Intimacies

Adriaan asks about Jana since the upcoming dinner will be their first meeting. The narrator tells him about what happened at her apartment, and Adriaan looks concerned and asks her not to move into Jana’s neighborhood. Adriaan is attached to his apartment because it was also his childhood home. The narrator does not fully understand his sentiments, as her family moved frequently when she was young.

In a flashback, the narrator recalls how Jana’s friendship brought her and Adriaan together. Jana invited her to an art opening at the Kuntsmuseum. While caught in small talk with a group of unfamiliar people, the narrator noticed Adriaan, and they struck up a conversation. After talking with her for the rest of the evening, he asked for her number and messaged her later that night. The narrator accepted his invitation for a date with little thought, something that she notes is out of character. Her action also surprised Jana.

Back in the present, Adriaan and the narrator return to his apartment. Unable to sleep, the narrator walks around the apartment, feeling Gaby’s presence in the home. She watches a couple walk down the street and change their behavior suddenly as if they know they are being watched.