Logan spent the first hour in his new apartment cleaning every surface with disinfectant, even though the place was already clean. He had something to do, something to keep his hands and mind busy. Cleaning in a rhythmic way was almost like meditation, or at least it should have been.
[She has been sitting in the same spot for forty-seven minutes with a slightly higher heart rate. She is thinking about calling him again.]
"Shut up," Logan said through clenched teeth as he scrubbed a counter that didn't need it.
[Just giving some background. Earlier, you seemed interested.]
"Well, I'm not interested now, so please let it go."
The system stopped making noise, but Logan could still feel it in the back of his mind, waiting and watching. He threw the cleaning cloth into the sink harder than he needed to and looked around his apartment.
Now the place was clean, but it was also very empty. There was no furniture, no decorations, and nothing else that made it feel like home.
He had to get out of here and do something useful instead of standing here thinking about his married neighbor and the terrible conversation he heard through the system's commentary.
"What else do I need as my top priority right now...?"
"Oh! Groceries! I just need to stick to the routine that has worked for me for the past two years and prepare meals for the week."
Logan put on a jacket and grabbed his wallet and keys as he walked to the door. The hallway was quiet, the kind of quiet that made him feel like he was being watched.
He could hear a TV in one of the other units, but not in 4B. Only silence filled the air, and this somehow intensified his unease.
Logan walked to the grocery store for fifteen minutes to clear his head. The cool air at night and the movement helped.
He felt more centered and in control by the time he got to the store. He went through his shopping list like it was a routine.
Chicken breasts, brown rice, broccoli, spinach, eggs, oats, and protein powder. The same things he bought every week that were healthy and useful.
While he was putting bags into his arms in the parking lot, his presence detection alarm went off. He was being watched.
Logan looked around and saw a girl who looked to be about his age standing by her car and staring at him with interest. When their eyes met, she smiled with confidence, as if she was used to getting attention.
"Why is she looking at me like that...?" Logan thought while his body got a goosebump.
Logan would have looked away right away and acted like he hadn't seen it two years ago. He looked at her for a second and nodded politely before going back to his groceries.
He heard her laugh softly, as if she thought the short conversation was amusing, but she didn't come over. "The fuck was that all about...?"
The walk back to Riverside Apartments felt longer than the walk there because he was carrying grocery bags and thoughts he couldn't quite shake. In less than two weeks, college would start.
He should be focused on getting ready for class and maybe reaching out to the girl from the bookstore who gave him her Instagram. Making friends with people who are easy to talk to and around.
One of the rules, of course, is to avoid thinking about a married woman whose husband was too busy traveling to notice her emotional decline.
Logan climbed the stairs to the second floor. His arms hurt a little from carrying the bags. The hallway was still quiet, but he heard something that made him stop as he got closer to his door.
He heard some voices from Unit 4B, and the door was only slightly open, and sound went through the crack easily. "You could have let me know you would be late."
A sharp, angry male voice. "I had plans, Veronica! Didn't I send you a text earlier?"
Veronica's voice was so tired that it hurt to hear it. "You didn't answer like usual!"
"Whatever. I'm going out."
Logan stood in the hallway with grocery bags cutting into his fingers. He was torn between walking past quickly and pretending he didn't hear anything or putting down his bags and knocking to see if Veronica was okay. He stood there like an idiot, unable to make a decision.
Suddenly, the door to 4B opened, and a man came out. He was probably in his late twenties, of average height and build, and had the kind of generic good looks that came from good grooming rather than having striking features.
He had an annoyed look on his face and was holding car keys in one hand and wearing a jacket that looked expensive. He didn't even look at Logan as he walked by.
He was already pulling out his phone and typing something as he walked up the stairs. Logan smelled a strong, probably expensive cologne, and then the man was gone, his footsteps echoing down the stairs.
"This smell... I can tell he's meeting someone important." Logan's analytic thinking starts reacting.
Logan stood there for a moment, taking in what he had just seen. "That was probably Marcus Johanson... the husband of Veronica."
"The man who was said to always be on the road, but it seems he isn't on the road right now. He was in the apartment with his wife, and the first thing he did was start a fight before leaving."
Veronica opened the door to 4B again and came out with a small bag of trash. She stopped when she saw Logan, and her eyes got a little bigger, as if she was embarrassed.
She probably knew he had heard the fight or at least heard her husband leave in a rage. "Late-night grocery run?" she asked, her voice carefully neutral, as if she were trying diligently to act like everything was normal.
Logan held his bags up. "O-Oh! Yeah."
"It's for my meals for the week.
"That's a good idea. Instead of always getting takeout, I should probably do that as well." Veronica walked by him and down the hall to the trash chute.
Logan saw that she was still wearing the same clothes as before, which were a cream sweater and dark jeans. And he noticed she looked like she was worn out.
He ought to go inside his apartment to put down the groceries, close the door, and mind his own business, but Logan, on the other hand, started to talk. "Are you all right?"
Veronica stopped at the trash chute and couldn't move her hand off the handle. Logan thought for a second that she might act like she didn't understand what he was asking.
Then her shoulders dropped a little, like the pressure of keeping up appearances was too much for her right now. "I'm okay..."
"I'm just tired." She turned back to him after dropping the trash bag into the chute. "Marcus is home for a few days before he goes on his next trip. We are still getting used to his schedule."
It was the kind of explanation that made sense on the surface but didn't match the tired look in her eyes or the argument Logan had heard. Marcus wasn't getting used to anything. He had come, started a fight, and then left, all in less than twenty minutes.
"I'm right next door," Logan said carefully. "If you ever need anything."
Veronica's face changed, and something complicated flashed across it. Maybe they were thankful, or suspicious, or just so tired of hearing empty promises.
"That's nice of you, Logan... thanks."
As she walked by him again on her way back to her apartment, Logan caught a hint of her perfume, which was light and floral and didn't fit the mood. She stopped at her door, put one hand on the frame, and looked back at him.
"Good night, Logan."
"Good night."