Authors: Kendall Newman
Another scoff. “Jesse, don’t make this personal, okay?” She sighed, and switched ears for her phone. “I’m thirty years old, I’m not freaking dead, okay?”
“What, it’s gonna take you sprouting grays before you take me seriously?”
She threw her arms up—well, reasonably so. “I’ll become a hot cougar and date younger guys looking for action.”
Jessica sighed, “I’m not kidding, girl.”
“Neither am I…and who the hell is making so much noise?” Mar barked. “Hey, let me call you back, I need to figure this shit out.”
“Sure, but you
better
call me back or I’ma kick your ass.”
“Yeah-yeah, put that shit on YouTube and edit us in bikinis and we’ll make a fortune, I’ll call you back!” she snapped, and shut her phone off before tossing it on the nearby table.
Now was as good a time as any to finally dress in more than a simple silk robe, though eventually Mar was going to want to take a shower. So for now she opted to let her hair remain a slight mess—curly and frizzy, dangling freely down her back—as she slipped into a pair of denim shorts that ran up her thighs, and a white lacy blouse that was easy enough to button along the front while ‘covering’ her modestly.
Simple flip flops were the final piece as with a quick glance downward, she decided it was time to pay a visit for a manicure and pedicure package…her nails looked awful…but when she swung the door open of her apartment she almost ran head-first into a piece of furniture being carried by two professional movers into the apartment next door.
“Whoa, easy there jackhole. Other people live here too y’know!” she snapped, and didn’t hear the comeback coming from one of the workers before she was glancing down the other end of the hall.
She didn’t catch anyone else, and ventured further out of her apartment as she waited until the two snobbish movers left the apartment before she poked her head inside…
…and caught sight of possibly one of the most stunning men she ever laid eyes on standing in the middle of the room.
Tall, probably close to six feet…business style suit, short cropped but professionally styled hair. Cologne too, expensive stuff. Feels like it tickles my nose and—OHMYGOD!
She ducked back through the doorway suddenly, feeling very, if not horribly shy. She didn’t know why either, but when she caught those baby blue eyes looking at her, something leapt into her throat and made her duck away.
Mar felt like a child suddenly…fingers curling on the frame of the door as she slowly, carefully ebbed forward, and when she was well within range of poking her head through, she almost squeaked in total surprise when she caught the man standing by the door—his back slightly hunched now as he stood in a crouch to meet her height—and he was looking right back at her with a bit of a smirk.
“Hi there…I’m guessing you’re either one of my neighbors, or just someone stalking newly rented apartment tenants.”
“I—uh…” she haphazardly pointed behind herself, then forward, “I have…ah—y’kn…” but then after a while she just closed her mouth and straightened up.
For a moment there was a lingering, awkward silence looming. It was enough to make her ears ring a little bit…but then Mar regrouped, held her back out straight—pushing her bust forward in the process—and managed to find her voice again. “Just the neighborhood watch, sir. Making sure a violent criminal isn’t moving in next door—I mean, err…three doors…over—” she pointed again, only now her hand was moving of its own volition in a series of directions, “that…way…are you secure with your phone service?!” she snapped, her head shaking slightly as her nose scrunched.
What the fuck are you doing, girl?! Bail! Bail! Bail!
“Let me get you a brochure!” and she stormed off suddenly, leaving the stranger alone as his mouth lay slightly agape, staring at where she stood a moment ago.
“Well…that wasn’t odd…” he whispered, but smiled wryly as he poked his head out to catch her retreating into the apartment next door with a resounding
SLAM
of her door, the last image caught was one extended leg, and her auburn hair just before the slam.
“What was that?” she snapped, and almost slapped her own self across the face. But soon she was regrouping and calming down with a single, deep breath that had her chest rising and falling most pleasantly. “So, let’s have the sexy guy who moved in next door think we’re a total freaking psycho.”
While you’re at it, why don’t you slash his tires in the process, or maybe pour sugar in his gas tank!
“You’re not helping!” she chided her thoughts, and smacked a curled palm against the side of her head suddenly as if in outrage.
***
“…And that’s when you turned into Betty ‘
Your local cell phone dealer
’ on the spot, right?” Jessica said with a laugh as she reached over and slapped her friend’s shoulder playfully.
Mar wasn’t amused though…she’d been brooding so much she even wore the same outfit from more than five hours ago, save for a pair of flats that she swapped out in exchange for her sandals.
She forgot to call Jess back as was expected, so instead of calling her, Mar left her a message on her phone to meet up at their usual morning hang-out spot, a small coffee shop that was famous, but not notoriously busy inside. Most of the time people were more focused on the drive-thru than they were on the scenery inside, meaning there was always a table for the two to sit at.
After that it was just a matter of recapping her whole bumbling antics with the hot guy who moved in next door, and Jess didn’t want to be spared a single detail…the broad shoulders, the well-trimmed look and expensive suit despite orchestrating his own move to the point of even helping out.
The man obviously had money, but parts of him didn’t essentially fit the bill: what would a guy looking as expensive as him be doing in this neck of the woods? It wasn’t a cheap neighborhood by far, but when it came to the upscale that sported Armani suits like they were casual…well that kind of cash could get quite a lot more for substantially less than one might imagine.
So yeah, Mar was still brooding…“Don’t remind me,” she groaned, remembering those dazzling eyes as he stared back at her, a mixture of tenderness and warmth behind them that made her insides feel like mush. “I should have just shut the hell up and stumbled about—I would have
preferred
stumbling and stuttering at this point—I was a total fucking weirdo in there!”
“Yeah you were!” Jess laughed, and pulled away before her friend could strike her.
“Okay look, just hear me out…” Jess started, and reached out to take her friend’s hands in both her own, “Not all is lost. You’d be surprised how much you can salvage out of this.”
“How?” Mar spat.
“Simple! He caught a part of you that was absolutely goofy. You know how many guys
kill
for a silly girl who looks utterly adorable to them? And your outfit—I take it this was the same thing you wore as before?”
She let out another groan. “I knew I fucking forgot to do something before I left…” she sulked, but nodded slowly in reply.
“Well, there it is! You’re the goofy girl next door now, and
trust
me, that’s going to stand out more than anything else.”
“You’re making it sound like I want to go after this guy.”
Jess laughed, “Honey, the only time you ever freak out
this
much is when you found a guy on your radar—so yeah, I think…” she was about to finish but was cut off with a hand over her mouth.
“Stop already! He’s just some guy living next door to me, okay? That’s all…I had a passing fling with someone, but that doesn’t mean he’s next on my list to go to bed.”
“Why not?”
The woman was agape, as though the answer should be clear as day. “It’s like…only one of our main cardinal rules of dating: don’t date people in the same building.”
“So…?”
“So…if it doesn’t work out, I’m stuck with a cute ass guy next door that I can’t stand, bugging the shit out of me just because he thinks he can, and all I can do is either take it, or move out…and I’m NOT moving out of my apartment—I just got it all the way I want it.”
The woman opposite shrugged, giving off a quaint little smile of her own. “Sure, say that now. But I’ll bet you twenty bucks that by the end of the week you’ll be lusting after him…in bed with the man before the month is over.”
“Fifty bucks if you have a precise time,” Mar added with a look of confidence, and a cunning smile that was capable of turning heads.
“Okay,” she started, and shook Mar’s hand, “Fifty bucks and two weeks.”
“Deal!”
***
For the next week solid, Mar was capable of keeping a keen eye out. Perhaps part of the bet concerned her on deeper levels, but Marissa felt that now that money was on the table, she should be able to actually become ‘aware’ of the stakes, and avoid them, as no ground rules were really set for this bet…well, none aside from ‘no sex’ until the two weeks were up.
As it happened though Mar was finding herself more and more occupied with work: high paying jobs weren’t always easy, but it did require less-or more-work depending on the week, and this week her firm managed to land another upscale client that had dozens of properties currently in escrow as a means of tax evasion and money collection. Her firm was trying to find legal recourse to signify that the newly acquired client wasn’t ‘responsible’ for the properties on the level of-say-a landlord due to the clever wording of well-crafted leasing agreements.
Where Marissa fit in, it was her job to document and catalog every little bit of paper—every scrap, every shred that the client had—and place them in organized categories in accordance to importance, lack of importance, date and time frames, the works. If she had a fine tooth comb she’d be going through every speck of sand in the Sahara right now. And that was fine for Marissa, because that’s where she thrived. She loved the thrill, the ‘chase’ as she called it in finding organization from utmost chaos, no matter how far and wide she had to go digging.
Plus with the added motivation, this work can keep me busy for a solid two weeks, and then I can double-down on our next drinking binge and make Jessica the DD for the night. Oh, what wonderful torture!
She elated in personal joy.
She took her happiness straight to her doorstep, in her designer pumps and tailored casual but professional charcoal gray suit. Having reached her floor, she slipped out of her heels and was walking in sheer hose to feel the breeze against her slightly warmed feet. She was just inches away from her door when a peculiar noise struck her attention.
WHUMP-WHUMP…
For a moment she paused, and spun about on a single heel as she couldn’t pinpoint the noise, but when it failed to return she just shrugged, and spun to jam the key into the door lock—
WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP!
She jumped at first, barely managing to keep from letting out a strangled cry as it sounded incredibly close. Instead of turning around though, Marissa hurried to unlock the door as she rushed inside and threw the lock in place just before another
WHUMP
sounded out.
Peering out of the peephole provided nothing, except that each time she caught the sound, the more it sounded as though it were coming distinctively from…from…
my bedroom!
She realized, and rushed—her things abandoned at her doorstep—to the kitchen where she picked up a knife and held it in both hands.
“Alright you son of a bitch…I don’t know who you are, but if someone’s in my house…!” she exclaimed aloud, and advanced forward, turning light switches on all along the way. However, there was still nothing in all her searching, no roaming shadow in her wake…nothing but that insufferable thumping!
When Marissa finally reached her bedroom, she was next to ready to stab her pillow…kicking the door open with a fierce rage that was mostly panic-induced as she stumbled forward, holding the knife up and ready with both hands—until she realized she needed at least ONE hand to turn the light switch on—so she fumbled for the switch on the wall.
Click!
Nothing…! Seconds passing, and the silence rang in her ear—
WHUMP—
well, not all of it silent. But she almost had to give a bit of a laugh, a nervous, shaky laugh. Whatever that noise was, it wasn’t coming from anywhere nearby.
So then—
WHUMP!
Mar jumped a bit, but that’s when she noted a peculiar little crack just above her bed.
“I don’t remember—”
WHUMP!
“—Damnit! Grr…wait!” she exclaimed, and noted each time the noise sounded out, the crack on her wall was actually growing substantially bigger. “Oh that son of a bitch, what the hell is he doing in his living room at this hour?” she fumed to herself as she finally set the kitchen knife down and climbed up onto the bed.
The crack grew—
WHUMP
—as another section formed, and by the umpteenth
WHUMP
there was a chip shooting out and hitting her in the head.
“OW! What the…” she shouted, catching it by chance in one outstretched hand. That’s when she noted the piece she was holding was a large section of drywall. Looking up again…
Oh my God, I can look right into his apartment!
She suddenly realized, feeling her heart skip a beat.
Lo and behold…whatever was happening had caused a decent sized hole—roughly the size of a golf ball—with light seeping through from the other end. She might not have noticed personally except…
Except I got hit with a piece of the evidence I need to have this asshole kicked out of this place!
Easy to forget…wait…What. Have. We. Here?
For a fleeting moment, a modicum of self-control, Marissa was capable of stopping her rants and raves just long enough to realize what she had here…and suddenly long from her mind were the thoughts of her bet, of damage to her wall…
fuck
, of anything even remotely related to the possibility of what she had before her—
I literally have a first-hand look at Mr. Sexy man…seriously, do I wanna pass that up?
For a moment Mar just stood there in slight disbelief…but then rational thinking took place; like the cost of repairs, the fact that she
should
in all fact, report this, the idea of outrage she originally felt. The list went on.