Pilar had just finished painting her nails a deep turquoise - little pinky last - when the buzzer to her apartment rang.
Disoriented, she grabbed her phone to check the time and cursed.
Getting up from the sofa, she tied up her bathrobe and barely avoided stepping into an empty pizza box before opening the front door to her apartment.
"I'm Will. I'm here to fix your internet?"
A lanky man with sleek black hair looked up from a notice board, revealing a pair of intelligent eyes that currently seemed bored.
"You called?" he added, and Pilar realized she'd been staring.
"I'm sorry, yes."
She opened the door, subtly shoving the pizza box out of sight with the back of her foot.
"Thanks for making it out. I know it's a Sunday but the WiFi's been out since yesterday and I really need it for my work."
Pilar showed him through her small apartment to the internet box.
"I'm sorry for the mess," she offered.
"No worries," Will sighed, as he bent over to get to work.
It didn't take long for him to finish.
"Mind if we try it out? Saves me another trip up here, just in case."
Pilar nodded and led him to the dinner table, which moonlit as a desk. She opened up her laptop, which was covered in little heart stickers, and clicked on the wave icon. After a moment, it began to pulse back and forth, until at last the Wifi reconnected.
"Seems like it worked," Will said.
It was all either of them managed to say before the video that Pilar had been watching realized the internet was back on, and slid back into fullscreen mode to continue playback.
At once, a set of tiny speakers filled the apartment with the loud, rushed moaning of a beautiful Asian woman straddling a man in an abandoned warehouse, her two hands clutching his vulnerable throat in a chokehold as they fucked.
Pilar lurched forward to press escape.
But her browser decided to freeze, and continued playback.
As the fucking unfolded in front of her, she fruitlessly kept pushing the same button, frozen in horror; it was far too late to hide from this complete stranger exactly what kind of private videos she liked to watch alone on the weekends.
The cacophony of lust continued for another moment, before the internet repairman tactfully reached over and pressed the mute button.
Pilar's gaze was still fixated on the screen, her mind in overdrive to come up with an apology, when Will's laugh deflated the tension:
"Erika Lust, right? You've got good taste."
Pilar began to giggle as well. She couldn't help it: the situation was just too ridiculous.
Before either of them could help it, they were laughing so hard that tears rolled down their faces. Pilar's clenched fingers let go of her pink bathrobe to cover her mouth, in a feeble attempt to stop the hiccups.
When she'd finally made her way to a light panting, Pilar grinned sheepishly at the handyman.
"I'm so... so sorry. I completely forgot."
"I can see what kind of work you needed the internet back on for," Will teased.
"Actually, I just got laid off last week. I've got too much time on my hands and I'm a bit of a mess these days," Pilar sighed. "Anyway... I am terribly sorry. I imagine this is the last thing you were waiting for."
A smile rose up from deep inside Will's clear blue eyes: "Don't worry about it, happens more often than you'd think in my line of work."
"Can I offer you some coffee, at least?" Pilar proposed.
"Actually, I'd appreciate a cup. I'm done for the day but it's a long ride back home."
They sat down in her tiny kitchen and chatted while she made coffee.
Pilar still basked in the afterglow of their raucous laughter, and when her eyes occasionally sought Will's, she saw in them a sly mischievousness, as if they still lingered on the intimate view they'd been offered into her erotic tastes.
She handed him the espresso he had requested, and for a brief moment their hands touched.
It was enough to send a tingle down her spine. Had he felt it too? She watched as slender fingers raised the tiny cup to Will's lips.
"So, what kind of porn do you watch, then?"
Did she really just blurt that out? Was she really going to try and seduce the internet guy? Pilar felt infinitely self-conscious in that moment, but when Will calmly lowered his coffee, she was met with a disarming smile.