Were five knocks too much? Does the rhythm of her fist against the wooden door voice her anxious panic?

Elke's thoughts ran wild as she waited outside Joost's apartment. Her thumbnail was between her teeth as the hallway's isolated silence beat her ears. She listened for footsteps and tried to recall if she had seen Joost's car in the underground carpark earlier.

From memory, Elke didn't see the Impreza in it's usual spot. He liked to park it near the lift when he could, just like she did with her Swift. But there wasn't always the spots avaliable, so maybe he had parked it somewhere else tonight. Or he was out and Elke would have to trudge back to 408 in defeat.

The latter was proven wrong when the dark green disappeared and a sleepy-eyed Joost stood in the doorway.

'Hey...' Elke started, craning her neck upwards to meet his subdued blues. 'I'm sorry, did I wake you up?'

'No, you're alright,' he shook his head with a lazy smile. He had been finishing a job during the day after the previous night's events went pear-shaped. Joost had only just gotten home after a solid 30 hours of no sleep.

'My ugh... my ceiling fan just fell in my bedroom,' Elke said with her thumb jabbed over her shoulder.

'Shit. Are you okay?'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I wasn't in there when it happened. But I can't lift it from the edge of my bed and it's... still kind of attached to the ceiling.'

Joost was closing his door and prospering through his drowsiness before she knew it. Elke's steps were quick to make it down the hallway's length to her apartment. Her door sat ajar and she lead Joost in, the worry of leaving live wires hanging from her ceiling clouding her usual nerves and awkwardness.

The first thing Joost noticed about Elke's apartment was how clean and well lit it was. Lamps and wall lights made the small space cozy and organised. He noticed that the TV was playing a show to an empty sofa where a blanket sat in a pile. He imagined Elke jumping at the loud crash in her bedroom and leaving her living space in a hurry. Joost liked that he was her first choice for help, even though it was probably the fact that he was the only man she knew on the same floor.

'Ah. That's not good,' Joost said as he took in the sight. Elke's ceiling fan sat askew off the edge of her bed. It's wires ran from the hole in the ceiling to the fan's backing, ruining the tidiness of Elke's bedroom.

'Can you go down to the electrical box and shut off the power?'

'Sure,' Elke tried to sound confident. 'Um... where would I find that, exactly?'

Elke was given the important task of letting everyone on the 4th floor know that Joost was turning off the power for half an hour. While the man went down to the building's electrical box, came back up, disconnected the wires from her ceiling fan, Elke walked back into her apartment to see the crisis had been averted.

Her ceiling fan was lifted from her bed and was in Joost's arms. She guided him from the bedroom with her phone torch as the only source of light. He carried the bulky appliance with little effort and Elke stepped out of his way. As Joost passed her, her eyes fell to where the sleeves of his football jersey squeezed at his biceps. The muscle that was usually hidden bulged from the band and Joost's patchwork tattoos accompanied his bent arm.

Unaware of Elke's stare, Joost bent over to lower the ceiling fan onto her living room floor. His back curled and his t-shirt lifted, exposing the waistband of his black Polo Ralph Lauren underwear. When he straightened up, his steps to turn ripped Elke from her trance.

Her cheeks were warm and she tried to hide their redness. She lifted a hand to her face, scratched at her eyebrow and busied her feet by turning back to her bedroom. Joost's sneakers scuffed against the floorboards, his own phone torch now in hand and Elke stared at the dangling wires. The heat of Joost's presence joined her side, his pause prolonging his effect on her cheeks.

'That's cute,' Elke turned, biting the inside of her seering cheek. She thought she would meet blue eyes but was graced with a perfect side-profile. It made her follow his stare past the hanging wires to where her Mallard duck plushie sat against her pillows.

'Oh...' she cleared her throat and cursed her neglect to hide her darkest secret. 'That's embarrassing.'

'Don't excuse him on my account. I have a Stitch plushie the size of you in my bedroom,' Joost admitted, looking down at Elke to emphasise the size comparison.

'Really?'

Joost nodded and Elke let out a giggle at the thought. While standing in her bedroom, Joost struggled to conceal his smile. Everything in Elke's apartment added to the image he had painted in his head. He imagined Elke getting into her white sheets every night and waking up with an exaggerated groan. He thought about how she would stand in her kitchen, force herself to have breakfast even though she struggled to stomach it, before getting ready for work in a hurry. She never left her apartment without making her bed or without propping the duck up to guard her pillows while she was gone.

The mundane morning ritual was fascinating to think about because it was uniquely Elke's. Being next to her was a priviledge and Joost wanted to push his luck. He wanted to brush his thumb against her soft cheek and push her hair out of her eye in the same movement. If she didn't step away, Joost would lean down and set light to his insides by ghosting his lips against hers.

But instead, Joost fixed the wires hanging from Elke's ceiling.

'How's work?' Elke asked as she stood holding her phone's torch. She ignored Joost's insistence for her to go relax while he was on top of her dining chair. His sneakers sat in her pale pink rug and he worked in his black socks.

'It's okay,' Joost said, concentrating on wrapping up the wires. 'I was fixing my own car today and probably will be for the whole week so I've missed out on a payslip.'

That was why his Impreza wasn't downstairs, Elke thought to herself.

'What's wrong with it?'

Joost's silence was taken how he had hoped.

'You're right. I wouldn't understand if you explained to me, anyway,' Elke laughed to herself.

Changing the punctured tire was the easiest part. Joost had to replace the plate on the right back side of the Impreza and there was a long wait for Suburu parts. The bullet holes were too identifiable and were bound to raise eyebrows that he wanted unaware. While it was in the shop, Joost was going to be using The Netherlands' plentiful supply of bikes to get around.

'You're going to have to live with this hole in your ceiling for tonight,' Joost stepped off the dining chair. 'I can get Stuntje around to put your fan back up tomorrow.'

'Is he an electrician?'

'No but he's good with electrics.'

Elke was none the wiser to Joost's pause that followed. He let the admission slip out unconsciously but it worked in his favour. Stuntje was good with electrics, his expertise were just in a different kind of wires and circuits. He could hotwire a car, build a computer that was untracable and cut the power to a tech company's entire system if he wanted to.

'I'm insulted. Why am I fixing your neighbour's ceiling fan?' Stuntje would say in offence. Joost was already imagining the hostility and would tell his friend to 'just do it'. The innocent task would be completed in record time and after leaving Elke's apartment, Stuntje would know exactly why Joost had asked him to do the favour.

Joost carried the dining chair out of Elke's bedroom and the brunette folded the blanket that was abandoned on her sofa. They worked in comfortable silence, the ceiling fan on the floor and the TV playing to itself. There was no need to speak and Elke liked that. There was no underlying awkwardness or urge to fidget. Elke was relaxed despite the fact that she had a man who wasn't her boyfriend in her apartment.

'What are you having for dinner?' Joost blurted out.

'Pasta. I was just about to start making it,' Elke said. Joost nodded a few times and Elke watched him crouch down to put his shoes back on.

'Did you... want to stay and have some? I always make too much.'

Peering up through his ruffled hair, Joost beamed. He was planning to go to bed without a meal as the thought of even microwaving something tired him. But dinner in Elke's warm, cosy apartment sounded like a dream. Sitting at her small dining table, just the two of them, alone, was the perfect evening. No matter how drowsy Joost was, he was already slipping his feet back out of his sneakers.

'I'd like that,' he admitted and Elke mirrored his beam.

Elke stood over the stove and Joost poured water into two glasses. He joked about getting the champagne that was still in his apartment's fridge. She said that they should save it for when he gets a promotion. Joost liked that Elke thought he worked in a place that had a progressive work structure. If only she knew that there were no promotions in his field.

Distributing the creamy dish between two bowls, Elke joined Joost at the kitchen counter. She just made it past his shoulder and Joost had a full view of how her eyelashes curled and her nose curved to a rounded tip. He stared, heart hammering and his bottom lip between his teeth. If she looked up now, Joost wasn't sure he would be able to control himself.

But Elke did, like another test sent from above, and Joost didn't move. With dilated pupils, Joost's eyes moved between Elke's, before falling to her lips. She was so beautiful even in their iPhone's torches' hue, the steaming bowls of pasta fading into the background.

Elke knew it was wrong but she didn't care. Joost had done all the work by turning to face her and it would be so easy to close the gap between them. Roan was so far in the back of her mind that Elke didn't think of him at any moment. All she could think about was how pink and soft Joost's lips looked as they parted in preparation for hers.

His blonde moustache looked spikey and rough. His nose was shaped so that it could sit in the curve of her cheek. His tattooed hands, one gripping the edge of the counter, the other ghosting the small of her back, were large and capable of gripping her waist in it's entirety.

A soft knock sounded at the front door. Ms. Brauwer stood out in the dark hallway with a bulky, industrial torch. While the two neighbours made dinner in the dark, they had forgotten to go back down to the electrical box and give their floor their power back. Elke's gas stove didn't do them any favours at reminding them, so the building's 4th floor sat waiting for their lights to come back on.

'I'll go,' Joost mumbled, reluctantly stepping away. His eyes stung as he tore them from Elke's and he headed for the front door. She heard him apologise to the elderly woman and head downstairs in the lift.

Elke stared at the two bowls while breathing through her mouth. In full coherence and awareness, she was going to kiss Joost. She had known what she was risking and yet, Elke had wanted him to swoop down and press his lips against hers.

The feelings she had been experiencing were concealable. Elke could go the rest of her life without solidifying the fact that she was infatuated with her neighbour. But real, physical actions released her reality into the atmosphere.

By nearly kissing Joost in her kitchen, Elke had just accepted what she had been trying to hide. And judging by his own actions, Joost felt the same way.

Elke liked Joost and she was confident he liked her back.