LOVE TO HATE YOU

I was just thinking about you...

The next evening after work, I walked into his office. No, I strode in. I felt confident and sexy and in charge. I locked the door behind me and drew the blinds.

"Take off your clothes," I said.

He looked up at me, his eyes going wide with shock.

"I said, take off your clothes."

He smiled-a sexy, dark, broody, naughty, beastly smile.

"Sure thing. M'am," he said, peeling off his black suit. The jacket slipped to the floor, the tie was tossed to the other end of the room and he started unbuttoning his shirt, revealing the dark criss-crossing lines of his tattoos. His chest was now completely bare. He was muscular. Very. Not in a body builder sort of way, but in that small, cut, defined way that I loved and that made me want to trace all the lines with my fingers.

"Now your pants." I pointed at his trousers as he unbuttoned, unzipped, de-belted and dropped them to the floor. Then he stepped out of them and walked closer to me.

"These too?" he asked as he stuck his fingers under the elastic of his underwear and pulled them open to give me a little peep. I inhaled sharply.

"Yes."

He walked over to me.

"You take them off..." he said as he leaned towards me.

I swallowed hard. "Okay..."

My trembling fingers reached out and-

"AAAHHHHHH!" I woke up with a jolt covered in sweat and breathing rapidly. What the hell?-What the hell?

I jumped out of bed, ran for the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. My mouth was horribly dry and I was actually shaking from the dream-that's how real it felt. The clock on the wall said 2:30 am-how ironic. That was the exact time last night that Ben and I had been at it. I had a sudden fearful vision of waking up at this exact time for the rest of my life, as if the memory of the encounter had somehow seeped into my cells and was altering my internal clock.

I paced up and down the lounge a few times in a state of exhaustion, confusion and agitation. I needed a cold shower-You see it in all the movies all the time. Horny man douses himself with cold water in an attempt not to screw Hollywood heroine. In fact, that was exactly what I was going to do.

As soon as I turned on the tap, I came to my senses-it was the middle of winter for heaven's sake. I didn't need to send myself into hypothermic shock, I just needed sleep-Ben-free sleep. So I climbed back into bed and closed my eyes, but a sudden noise made me sit up again.

The noise was coming from the apartment next door and the wall separating us was right behind my bed. I put my ear to the wall. The noise started up again and was even louder this time. It sounded like someone was dragging furniture across the wooden floors. I turned on the light and stared at the wall, as if I could send hate beams directly to the inconsiderate ass disturbing my sleep at this ungodly hour. But I clearly had no such power because another noise soon cut through the silence. This time it was a loud bang, like a chair being knocked over.

I put my ear to the wall again and was almost instantly rendered deaf as someone started drilling into the wall-

"Hey!" I called out and banged on the wall with my fist, but there was no way they were going to hear me over the grind of metal boring into concrete. It seemed to go on for ages. As soon as there was a vague reprieve, it started up again.

I had to do something. I could either phone Raymond, the unpleasant and slightly mad 89-year-old caretaker, or I could deal with it myself.

When I heard a giant crash, as if a mirror had just been shattered, my mind was made up. Pissed off and tired, I stormed out the front door and marched down the hallway. This new neighbor wasn't off to a good start. What were they up too? A home make-over in the AM?

I reached number 32 and knocked.

There were stacks of cardboard boxes outside and it was obvious that they were moving in. Still, that was no excuse. I must have knocked about ten times, and with each knock my patience grew thinner.

I finally gave up and tried the handle and the door opened. I took one small step inside...

"Hello!" I said. I figured I better call out before barging inside-unlike some people, I wasn't rude. But when after the fifth call I'd still had no reply, I felt well within my rights to investigate. I walked straight down a long corridor to the spare bedroom-the penthouses were all laid out the same-The drilling and banging were getting louder with each step. When I reached the room, the door was slightly ajar, and again I thought the polite thing to do would be to knock once more. So I did. And again. And again.

Fuck this-"I'm coming in," I said. And I did. Then I saw him standing on a ladder in his underwear-

"YOU!" I pointed and stammered.

He turned and looked at me, shirtless, sweaty and wearing a smile. "Well hello, Sera. What a coincidence. I was just thinking about you."