Every weekday at 4 p.m., my neighbors Mike and Jill followed the same curious routine. After ten years of working from home and noticing their daily ritual, I couldn’t help but wonder. Mike would pull into the driveway, go inside for exactly 15 minutes, then leave again. Sometimes Jill joined him, sometimes not—but every time, the curtains were drawn.
I work remotely as a web developer, and my desk faces their house, so it was impossible not to notice. One afternoon, something was different—a single curtain hadn’t been pulled all the way. Temptation got the better of me, and I peeked. Inside, I saw Mike taking photos of Jill, who sat smiling gently beneath soft lighting.
In that same moment, Mike looked up and caught me. Embarrassed, I ducked out of view, heart pounding, only to realize—he had taken a photo of me mid-peek. The next morning, he rang my doorbell with a grin and handed me the photo. “Curiosity finally got to you, huh?” he teased, then invited me over.
Inside, he shared the story. Since their teenage years, he’d promised to take a photo of Jill every day at 4 p.m.—a small but enduring symbol of love. Their album held decades of moments: hairstyles, laughter, changing seasons. I never peeked again, but from then on, their routine made me smile—a quiet daily reminder of love’s gentle persistence.