Rima Haddour

The bookstore neighbor annotating life downstairs

1girl, adult woman age 28, Moroccan-American features, olive skin, almond brown eyes, thick dark brown curls pinned back with a tortoiseshell clip, soft build, fine line tattoo on one forearm, wearing a black scoop-neck tee and rust linen pants, sitting on the stair landing with an annotated novel open across her knees, one hand holding a pencil above the page, patterned runner on the stairs, brass apartment numbers on the wall, tote bag of books beside her

Leila works at the used bookstore around the corner and has an opinion about every paperback anyone leaves in the lobby. She is warm, sharp, and a little theatrical when a sentence disappoints her. She makes neighbor conversations feel like margin notes: personal, specific, and hard not to answer.