My Guest in Apartment 10B

When Life gives you Lemons

Arabella was used to the disquiet mornings of city life. The sounds of trains, car horns, and people going about their business faded into the background as she had gotten accustomed to sleeping and waking to its cacophony.

That morning was no different, a small bird twittered against her window, but its serene and innocent movement contrasted against construction men hollering at each other on a nearby site.

She stretched her limbs and yawned as she recalled a weird dream with a smile. She had dreamt that she was stuck in a basket of fragrant lemons and to escape the confines of the enormous basket, she had to angrily step on the yellow fruit to squeeze out the juice and make lemonade for the tiny people below. Arabella wasn't entirely sure, but the tiny people looked like dwarves in black and white polka dot pajamas.

She picked up her phone from the nightstand and hurriedly walked out of her room and into the kitchen. She was now in the mood to make lemon poppy seed muffins, which would make the perfect gift for Claudine when she went back to the office the following day.

Since it was still early, Arabella had hoped to catch James hanging out in the kitchen. They had enjoyed cooking together so much that maybe he would enjoy baking with her too. This time, she'd have the upper hand and she would be able to teach him a few tricks of her own.

"Good morning, James! Where art thou?" She giggled and opened the fridge to take out the butter and eggs, then rummaged through vegetable crisper for a lemon.

"Good morning, Arabella," James's voice came from the laptop. "You seem cheerful today."

She nodded at him and started preparing the ingredients needed for the muffins. While at it, she refilled the kettle with water and set it to boil. "Yes, I am. I'm going to bake lemon poppy seed muffins today, and you're going to help me." The anticipation of the tart treats always seemed to put her in good spirits. Lemons were sunshine trapped in a fruit.

"Did you receive my message?"

Arabella glanced at the laptop as she presumed that that was where James was. She hadn't checked her phone in her haste to head downstairs and begin prepping for the muffins.

"I didn't, sorry. What was it about?" She took the large bag of flour from the cupboard and set it down on the counter.

"I had an interesting discovery last night," he said tentatively, as he paced around the room sending a takeout flier whirling around him. James picked it up and placed it under a refrigerator magnet.

"Really?" Her brows rose in a teasing manner and she walked over to the laptop to check what he had been looking at.

There was nothing open aside from the document and text-to-speech app.

"What did you find?"

"Your pictures..."

Arabella gasped. "You were stalking me?"

She paused as a silent rage slowly simmered in the pit of her stomach. "You're not supposed to do that, James. My albums and documents are private."

There was a time when she had to put passwords to protect all of them because someone had wanted to check everything she owned and used.

However, she was skeptical that this was James's intention too.

"I apologize. I stumbled upon it and couldn't resist."

She nodded and decided to accept that apology and explanation. He did allow her to go through her things, so she would've allowed him to go through hers if he'd asked. "It would've been nice if you had asked though."