The Little Slut Next Door (Part 1)

Right next to my apartment has lived for many years a couple with their daughter, Anthi, who is now nineteen years old. She is tall, with a shapely body, long black hair, dark eyes, and milky white skin. She has a way of drawing eyes, especially when she chooses the tight and revealing clothes she likes.

I've known her since she was little, and that was always the reason I kept my distance. In recent years, however, I had begun to notice something different in her behavior. When we were on our balconies, she would often smile at me meaningfully, hold my gaze a little longer than necessary, and found opportunities to strike up a conversation.

I didn't know if it was just her playful manner or if she was trying to show me something more. A part of me preferred never to find out.

Until that September evening.

I had gone out with friends for a drink and returned around four in the morning. As I parked, I saw Anthi approaching the apartment building entrance. She was wearing tight pants, high-heeled shoes, and a fitted top. Her hair fell on her shoulders and she looked as if she had just returned from a night that still had a lot to tell.

"Good morning! What a coincidence!" I called out to her.

She turned, looked at me, and smiled.

"I slipped away for a bit tonight."

"Did you have good company?"

"With friends," I answered, returning her smile.

We moved together towards the elevator. The apartment building was almost completely quiet and our footsteps sounded clearly in the hallway.

Just before the elevator doors closed, she looked me up and down.

"You know something? You're a handsome man. I wonder how you've managed to stay alone for so long."

I laughed.

"And you are an impressive girl. But for such a late night out, I expected to see you with company."

"And what makes you think I don't have company?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know. I might be wrong."

She smiled slyly.

"You, however, didn't answer me."

"About what?"

"About what else you could call me, besides impressive."

I looked at her for a moment, trying to understand how far she wanted to take this game.

"You're dangerous, you know that?"

"Only when the other person is afraid to say what they're thinking."

Her answer surprised me. The usual innocence in our conversations was gone. There was a challenge, clear and deliberate.

"And what do you think I'm thinking?" I asked her.

She moved a little closer.

"I think you've been thinking about it for a while now."

The elevator doors opened on our floor. For a few seconds, neither of us moved.

Then Anthi lowered her voice.

"I want you. And I think you've understood that for a very long time."

I stayed looking at her. All those smiles on the balconies, the prolonged glances, and the little challenges that until then I could pretend not to understand, suddenly took on a different meaning.

"Anthi, are you sure about what you're telling me?" I asked her.

Her smile softened for a moment.

"If I weren't, I wouldn't be telling you."

I looked her in the eyes and gave her time to change her mind. She didn't. Instead, she came closer and kissed me.

The moment that until then had seemed inconceivable suddenly became reality.

We opened the door to my apartment and went inside. For the first time, Anthi was in my space not as the neighbors' daughter, nor as the girl I happened to meet in the hallway, but as a woman who had decided to express her desire for me openly.

The awkwardness of the first moments quickly receded. The teasing turned into low-toned conversations and the smiles transformed into kisses. Anthi seemed to enjoy the fact that she had managed to rattle my calm.

"Turns out, you're not as cool as I thought," she whispered to me.

"And you're not as innocent as you were trying to seem."

She laughed and pulled me close to her again.

"I never tried to convince you of that."

That night changed our relationship in a way neither of us could have predicted. Everything that until then had existed only in implications and fantasies had now been stated clearly.

And as dawn broke, I realized that the most unpredictable part of the story wasn't how we had gotten there.

It was what would happen from the next day, when we would meet again in the apartment building hallway, behind our usual good mornings and smiles that now hid a shared secret.