Two weeks after Josh and Jacki moved in, Verna came down and rang their door bell.

“Hello dears!” she said, when Josh opened the door, “I don’t know your phone number so I just popped down to let you know that we haven’t forgotten about having you two over for dinner, but we decided we should invite the other half of the building as well as we’ve never invited them over either. We shouldn’t play favourites.”

“That’s fine,” said Josh, “Just let us know when. We’re not going anywhere this summer.”

“Where would you go, if you could? Cruise to Alaska, or Hawaii?” Verna asked, suddenly looking very serious.

“Hawaii, probably . . .” said Josh.

“Definitely the cruise!” said Jacki from the couch, “I’ve always wanted to go on one of those!”

“Me too!” said Verna, “Nothing sounds better than eating fabulous food you didn’t have to prepare for an entire week!”

“But you could do that in Hawaii too,” Josh objected. Verna dismissed this with a wave of her hand.

“A cruise is the perfect vacation,” she said, “everything is included, you don’t have to do a single thing after you step onto the boat.” And she nodded twice, very distinctly. Josh didn’t feel like he could say anything more. He just shrugged. Verna smiled.

“Have a nice evening, you two,” she said.

“A dinner party with the whole building, hmmm,” said Jacki, getting up to turn off the TV, “That should be interesting. Maybe we’ll actually meet Number 2 – I don’t think I’ve even seen him yet.” She put on her runners and dug through the junk basket on the counter for her gym card.

“I’m ready,” she said. They had just gotten memberships at the gym up the hill at Five Corners and with the hot days continuing so unusually, the gym really only became a palatable option around 9:00 in the evening. Downstairs in the garage, they climbed into their Jetta and noticed that Number #2’s car was gone.

“What does he drive?” Jacki wondered, “If he’s a banker, he probably has a nice car. Have you ever left for work at the same time?”

“He doesn’t drive to work,” Josh said, backing out of their spot, “I think he walks. He drives a Golf and it’s usually here. It’s black.”

“Oh,” Jacki sounded disappointed.

As they walked into the gym, Jacki momentarily panicked when she saw a short dark greasy head at one of the weight machines. She had worked with Misty for the first three days at work and each consecutively shift had gotten worse. The third day, they didn’t speak to each other at all unless they had to. On the fourth day, a Thursday, the manager came back and Misty didn’t come in. Jacki finally got her schedule. Thursdays through Saturdays 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

“What shifts does Misty usually work?” she had asked as casually as possible.

“Misty works the 11:00-7:00 shift Mondays through Thursdays,” the manager said, “You’ll be working most of your shifts with a guy named Ethan.” Jacki’s huge sigh of relief had escaped before she could stop it and the manager had raised an eyebrow at her.

Josh and Jacki climbed onto two elliptical machines and started their warm-up.

“I think that’s him,” Josh said in a low voice, turning to Jacki.

“Who?” asked Jacki.

“Shh,” said Josh, “Number 2, our neighbour, I think.”

“Where?”

“On the treadmill by the door,” said Josh.

“How do you know?” Jacki asked, scrutinizing the shoulders and back of the tall man running on the treadmill, watching the Mariners game on the screen in front of him.

“He was walking out of his door when I was leaving a few days ago,” Josh said.

“WHAT?!” said Jacki.

“Shh,” said Josh, glaring at her.

“Well, why didn’t you tell me?” she hissed.

“There’s nothing to tell,” said Josh, “he was locking his door and he didn’t even see me.”

When they got back to their place, George was just coming back from a quick walk with Leroy. Leroy licked both of Jacki’s knees happily. Jacki patted his head.

“Good thing I like you,” she said.

“How are you?” Josh asked George.

“Fine, just fine.” George said, “Tell me, if you had your choice, what would you do? Take a cruise to Alaska or go to Hawaii?”

Jacki and Josh looked at each other.

“The cruise,” said Jacki at the same time that Josh said, “Hawaii.” George frowned.

“Huh,” he said. He appealed to Jacki,

“You’d really pick the cruise?”

Jacki wanted to laugh.

“Yes, I really would,” she said.

“But why? It’s a floating prison, you can’t get off . . . ” George sighed.

“Good luck winning that one,” Josh laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. George straightened up as much as he could.

“I haven’t given up yet,” he said, “Hawaii will happen!”