House Number Six
The alarm woke Noud every morning at six. The young man started his day with yoga. For him, it was like coffee—it refreshed him and prepared him for the day ahead. His partner, Bernard, joined him for breakfast at half past seven on weekdays and after nine on Saturdays and Sundays.
It was precisely this discipline that convinced Bernard that Noud was his true partner in life. Without him, Bernard would have completely lost his head. He was incapable of focusing on more than one thing at a time. He either ate or talked. Either worked or listened to music. Either drove or made phone calls. No matter how much Noud told him that this ability could be developed, Bernard refused to burden himself with more than one task at a time.
The two young IT professionals met during a project in their homeland, the Netherlands, when Bernard was completing his internship at the company led by Noud. Just one month of working together was enough for them to decide that they wanted to do everything together in the future. They started a business in Hungary, and their life seemed perfectly simple.
Then an article about them appeared in a tabloid. “A Gay Couple Runs the Year’s Most Successful Local Business.” The piece included photos of them holding hands and lying on a blanket at the beach. Four clients immediately terminated their contracts. Noud and Bernard were shocked by the homophobia they hadn’t encountered before and quickly decided to leave the country.
The Canary Islands, specifically the town of Puerto de la Cruz, turned out to be a perfect place in every way. The house wasn’t even finished yet when the realtor convinced them to buy it. The ideal location of the complex, the swimming pool and the lush vegetation on this part of the island had won over young people.
Since they were the first to move in, they welcomed every new arrival with a basket of fruit and a bottle of local wine. Everyone appreciated the gesture, except Ted, who narrowed his eyes suspiciously. However, since he was hungry, he said nothing and simply took a bite of a banana. The two men exchanged laughs and phone numbers with everyone, saying it’s always good to stay connected in a community. While the neighbors didn’t object, they didn’t share their personal information with anyone else. Ted, just to be safe, gave a fake name and a wrong phone number, in case his neighbors were up to something shady.
Noud practiced yoga by the pool, which barely registered on Ted’s irritation scale. Once or twice, Ted shook his head as he watched the Dutchman perform poses that hurt just to look at, but he didn’t pay him much attention. At least there was someone else besides him who didn’t spend half the day sleeping.
Occasionally, Bernard also felt like exercising, but he mostly preferred swimming. However, he could only do that in the evenings when everyone had left the courtyard. Or rather, he could have, if the house rules hadn’t prohibited swimming at night. Bernard was forced to sneak out after eleven at night to swim a few laps in the quiet, fragrant night. Naturally, the day after moving in, Ted warned Bernard that this wouldn’t work. Bernard was sure his neighbor was joking. He didn’t take Ted seriously for a second, not even when Ted tried to glare sternly at him through his thick glasses.