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Lydia loves her house.
It’s one-story and homey, with a large backyard. Exactly nothing like what anyone ever pictured her having, but exactly what she’s always imagined.
What Lydia doesn’t love is her neighbours.
The backyard neighbours to be specific, and it’s for one simple reason.
She can see straight into their house.
Now ordinarily, being afforded a view into others’ lives is a plus to Lydia, but being able to see exactly what horrible action movies they watch every night, and what they have for dinner makes her feel watched. Ironic perhaps, all things considered. But if she can see them they can surely see her. And that makes Lydia a little uncomfortable.
She also, although she’s admitted this only very quietly to herself, a little jealous. Jealous of their coupley-comfort, and how they never fight over the remote, how they always kiss each other hello, how they devolved into a paint war one weekend when they were repainting the spare room upstairs. How they’re together.
So needless to say, Lydia is relieved when they move out.
For 3 weeks Lydia has her privacy returned and she relishes in the chance to walk around without her bra on under her shirt, dance in her kitchen, and listen to music lying on the grass in her backyard.
And then the new neighbours move in.
It’s different. They’re different. Because this it isn’t a lovey-dovey couple who Lydia slowly works up a growing resentment toward. It’s a single father and his adorable daughter.
He turns the newly painted upstairs room into the child’s bedroom. Lydia can’t tell how old the kid is, but old enough to following after her father like a fluffy chick. Lydia gets lost one weekend watching the two play chase around the large living/dining room, seeing them both radiating with happiness every time the man catches his daughter and tickles her sides.
Sometimes Lydia leaves her windows down so she can strain to hear the giggles coming across her lawn.
-
The man is a deputy with the sheriff’s department, and often spends his mornings in just a singlet top and boxers while he gets his little girl ready for childcare. Lydia assumes childcare because she’s never seen a babysitter come over and she seems to young for school. Sometimes Lydia contemplates knocking on his door and offering her services if he did ever need them. To look after his daughter. But Lydia fears that would be overstepping and might reveal her questionable watching of their family life.
So she stays an outside observer. Sometimes literally outside. But never at the same time as they are. Although once she did almost go out to return a stray tennis ball that had come into her yard. But in the end she waited until they’d gone back inside.
-
Lydia finds out the man’s name through an unlikely sequence of events going something like this:
The first Friday of every month the high school gang – comprising herself, Allison, Scott, Stiles, Jackson and Danny – meet up for dinner at someone’s house and do a general catch up normally involving too much wine and at least one horrible CD selection. It’s meant to be Ally and Scott’s turn to host but due to a surprising incident involving an old tree and a windstorm, their house is unavailable. Lydia offers to host.
Dinner goes well despite the short notice and no-one mentions that the house is messier than normal. Danny mentions that he’s got a new partner at work. Jackson mentions that he’s just started on a high profile case which he can’t say any more on. Stiles mentions that a new girl named Celeste has joined his pre-school class. Ally and Scott mention – again – that a tree branch went through their bathroom roof. Lydia mentions that it’d be nice if someone stayed over to clean up this time.
Which leads to all of them cramming themselves into her kitchen to wash, dry, and put dishes away.
Which leads to Lydia having to open the window when it gets a little stuffy.
Which leads to the tinkling sounds of the neighbours’ laughter floating in across a break between songs off Jackson’s iPod.
It’s funny, watching everyone’s heads turn in perfect unison to look across Lydia’s backyard and through to the illuminated back room of her neighbour’s, where the young child is being balanced on her father’s knees and outstretched arms, playing airplanes.
They react simultaneously but the ones Lydia notices the most are Stiles’ and Danny’s.
“That’s my new partner.”
“That’s Celeste.”
And not 3 minutes later Lydia knows that her neighbours are Jordan Parrish, new cryptic analyst with the sheriff’s department, and Celeste, his 4 year old daughter.
Stiles wants to go over and say hello but everyone talks him out of that idea. Thank god.
-
One week later and Lydia meets Jordan anyway.
He shows up at 5:47 on a Wednesday evening with Celeste in one arm and an overflowing gym bag in the other.
“Hello. Lydia right?”
“That’s me.”
“Oh thank god. I’m Jordan. I'm so sorry to bother you but work just called and they need me to come in right now and look at some new evidence in this murder case we’re working and I can’t get on to my babysitter and Danny mentioned that you lived here and that you were trustworthy and kind and I guess I am really hoping he's right because I want to take advantage of that.”
“You want me to look after Celeste for you?”
“Yes. Please. If you could. I know it’s horrible to even ask but I’ll only be 2 hours, tops, and–”
“Okay, Jordan. It’s fine. I’ll watch her for you.”
And she does.
Celeste is easy to care for. Self-contained, but happy to chat as well. She spends most of the nearly 3 hours drawing on paper that was crammed into the gym bag alongside pencil cases filled with crayons and some drawing books and a DVD of Tangled that turns out to be empty when Lydia tries to put it on.
Lydia makes grilled cheese for Celeste for dinner and she eats it happily and says “Thank you, miss” when she’s done.
Lydia falls a little bit in love.
-
2 months later and Lydia isn’t just in love with Celeste. She’s in love with Jordan as well.
Because of his connections with Danny and Stiles, he’s joined in on their monthly Friday dinners which somehow have become twice-monthly affairs after Ally and Scott decided to host dinner two weeks in a row to apologise for the tree-through-the-roof incident.
So Lydia sees Jordan a lot more that she’s used to and he’s great. Intelligent, caring, hilarious in a self-deprecating way (sometimes enough to make Lydia want to run a soothing hand down his arm and tell him to think better of himself), dedicated to his work and absolutely devoted to Celeste.
The next time Lydia is hosting Friday dinner, Jordan stops eating halfway through the meal and says, “You can see right into my house from here.”
I know, Lydia thinks. “Huh, I suppose you can,” is what she says.
Later Jordan teases Lydia about it and Lydia laughs good-naturedly, inside feeling a creeping guilt worm its way up her throat.
“I watch you sometimes.” She admits, long into the night and after everyone else has left.
“Really?” Jordan doesn’t look worried about it.
“You and Celeste are a lovely family.” Lydia tries to explain.
“Thank you.”
Jordan leaves soon after and Lydia worries that she’s scared him away. She scrubs harshly at her sink and when she looks up he’s standing in his backroom, illuminated from behind by his hallway light. He waves at her and mouths Goodnight, Lydia.
Lydia says it out loud and smiles, watches the on-off progression of lights through his house as he makes his way up to his bedroom. It’s on the wrong side of the house for Lydia to see. She’s almost convinced herself she’s grateful for it.
-
They start communicating across their backyards after that.
One mouths, How was your day? The other offers a shrug or a shudder or a double thumbs up and then they turn away and go about their business, but now, Lydia doesn’t worry about getting caught watching.
Sometimes when Celeste and Jordan watch TV together, he’ll open his back windows and turn the volume up and Lydia will bring a stool into her kitchen and sit at the bench and watch with them through her own open window. It’s unconventional but it works. And it warms Lydia from her toes to the top of her head.
-
Slowly Jordan becomes her closest friend in the group and equally she falls deeper in love with him and Celeste. One Monday when Lydia picked Celeste up from school on Jordan’s behalf she had said, “Lydia, I love you very much.”
“I love you too, honey.” Lydia didn’t hesitate to reply.
She dances around the word with Jordan though, no matter how much Celeste needles. “My daddy is the best, don’t you think Lydia?”
“He is.”
“Do you love him?”
“I love all my friends.”
Celeste has become quite the talker since starting school and Lydia doesn’t want to scare Jordan away if she admits her love for him to her daughter and Celeste tells him.
-
Lydia doesn’t date.
Jordan doesn’t date either, but Lydia doesn’t attribute that to her influence.
When Lydia does look across one evening to see Jordan conversing in the hallway with a woman with curled blonde hair and fitted jeans, she doesn’t know what to think.
Celeste is drawing in the living room, completely at ease with this woman in her house. It has to be a girlfriend.
Lydia retreats to her bedroom, shuts her blinds, picks up a paperback from her shelf and burrows under the covers to take her mind of it.
The woman comes back twice that week, both times at night. Lydia watches Jordan greet her easily. Lydia watches the non-reaction of Celeste that betrays the familiarity she must have with this woman’s presence. She runs away again.
Lydia starts thinking that maybe this blonde woman is Celeste’s mother. Her hair is much lighter than Jordan’s, and if that woman is her mother it would explain that. Jordan has never told the group what happened to her mother, just that she’s still alive. Lydia decides it must be her. Maybe they’re trying again. Maybe she’s after more custody. Whatever the reason, Lydia is out of luck. There’s no room for her in Jordan’s life right now.
Almost one month later and Lydia builds up the courage to ask Celeste about her mother.
“She married this man with a funny name. I think they live in Italy. Is that the one with the pizza?”
So blonde lady isn’t Celeste’s mother.
“No, Lyds. She’s my babysitter. I like her. She’s funny and she lets me watch whatever I want.”
Lydia brings up the babysitter thing with Jordan, offering to take over if he wants to save money. She’s happy to look after Celeste for free. A favour between friends. Besides, she loves her (loves him) and it would be no trouble.
“I don’t want to take advantage of you.” It’s exactly the opposite of the first thing he’d said to Lydia. Lydia smiles at the proof of their relationship’s progression.
-
Jordan starts inviting Lydia over for dinner.
“It’s strange watching movies through 2 sets of walls. You should come over instead.”
It possibly should be painful, spending so much time with Jordan and his daughter as friends only, but Lydia can’t find it in herself to feel that way. Because it’s Jordan. And Celeste.
-
Ally figures it out first. Something about how Lydia rearranged her furniture.
Danny figures it out next.
Then somehow everyone in the group knows – aside of course from Jordan – and wants to offer her either advice or condolences or both.
No-one tells Jordan. She makes them promise.
Soon it doesn’t matter anyway.
It happens in a horrific way and Lydia wishes circumstances had been different.
It’s a Tuesday night. An ordinary night. Jordan had to work the night shift because he needed to switch out the day before when Celeste got sick unexpectedly during school. The babysitter comes in and Lydia waves at her once before moving to her study to do some work. Now that she knows she’s not Celeste’s mother, and that Celeste actually quite likes her, she’s been acting less hostile and not hiding in her room every time the babysitter comes into Jordan’s house to mind Celeste.
At about 1am Lydia blinks at her computer and decides it’s time for bed. She hadn’t meant to be up this late anyway.
She goes to the kitchen for a glass of water.
She fills it up at the tap, rubs at her eyes, and drinks half of it before she registers something out of the ordinary.
She smells smoke.
Nothing in her own kitchen seems to be the source but as soon as she turns to examine her backyard she can see what is.
Jordan’s house is on fire. The kitchen, more specifically.
The image of flames curling up the walls, lurid orange and yellow against the night sky, is terrible enough, but what’s worse, Lydia can see Celeste sleeping calmly in her bed. Directly above the kitchen.
Lydia’s response is probably not logical, though at 1am, faced with a rapidly growing fire and a heart full to the brim with adoration for Celeste attempting to throw itself out her chest, Lydia reacts in the only way that makes sense.
She throws herself out of her house and races across her backyard, socks soaking through quickly with dew. Somehow she bounds over the back fence and up to Jordan’s backdoor. It’s locked. Of course it is. And the babysitter is sleeping soundly on the couch in the living room.
Lydia screams. She bangs on the glass door. She chants Celeste’s name over and over.
She doesn’t have her phone or else she’d ring: the fire department, the sheriff’s station, Jordan’s home number so the damn babysitter would wake up.
But all she can do is smash her fist against the glass and shout herself hoarse until finally, finally, the babysitter lifts her head groggily and looks around at Lydia. She’s clearly disoriented and half-asleep but when Lydia screams - “fire in the kitchen” - she’s alert.
She opens the door for Lydia and she can’t even give herself the time to insult the babysitter like she’s itching to do because Celeste is still in danger.
“Get out to the street now. Take your phone. Call 911.”
The babysitter nods, grabs her handbag and leaves for the front door.
Lydia starts coughing as smoke begins filling up the backroom, crawling under the kitchen door and snaking out in ghostly tendrils. She drags her shirt up over her mouth and bolts up the stairs to Celeste’s room.
Thank goodness she knows where it is.
Her shouting must have woken Celeste up because she’s sitting up in bed.
“Lydia? Why are you here?”
It’s hot in Celeste’s room and Lydia can feel sweat beginning to stick her top to her skin.
“Celeste, honey. We have to leave. There’s a fire downstairs, okay? I’ll get you out of here safely, I promise. I promise. But we don’t have to time grab anything. Will you come with me please?”
Celeste’s eyes start watering but she nods at Lydia and gets out of bed. Lydia picks up a stray t-shirt from the ground and presses it over Celeste’s mouth.
“To protect you from the smoke, okay?”
Lydia picks Celeste up and runs her down the stairs and through the open front door.
There are a few people gathered out on the street by this stage, all neighbours. Lydia takes Celeste a few houses down, away from the sight of her home falling victim to towering flames.
She sits on the sidewalk and pulls Celeste into her lap, rocking her and rubbing circles on her back as Celeste starts to cry.
It’s several minutes before the fire trucks pull up but they’re quick to assemble their hoses and direct water toward the building. It’s only as Lydia is watching Celeste being checked by paramedics for smoke damage that she realises she hasn’t contacted Jordan.
She doesn’t have her phone and is figuring out how to reach him when she hears someone shout her name from down the street.
She turns and Jordan is running toward her, pure relief in his eyes. Her’s probably show the same.
She starts toward him and then they’re together and he’s hugging her tight enough that breathing is hard to do.
“You’re okay. You’re okay.”
Lydia nods against Jordan’s shoulder.
“God I was so worried. I heard over the radio there was a fire and when they said my address I just didn’t even think, I just came straight here.”
“Celeste is fine.” Lydia pulls herself back, giving Jordan the space to go to Celeste. “The paramedics are just checking her now.”
Jordan nods but doesn’t take his eyes off Lydia.
“The fire fighters told me what you did. Running in to save Celeste.”
“I couldn’t lose her.”
“Thank you. Thank you, Lydia. I can’t lose her either and I... I can’t lose you.”
Lydia steps back and Jordan’s arms drop off her. She blinks at him, not understanding.
“I can’t lose you, Lydia. When they said you ran into a burning building I- my heart stopped. It just stopped. I was so scared that something had happened to you and I just can’t- that can’t happen, alright? Lydia I-“ Jordan stares into Lydia’s eyes for a second then jerks towards her and grabs her face, bringing their lips together in a kiss.
Lydia can feel his desperation and it echoes back through her lips. But it’s good, it’s so good.
He pulls back and rests his forehead against hers, hands still gripping the side of her face but now with far less intensity.
“I love you Lydia. I am in love with you. I can’t lose you.”
Lydia sighs out shakily. She wants to close her eyes against oncoming tears but she can’t break this gaze.
“You won’t. I love you too, Jordan.”
“Good. I want to be with you. Can we try, please?”
“Of course.”
It feels like a new beginning although the night is far from over. Nothing more dramatic happens thankfully, unless you count Celeste’s reaction to finding her father kissing Lydia.
-
The house isn’t totally ruined, but the kitchen and backroom need to be renovated and the entire house will need to be aired for weeks before the smell of smoke is gone.
Jordan and Celeste stay with Lydia while their house is fixed.
Lydia is the happiest she’s been in a year, but sometimes sadness will settle in when she thinks of what had to happen to prompt them to get here. But then Jordan will wrap his arms around her and kiss her neck and she’ll breathe him in and move on. Or Celeste will draw her a picture of the three of them together and will make Lydia smile with the captions she adds to them.
After Jordan’s house is fixed up he decided to sell it. Bad memories, he tells her. Lydia knows that’s just an excuse but she thinks he knows she knows, so she just smiles and asks him and Celeste to move in with her.
Together the three of them convert her study into a bedroom for Celeste. They paint it together, a light purple colour they let Celeste pick out. The walls get coated evenly, though a lot of the paint seems to end up all over the three of them courtesy of a paint war that Jordan starts.
There is an adjustment period and many discussion-cum-arguments ranging from big to small. Jordan spends an entire night teaching Lydia his parenting philosophy. Lydia writes up house rules for Celeste and Jordan which get changed around a lot in their first few weeks living together. They find their groove and become even more comfortable with each other than before.
Lydia finds it hard to believe, but her loves grows even stronger for the pair.
Jordan’s old house eventually gets sold to an older couple. Jordan, Lydia and Celeste invite the gang over one weekend and together they plant big hedges that block the house from view.