Rory's new neighbour had officially been living in Pleasure Estates for a month now, each morning they greeted each other with strong coffee made to perfection – he liked one spoonful of sugar, she liked two. In the evenings she brought something that resembled a dinner, and he bought wine he couldn't afford. Day after day, night after night, Rory was spending more time in his apartment -even though it was messier than hers and less personal, it felt homey.

She knocked with her elbow as she held the casserole dish, waiting for Eddie to open up. She rocked back and forth on her heels, feeling this strange sense of companionship with her newfound neighbour. The door opened and Eddie greeted her with an infectious, subtle smirk of a smile that made her feel something she hadn't allowed herself to feel in so long.

"Ah, you're to good to me, Rory," he said as he took the dish from her hands. He turned around and placed it on the small counter space, two glasses of wine already poured and ready.

Rory noticed that there was something different in the apartment; it smelled fresher, as though he did a power clean of some sort. Then she realized that it wasn't the smell of some lemon scented cleaner, it was the fact there were candles.

"Are you trying to woo me?" she asked as she glanced around, placing her now-free hands upon her hips.

"Ah, you deserve it," he told her, not quite meeting her gaze -was that guilt she saw in his eyes? Guilt that he was treating her like she could be more than a neighbour and a friend, guilt that he was moving on from his ex, or perhaps guilt that he wasn't moving on from her, and yet was still stringing Rory along.

Rory didn't see it as any of those, however -she didn't buy the friendzone, it didn't exist. You were either friends, sexual partners, lovers or nothing -there was no friendzone. She asked him, "I deserve to be wooed by you?"

He laughed, grabbing his glass of wine. "That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean?" She grabbed her glass; this time it was a rosé, sweeter than she was used to, but Eddie proved he had excellent taste. She put the glass back down after taking a sip, her eyes lidded in a sultry gaze. She did not believe the friendzone existed; her and Eddie were friends. But she wondered, as she was more and more attracted to his physical and emotional being, if there was a possibility that they would be more than friends.

Eddie reached his hand to the side of his head, running his fingers through his hair. Then he extended his hand, fingers wide, gesturing to Rory. Cocking his head to the side he said, "You deserve someone who treats you... the way... you deserve to be treated."

She smiled; it was his way of saying he pitied her because of her past, and how it impeded on her present. His way of saying he wanted her to feel like she deserved someone who treated her like this, but that it wasn't him. He was showing her how to be treated when the right guy walked in on her life.

"Let's eat," she suggested.

Half an hour later Ziggy picked up his guitar and began to play. The sound rumbled through and Rory noticed a vein popping out of the side of Eddie's head and neck; this place was driving him crazy, and Rory realized she didn't want to see him leave because of one -two if you counted Mike- moron in the building.

"Do you want to step out for a bit?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied gratefully.

They got up and left the kitchen in disarray, the mess of it to be dealt with at a later time -they weren't going to be getting much sleep with Ziggy's guitar playing. Eddie grabbed his jacket and handed Rory hers, and the two of the slipped out of the apartment. Elation filled Rory as she hopped down the last three steps to the ground, and Eddie lumbered after her. The feeling of being able to walk out into the night with a man following her without a fear of being anything but safe, it was the first time she felt it since she was a child.

The night was cold, bitter even, and Eddie looked at Rory as she flung open the heavy apartment building door, holding it open for him. He stepped out behind her and glanced up at the clear, light polluted skies. Without a destination in mind, they walked down the steep streets of San Francisco.

"Tell me something, Eddie," Rory said with a chatter to her voice, her teeth trying not to rattle together.

"Sure," he replied.

"What's her name?"

There was a brief silence, then he finally told her. "Annie. Anne."

"Anne," Rory repeated. "How long were you together?"

"Not long," he lied. "How long were you with him?"

Rory didn't want to answer, but she knew if she did not give, she would not get. That was how life was, and she did not want to lose her possibilities to dig into Eddie's mind. Giving him a little something wouldn't hurt, she decided. She trusted him.

"Two and a half years," she told him sourly.

"What made you decide to leave?"

"Opportunity," she replied, slowly down and looking sidelong at Eddie. He glanced at her from over his jacket collar and offered a sympathetic look. "When you live that long with someone breathing down your throat, getting into your head, knowing where you are at every hour of every day... You don't realize you're trapped until it's far too late."

"What was your opportunity?" he asked.

"Business trip, he went on many, but this one was different. More important, or something, he was so swept up in all of it that he forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"He forgot his monologue, the one where I was worthless without him, unable to make a living, that without him -he reminded me often- I would be on the street."

Eddie was quiet for a moment, trying to understand her words – of course he didn't understand them like someone who was in or had been in the same situation would. He wrapped his head around them over and over again, but his mind could never process it -it wasn't in him to understand the horrors that Rory faced, he only knew that he was mad hearing it. Not at her, no, but at whomever hurt her.

"I'm free now," she reminded him, stepping a bit closer to him to avoid a rise in the sidewalk that would trip up someone less focused. She could feel his body warmth now, they were circling around the block for the second time, staying nearby home.

"Do you think..." Eddie started a train of thought, but let it derail.

"What?" she asked, her hands tucking underneath her crossed arms now; it was way colder than she anticipated.

"I hurt Annie, and I wonder if she thinks about what I did like what he did to you."

"I doubt it," Rory said firmly, reaching her hand out and grasping Eddie's wrist. She pulled him to face her so that he could see her truth when she said it. "I may have not made the best choices in my life to end up where I ended up, I couldn't see what kind of person he was back then, but now I know a bad person when I meet them. I know who to avoid, I know who to stay away from because I might not be alive if I make the wrong decisions. I may have been a bitch to you when we met, but that was my fear coming out, and right away I knew you weren't like him, or like Mike, or half the guys I see on a day to day basis. Eddie, you're a good person. Good people can hurt others, make mistakes, and not be bad people because of it.

"Whatever you did, don't compare yourself to him," she concluded. They were a mere inch apart now, face to face, Rory still holding his arm.

His hand made its way to her chin, ice cold in the brisk spring air. Her shuddering breath fogged before her, the waver in her voice making Eddie pause. She stood there, stock still, not telling him to bugger off, not showing a sign of anything.

So he asked her, "can I kiss you?"

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