The taxi’s headlights flashed by. The street lay quiet around her. She turned away from the railing and went back up the steps, and that was when she realized that the two strangers were right about one thing.
She’d run straight out of the building without her key.
“CAN I MAKE YOU A cup of coffee or something?” Hector asked as they climbed the stairs.
Ella opened her mouth to decline. “Sure,” she heard herself say. “I mean, no. It’s so late.”
“No worries.”
“I’m sorry if I woke you up, buzzing you like that.”
“Like I said, no worries. I wasn’t asleep.”
“It was such a stupid thing to do.”
Hector stopped, forcing her to turn around on the narrow stairs and look at him. “Ella, has anyone ever told you that you apologize too much? It’s no big deal. Everyone gets locked out sometime. You buzz your neighbor. Your neighbor lets you in. It’s the code. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Now,” he said, prodding her in the small of her back, “you get on up there. I’m going to make coffee. You can join me or not.”
She resumed climbing. “Okay.”
“Okay, you’ll join me?”
“No point wasting good coffee.”
“I also have a bottle of good Kentucky bourbon, if that works better for you.”
“Do I look like I could use a shot of bourbon?”
He chuckled behind her. “Ella, you don’t take a shot of bourbon. You drink it from a glass, nice and slow. With or without ice. You take your time and savor it.”
“Oh. Sure.”
“And yes, by the way. You do look like you could use a glass of bourbon. Didn’t I warn you about going down to that laundry room at night?”
“Yes.”
“And did you listen?”
“Obviously not.”
They’d reached the last landing, on the fifth floor. Ella hadn’t been up this far; she’d glanced, over her shoulder, just before she fit the key in her lock. Just out of curiosity, of course, and not because she was hoping for a glimpse of Hector leaving his apartment, Hector entering his apartment, beautiful Hector taking a pizza delivery in his boxer shorts. But she’d never climbed that last flight of stairs. Nothing up there but Hector’s pad. He didn’t even have a letter after his apartment number; it was just apt 5 on the list of buttons in the vestibule.
His door lay at the end of a short hall, where the stairwell met the wall. He slipped past her and reached inside his pocket. A furious scratching started up on the other side of the door, like something was trying to dig a hole.
“Do you have a dog?” Ella asked.
“That would be Nellie. Vicious attack animal. Watch out.”
Hector opened the door, and a brown-and-white blur shot through the crack and hurled itself into his legs, licking and whimpering, making small, delighted yaps like the bark of a seal. “Nellie! Nellie, babe. There you are. Who’s a good girl? Whoa, take it easy, babe, only been away five minutes, you big numbskull. Down, Nellie. Mind your manners. Look, we got a guest.”
The dog turned—a King Charles spaniel, Ella saw—and unleashed another fusillade on Ella’s knees.
“Get down, Nellie. Jeez. I’m sorry, it’s like she loves everybody. Hope you’re a dog person.”
Ella bent down and stroked Nellie’s long ears, like a pair of brown corn-silk tassels. Angled her face so that the desperate kisses landed just to the left of her mouth, instead of square on the lips. “I totally am a dog person,” she said. “Nellie as in Nell Gwyn?”
“Very good, Sherlock. You’re the only one who’s picked that up.”
“I love history. Kind of funny, actually. My full name’s Eleanor, too. How old is she?”
“Four.” He crouched down next to Ella and put his hand on the spaniel’s wriggling back. “She was my mom’s dog. We got her a puppy to cheer her up, before her final round of chemo.”
“So you’re a very special dog, aren’t you, Nellie?” Ella watched her twist about and return to Hector, calmer now, snuggling her nose into the corner of his elbow.
“Very special.” He straightened and pushed the door fully open. “After you. Yeah, you, too, Nellie. Come on. Don’t give me the puppy eyes, babe. We both know you already had your walk. Shoo. In you go. Show Ella inside. Atta girl.”
The first thing Ella noticed inside Hector’s apartment was the piano, a full-size grand Steinway that stood before the row of three windows overlooking the street. The lid was closed, and a thick plaid blanket covered the entirety of the case. A brass instrument lay on the lid’s edge. Ella stepped closer and saw it was a trumpet.
“Wow,” she said. “You’re a musician.”
“Guilty. Hope it doesn’t bother you. I try to keep it muted late at night, but luckily the other residents actually like hearing my stuff, for some strange reason.”
Ella turned. Hector was already in the kitchen area, opening a cabinet door while Nellie circled his feet. He was wearing a short-sleeved gray T-shirt and sweatpants, his dark hair strewn carelessly back from his face, looking like a canine early in the era of domestication. “Wait. Is that you? Playing at night?”
“Damn. Is it bothering you?”
“No, not at all. You’re amazing. I thought it was—well, coming from downstairs.”
Hector set down a bottle, half-full of amber liquid, and a bag of coffee. “What’ll it be, Ella? Uppers or downers?”
She crossed her arms. “So I have to confess something. I’ve never drunk bourbon before.”
“No kidding?”
“No kidding.”
“Then I kind of think you should give it a try. Not that I’m pushing you in any one direction. You probably have to go to work in a few hours, right?”
“True. But I’m really, really not looking forward to it. So …?”
“So … bourbon?”
“What the hell.”
“Atta girl.” He unscrewed the lid and walked toward her. “First, you have to smell it.”
“Like wine?”
“Naw. Nothing so snobby as that.” He stopped before her and tilted the neck of the bottle in her direction. The room was lit by a pair of antique wall sconces—probably original, to the building if not to the room itself—and the glow turned his olive skin an even deeper shade of gold. The two lights appeared as small white dots in his pupils. “Just breathe it in. For your own enjoyment. Preview of coming attractions.”
She leaned forward and sniffed delicately at the opening. “Holy cow. How strong is that?”
“Eighty proof, I guess. But it’s the flavor you’re going for. Bourbon has this distinctive smell. Made mostly from corn mash, instead of rye or barley, like your typical Scotch malt.”
“It’s kind of spicy? Warm?”
Hector tilted the bottle back toward his own nose, right where hers had been, and breathed deep. “Ahh. Almost as good as drinking it. Ice or no ice?”
“Which