I wasn’t sure if they had recognized me. All I knew was that they had seen the upper part of my face before I fell to the ground. Before I could even process the situation, I scrambled towards my house and locked the door behind me. It felt like my heart would come out of my chest. What was I even thinking? Why did I decide to peek into their house? Had I offended them?I felt so embarrassed at that point and I had no idea what Jill and Mike would do next. Would they call the police on me and accuse me of stalking? I was terrified. When I replayed the incident in my head, I realized Mike had clicked a photo of me. Yes, that’s right.They knew exactly which woman from the neighborhood was peeking inside their living room at 4 p.m.Let me recall what happened. Mike was taking a portrait of Jill with his professional camera, but when he saw me, he took a photo of me instead. Minutes ticked by, each one an eternity, but no one knocked on my door that day. Does the story end here? No.
The next day, I was preparing breakfast when a tentative knock on my door shattered the silence. My stomach churned. I knew it was either Mike or Jill.With a shaky breath, I inched towards the door and peeked through the peephole. It was Mike. Calm down, calm down, I told myself before opening the door. “Hi, Mike! What’s up?” I greeted him, pretending I wasn’t the one peeking into their house the previous day. “Hey, Caroline,” he smiled. He had an envelope in his hands, but I wasn’t sure what was inside it until he slid out a photograph.
