One day I was working and I got a work email from her. She said she knows I don’t know her, but heard that the apartment building that she was moving into was the same one I currently lived in. And she asked me some question about it… like whether there was underground parking or something like that.

I shot her a quick reply saying it was cool she was moving in, that the building is nice, and answered her question. Simple, quick reply. Again still thinking nothing of it.

At the end of the work day, I packed up my stuff and headed for the door. And it just so happened that Leah was heading out at the same time. I flashed a smile and would have been just fine if she had smiled back and then once we were out the door we went our separate ways toward our own cars.

But she said my name and stopped to talk to me. She said thanks for the email reply. I gave her a “You’re welcome,” and as I was saying that I felt guilty because I had forgotten her name. Lisa? Laura? It was an “L” name. Meh, who cares.

We talked a little bit more about the apartment building. She was moving in the next day. Being a gentleman, I said that if she needed help moving heavy things, that she should let me know. I gave her my number.

At the end, she was like, “Jeez, we should just carpool to work!”… with a smile. And for whatever reason I replied like a total dick. “Haha… yeah… ok…” Really sarcastically. And then I realized that she was half serious and apologized for sounding like an asshole. We laughed about it. No offense taken I guess.

And that was it. She headed for her car, I headed for mine.

Ten minutes later I pulled into my apartment garage, pulled out my phone and I had a text from her. Something simple like, “Hey, this is Leah. Thanks again.” Or whatever. I replied so she knew I gave her my real number and that was that. It was Friday night. I was off to a friend gathering.