‘The first night I moved into my apartment, the couple upstairs having particularly loud sex kept me awake. The mixture of their moans and the dull thud of what I assume was the headboard against the wall went on for nearly ten minutes, increasing in speed, before I dragged myself out of bed to search through the yet-to-be-unpacked boxes piled up in my living room for some earplugs. Two days later, I saw the couple in the stairwell. They were none the wiser that I had overheard their intimate, private encounter. ‘

---

You can read the full essay here.