Now all she needed to do was believe her own narrative.

Having treated herself to a meal and a couple of glasses of wine at a French bistro at 63rd and Park, Hannah returned to the apartment still feeling a little lonely and out of sorts. She waved to Bruno the doorman as she headed through the lobby and tapped her foot as she rode the elevator up to her floor.

Upon exiting, she paused in the hallway listening for any sign of activity in P-1, briefly considering knocking on the door to see if Ed would answer. Given their recent impasse, it felt like the time might be right to introduce herself directly and put a face to the name. And she also wanted to see if reality aligned with the picture she had painted of him in her head. Raising a tentative hand, she then backed down at the last minute. After all, she had promised him peace and quiet so knocking on his door out of nowhere on a Friday night would surely set back the progress she had made.

So instead, Hannah continued down the hallway and opened the door to P-2, shutting it gently behind her. She listened for a second. The apartment was deathly quiet. No errant technology on the fritz or roaming animals, which made her sigh in relief.

But also served to highlight her current solitude, especially in such a big and buzzy city. It was still early days with regards to making friends at work, plus in truth she kind of welcomed the peace and quiet after such a tumultuous year. But if she didn’t start putting herself out there more, she ran the risk of ending up much like her neighbour.

Which definitely seemed like a depressing prospect.

Going into the kitchen, she opened the Sub-Zero fridge and grabbed a bottle of Pellegrino before extracting a glass from one of the kitchen cabinets.

She wondered how Ed had become the way he was – ornery, angry at the world, presumptively stuck in the past. He seemed to be homebound and, from what she could glean so far, only seemed to have his nurse as a visitor, which amid a city like this seemed so bleak. If she were in his position, Hannah figured she would welcome the chance to talk to other people and to feel like there was still a world outside those walls. Heck, she felt like that right now.

Well, they said the opposite of depression was connection, so since she and Ed were both pretty much lonely in New York at the moment, maybe their little faceless to-and-fro was the perfect way to offer one another a lifeline.

Hello P-1,

I appreciate your understanding of the situation. Nothing seems to be going haywire with the tech over here since, so maybe the situation has solved itself.