It was my first night in a new apartment. The building must have had the world’s thinnest ceilings, because I heard absolutely everything going on in the bedroom above mine

— every moan, groan, gasp, and scream of passion. While moving in, I had learned from another neighbor that a fellow named Mark lived above me, and apparently he brought home a different woman every week. It seemed he had made a new conquest tonight.

At first I was annoyed. I’d just broken up with my boyfriend, and listening to other people having sex — sweaty sex — wasn’t my idea of a good time. Then, as the throaty whimpers of the woman upstairs turned to shrieks of pleasure, I grew amused, intrigued, and, most of all, astonished. The rhythmic creaking of bedsprings went on and on. Who was this guy? He... Read More