Emily shook a bit of mud off the back of her boots before stepping into her building's entrance. The hallway light flickered off above her head for a moment, before coming back on. "Thank fuck I'm getting out of this place," she said to herself, momentarily struck by anxiety at the thought of all the packing she still had left to do.
Before getting back to packing up her belongings in boxes, she picked up her mail in the lobby. At that moment she heard a door slam. It was her neighbor Lorenzo taking his dog out for a walk. Lorenzo was sexy in a quiet way, and in a very obvious way as well, seeing as in he was 6'3, Italian and equipped with a smoldering accent. Emily enjoyed basking in his tall dark and handsomeness whenever she saw him, but they didn't know each other very well.
"You went to a box factory today or something?" Lorenzo said, pointing at the stack of boxes that were already by the door, ready to be moved. His dorky attempt at humor made Emily smile. As she let out a gentle laugh, Emily and Lorenzo locked eyes for a split second, and Lorenzo asked, "Do you have anyone helping you to move the big items, furniture and heavy stuff?"
Emily told him that the movers would help her tomorrow. "They're going to charge you so much money for that, how about I help instead. I'm not busy tonight."
At first Emily politely refused, but Lorenzo insisted on saving her the extra expense. "Wow, that's so sweet of you, thank you. I have to finish packing up a few more boxes before I'm ready to move anything into the van that I rented, and I need to pick that up later."
"Perfect, how about I come with you to get the van later on and then we can start moving."
"OK," Emily said, before looking at her watch. It was already six, and she needed to do quite a bit before she'd be ready to pick up the van. "Come by at 8, is that alright with you?"
"See you then."
Emily began packing as soon as she walked through her door, and spent every moment of those next two hours working frantically. Lorenzo was so sweet to offer his help and she wanted to be ready when he came over. She had to finish packing up everything in her kitchen and bedroom, and by the time she had finished it was five minutes to 8.
She quickly changed into a clean shirt and bra and reapplied her lip gloss before hearing a knock at the door. When she opened it, Lorenzo was standing on the other side, holding a six pack and a pizza.
"I can't believe you brought beer and pizza, aren't I supposed to do that traditionally since you're helping me move? You are beyond sweet though, and I'm starving. Thanks so much."
"You're very welcome and don't worry about it. I mean, you've been a great neighbor. I never had to call the cops on you even once!" Lorenzo joked. As Emily laughed, Lorenzo cracked open a beer and handed it to her. Then he opened the pizza box and they each took a slice. Lorenzo continued cracking jokes as they ate, and kept Emily cracking up between bites.
Once they finished eating, they picked up the van and started to pack it up with Emily's belongings. Lorenzo finished loading Emily's television, futon, bookshelves and kitchen table relatively quickly. "Hey, I'm full of energy still, how about I help you take these things over to your new place if you've got the keys already. Then maybe you can cancel the movers altogether. Tomorrow, I'll have my friend Matt come over and help me with your bed."
"I couldn't possibly take up any more of your time, you are so sweet though," Emily said, to be polite.
"I insist." As Lorenzo said this, he lifted two of the boxes on Emily's floor, "see I've already gotten started, you can't stop me now."
This made Emily laugh. Since Lorenzo appeared to be having fun, she felt comfortable accepting his offer to help, and the two of them began to carry boxes to the van.
When it was full, they drove over to Emily's new apartment complex. Lorenzo suggested that they pick up another six pack, since they'd probably be unpacking for a while. Emily agreed to this idea, seizing the opportunity to thank her helpful neighbor by picking up the tab. She knew that there would be lots of moving over the next few days, and decided to stock up on beer for the next few days by getting a twelve pack.
When they arrived at Emily's new place, Lorenzo carried up the beer, and several boxes before making at least six more trips to unload all of the items in the van. The apartment was by the river, and had a beautiful view in the living room, which was showcased by a glass wall. After they finished unloading the van, Emily and Lorenzo sat on her hardwood floor, facing the beautiful view.
They had each had two beers when Lorenzo said, "I hope you don't get upset because I know you wanted to buy the beer to thank me, but I brought this too because I hoped you'd share it with me," as he pulled a bottle of red wine from his messenger bag. "My family has a vineyard in Italy and this is from there. Would you like to try it?"
Emily agreed, and once again expressed her gratitude for Lorenzo's generosity.
"Great! Let's get this open. Oh fuck, that was stupid of me, you might not even have glasses or an opener seeing as you just moved in!"
"No, I do have those things! And I know because I packed them up today," Emily said before walking over to the box that contained the wine glasses. After she opened it and took out two glasses, she remembered something that might be slightly embarrassing. The wine opener was packed up in the box marked "misc tools" – which was also where she decided to pack her vibrator and the box of condoms that she kept with it.
She opened the box, trying to get to the bottle opener quickly enough so that she could close it and prevent Lorenzo from viewing the embarrassing content. But apparently she wasn't quick enough because Lorenzo chuckled before asking, "is that what I think it is?" as Emily handed him the opener.
Emily attempted to turn her answer into a joke and alleviate her embarrassment a bit. "Um, it might be. But listen, I swear I'm normal, like I don't fantasize about kinky sex toys or anything like that."
"Oh really." Lorenzo paused and opened the bottle of wine. Then he poured them each a glass before saying, "Listen, may I ask you something a bit personal?"
Emily's let out a nervous laugh and sipped her wine. "Sure, go ahead," she said.
"Do you fantasize very often?"
Emily and Lorenzo maintained eye contact as she took another sip of wine. "I mean, of course, doesn't everybody?" Emily answered.
"I mean, I know that I have a lot of sexual fantasies, but maybe I'm just a pervert." Lorenzo said.
This made Emily laugh. Then she smiled, and realized that the conversation was starting to make her feel aroused. The surge of energy that she felt emboldened her enough to say, "Will you tell me some of them?"
