How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?

I live on the top floor of a four-floor walk-up, and when I headed out Sunday morning at 10:15 to go to church, I saw a purse and a pair of sandals at the bottom of the staircase between the third and fourth floors. Then I noticed a woman, maybe in her late 20s, sitting in the hall next to one of the third floor apartments. The purse and sandals were obviously hers. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, so I just continued on to church.

Afterward I went for a walk, then did some grocery shopping. When I got home at about 12:45, I walked upstairs – and the same woman was sitting on the stairs between the third and fourth floor. She politely excused herself and moved over so I could get by. By now I was intrigued. Maybe she was locked out, I thought, and the relative or friend who had an extra set of keys had promised to come by any minute but still hadn’t shown up.

I went to my apartment, had something to eat, talked to a friend on the phone, and got my laundry together. At about 2:30, laundry in tow, I headed downstairs – and the woman was STILL there, sitting on the steps! Again she politely said “excuse me” and stood aside so I could walk past her. By now she’d been hanging out in the hallway, without even a book or an iPod to pass the time, for at least four hours, possibly longer. What was the story?

When I came upstairs from the laundry room a few minutes later, she stood up and stepped aside for me. “I’m sorry,” she said, clearly embarrassed.

“That’s okay,” I said, as gently as possible.

Her voice low, she said, “I’m fighting with my boyfriend.” She kept talking quietly, and I tried to piece the story together. Apparently they’d had a fight, and she didn’t want to go back into the apartment. I asked if she lived there with him, and she said, “I’m separated,” but I’m not sure if she meant she was separated from the boyfriend (though in that case, wouldn’t she call him her ex-boyfriend?) or from another man.

“It’s hard,” she said, looking over at the closed apartment door, then back at me.

I asked if she wanted anything -- something to drink, maybe? But she said no. She was speaking so softly it was hard to hear her, but I didn’t want to keep asking her to repeat herself because she sounded like she was barely holding back tears. I told her which apartment I was in and said to come up if she needed anything. But when I went back downstairs to put my laundry in the dryer 40 minutes later, she was gone. I haven’t seen her since.

The whole thing was very strange. I mean, it’s the city -- there are stores, restaurants, and a movie theater only blocks away from the apartment building. If she didn’t want to go into the apartment, she could’ve left and found plenty to do to distract herself without hanging around the hallway. Even if she didn’t have any money in her purse, she could’ve at least gone for a walk and browsed in some stores. It was almost like she was hanging around waiting for her boyfriend to give her permission to come back inside.

I really hope that by “fighting” she meant arguing, not physically fighting. Needless to say, it doesn’t sound like a healthy relationship. I hope she’s okay.