Kate followed his gaze around the two rooms. “I’m divorced. He got the furniture, and I got the house payments.” As she appraised the empty living room, she pushed her hair behind her ears, but it immediately sprang forward to its original position.

“I suppose I could use a chair or something, but I haven’t much money left over at the end of the month.”

She remembered how the house had looked filled with Anatole’s furniture. Sleek black leather and gleaming chrome stuff that she’d hated.

“Of course, it’s easier to vacuum this way,” she concluded.

“I’m sorry about your divorce.”

She made a dismissive gesture. “We’re still friends. We just weren’t destined to live together. We drove each other crazy. The divorce didn’t signify failure, but a truce.”

“So you’re hard to live with, huh?”

“I’m impossible.”

“I’m easy to live with,” he announced as he followed her into the kitchen. “I’m very likable.”

She raised her eyebrows. He was likable all right. He was so likable it was frightening.

He took a cookie from the open bag on the kitchen counter. “Don’t you think I’m likable?” He knew he was likable. He’d made a whole career out of being invisible and likable. It was a natural talent.

“You sound a little cynical about it.”

He munched on the cookie, surprised that the cynicism had crept out. “It’s a curse.”

“Uh-huh.” Kate dropped a kitchen towel onto the floor and sopped up the milk. “You want to call the police or you want to clean the floor?”

He reached for the wall phone. “No contest.”

An hour later, they’d finished their pizza and an FAA investigator had arrived. They led him up to the bedroom.

“So,” Kate said hopefully, “anyone report a missing piece of metal?”

The man paled and swore softly at the wreckage. “I’m glad you’re not a late sleeper.” He photographed the ceiling and the bed and returned with a packing crate. “We’ll be in touch as soon as we get this straightened out.”

A representative from Kate’s insurance company arrived fifteen minutes later.

“Heard on the weather report that it’s supposed to rain,” he said, looking at the hole in Kate’s roof. “Supposed to get colder, too.”

Kate peered up at the patch of sky showing through the ceiling and groaned. It really wasn’t fair that misfortune had singled her out. She wasn’t such a bad person, she thought. A little disorganized and maybe just a teensy bit self-centered. So she wasn’t such a great neighbor, but hey, she’d been busy. And it wasn’t as if she’d been an awful neighbor. She was quiet most of the time, and she usually parked in her own parking space, and she almost always said hello to him….