A chance castle and a silk robe

It all started last Tuesday, around two in the morning. I decided to freshen up and stepped out onto the balcony wearing nothing but a light silk robe—the night was stifling, and there wasn't a soul around. Suddenly, a sharp gust of autumn wind slammed the balcony door shut from the inside. Tight.

I don’t have my phone on me, the apartment is dark, and I’m wearing a sheer garment that threatens to fly open at the slightest breeze. The prospect of watching the sunrise on a cold balcony dressed like this held absolutely no appeal for me.


The only option is to knock on the door of the neighbor to my right—a young architect with whom I’ve exchanged a nod or two in the elevator.

After five minutes of my desperate pounding, the door opens. There he stands—sleepy, wearing nothing but jeans, his hair disheveled and an utterly bewildered look on his face. He glances at me, then at my bathrobe—which I’m barely holding closed, trembling with fright—and a slow smile spreads across his face:

“Um... well, that’s certainly an original way to say hello, but I was expecting something a bit more traditional.”

I had to whisper an explanation of the situation while standing on the doormat outside his door. He let me into my apartment through his loggia. But once we’d climbed back over, it turned out the kettle in the kitchen hadn’t cooled down yet, and we happened to find a bottle of sparkling wine in the fridge... Long story short, we didn’t get to sleep until the early hours of the morning. Since then, I’ve kept the balcony door locked, though sometimes I look at the neighboring windows with a touch of nostalgia. Have you ever had any situations like that—awkward, yet steamy?