Katherine felt the hallway lights flicker in slow motion as everything around her stilled. Seconds dripped by like icy droplets. She remembered the echo of Leonard's box thumping on the other side of the threshold, and her spine quivered. Before she could think, she stepped forward—toward him.
"What are you doing here, Leonard?" Her voice trembled, somewhere between outrage and numb confusion, each word clipped with emotional distance. She squared her shoulders, her silent armor against the vulnerability he'd forced into her world once more.
Leonard, standing a step inside the other apartment—her neighbor now—raised his hands, palms outward. His eyes were steady, his posture open. "Well… it's exactly what it looks like," he said quietly. "I live here now." Katherine's chest tightened, eyelids pinching shut.
She swallowed. "So you're our new… neighbor?" The word tasted cold on her tongue.
