Conversation

None of our apartment building floor neighbors have ever seemed interested in being more than passing acquaintances, except this woman living with her partner and their 3-year old daughter we’ve seen growing since she was a newborn.

However, a few months ago, she reported to my partner that her partner hit her once at the height of a heated argument. Within days, she moved out with her daughter to a place she wouldn’t disclose to us so that we couldn’t accidentally tell her now ex-partner who stayed behind.

We thought he would move out once the lease was up, and he did, to the next door on the same floor. So we keep bumping into each other in or out the elevator, and it’ll now be awkward until either of us move out of the building.

And now our random encounters will always remind me how unfair that his mistake ended up costing his ex-partner a ton and us a friend, while he gets to carry on with his life seemingly unperturbed.