side, the left, lives Judy. Like any other old lady, the food she makes is amazing. Her speciality is baking and she is the main baker of Olivia's bakery. The story as far as I know is that they got really close and decided to open a bakery together with Olivia's degree in business management, and Judy's, well, Judy's amazing skills they're a force to be reckoned with.

Judy would live farther up for a better view and to get away from my smoke but we haven't got an elevator. Speaking of agonizing stair-walking, we'll move on to the third floor.

On the right lives Nila. She escaped her abusive husband in Egypt and came to London to start a new life with her two year old daughter. After eight years, she has learnt English, got a job as a secretary, and taken up an interest in feminism. "I thought the sexism in Egypt was bad," she would often say. "Turns out there are assholes in every country."

On the left lives Ms. O'Connor. Judy says her name is Madison, Nila says it's Michelle, so we just call her Ms. O'Connor. She only moved here a week ago so all we know about her is that she's in her mid-twenties and she's a stripper. The guy that lived there before was a self-entitled nosy jerk, so we don't mind her. Besides, we've heard that she works at a very high end strip club.

If you've been paying attention you would already know that Olivia lives on the right side of the fourth floor. In the apartment opposite her lives Justin. He's an American of Chinese heritage that came here to go to the Imperial College School of Medicine. He dreads Christmas when his mother visits but we all look forward to it because his mother makes mean Chinese food and her karaoke skills trump all of ours.

Lastly our landlord lives on the right side of the fifth floor, the left has never been able to be rented due to plumbing issues. The landlord's name is Mr. Meyers, he's also the one that works in the carpentry shop. His mother retired to Australia and left it to the twenty eight year old.

The day was December 11th and it was this very man that was standing outside the right apartment on the 4th floor with one of his carpentering tools as a weapon on account of Justin saying that he heard noises from within. He knocked.

A shuffling of feet, Meyers clenched his fingers around the tool. The door opened and Evan froze, neither person were able to say a word. They just sort of, looked at each other, you could see the pain making their hearts pound and their faces melt.

Mr. Meyers dropped his weapon, the sound broke the room in two. "Olivia." He almost whispered, trying the word out on his tongue, trying the idea out in his mind.

"Evan." Olivia breathed heavily, anticipating anger, questions, accusations. But he just stood there. No "where the hell have you been," no "how could you just leave me." Because standing there, wandering into each other's eyes, they already knew the answers.