Nikki's Secret

by William Malmborg

  “And I’m guessing the Roberts just kept the same plan that had always been with the place,” Kimberly said.

  “Yep, and that wasn’t a problem for Comcast since the ground floor address was always where the service went anyway.”

  “Okay, wow.” She didn’t know what else to say.

  “At some point some of their paperwork must have gotten all mixed up,” the landlord continued. “And when no payment went through under their name they shut everything down.”

  “Yeah.” Kimberly had already figured this out herself earlier, but didn’t want to be a jerk. “You’re probably right.”

  “So, aside from that is everything okay over there? Any issues with the apartment I should know about?”

  “Nope, nothing I can think of. The place is great.”

  “Wonderful. Of course, if anything should come up please let me know right away. Always best to catch things early.”

  “I will.” Given his tone Kimberly had a feeling things had happened in the past that no one had informed him about. It also sounded like he expected more things to happen in the future, probably given the age of the house.

  A double beep echoed from her phone.

  She pulled it away from her ear and looked at the screen. A call was waiting. Kyle.

  “Um, I don’t mean to be rude, but I have a call on the other end I need to take,” Kimberly said.

  “Oh sure, no problem. Talk to you later.”

  “Okay.” She ended that call and opened the next one. “Hello.”

  “Hey Kimmy it’s me,” Kyle said.

  Jesus Christ, she said to herself. Over and over again she had told Kyle not to call her Kimmy, yet the message never seemed to register.

  “Kim?” he asked. “You there?”

  “Yes, I’m here,” Kimberly said.

  “Okay good. For a moment there I got worried that you changed numbers on me or something without telling me, which would suck because your Mom probably wouldn’t give me the new one since she hates me.”

  Kimberly didn’t reply to this.

  “So . . . what’s up?” Kyle asked.

  “Nothing really. Just unpacking groceries and getting ready to watch TV all by myself.” She emphasized the ‘all by myself’ part in hopes that he would realize she would like it if he would come to visit her sometime soon.

  “Well I should hope so. I’d hate if you had someone else there to watch TV with.” He laughed.

  Kimberly shook her head.

  Silence settled.

  “Hey, what’s up with you?” Kyle asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Really? Because you don’t seem all that happy to hear from me and your voice is telling me something is wrong.”

  “Do you realize you haven’t been out to see me once yet -- ”

  “Gas is expensive and I’m busy with these summer finals -- ”

  “You also haven’t sent me a card, or offered to help me unpack anything,” she snapped.

  “I don’t know your address!”

  “Really, then how were you able to send me a sexy little piece of lingerie?” she demanded.

  “What?”

  “And you didn’t even bother to have a note or anything inside, yet I guess one wasn’t really necessary since I know exactly what you wanted me to do with it. Wear it for you the first night you finally come to visit, right, because in your mind the only reason I got a new place is so we can fuck each other without having to worry about my parents or your roommates.”

  “My roommates don’t care if we -- ”

  “Your roommates don’t care!” Kimberly shook her head. “Nice.” She hit END and tossed the phone onto the couch, anger and frustration mixing together within her bloodstream.

  The phone rang.

  She didn’t answer it.

  No voicemail.

  It rang a second time.

  Though tempted to pick it up, she resisted.

  This time the silence lasted nearly a minute before the phone beeped.

  It better be an apology text, she said to herself while walking up to the phone.

  CALL ME BACK WHEN YOU’RE READY TO TALK LIKE A MATURE ADULT. PS: I DIDN’T SEND YOU ANYTHING!

  Bullshit!

  Then, without much thought, she hurried into the other room to take a picture of the tiny sexy outfit, and sent it to him.

  IT’S NICE AND I’D LOVE TO SEE YOU WEAR IT BUT I DIDN’T SEND IT, was his reply.

  Why would he continue to lie about it? she asked herself.

  The question didn’t sit well and she quickly went into the kitchen to examine the package the lingerie had come in, her mind starting the process of saying, who else would send something like this, but not really finishing the thought.

  Instead the next inner statement was: Oh shit!

  A startled laugh followed.

  The package wasn’t for her, the name Nikki Smith sitting above the house’s address -- above her address. From there Kimberly looked up at the return address. No name was given, just a San Francisco location.

  He really didn’t send it.

  Guilt followed, but then she dismissed it because she had plenty of other things to be angry about.

  Curiosity came next. She wanted to know who Nikki was and why she had had something sent to this address when she didn’t live there anymore, and probably hadn’t for a while given that the Roberts had been there for a couple years.

  Unless . . .

  She considered the huge mistake Comcast had just made and wondered if a similar mistake could have happened with whatever company had sent the package. From there she wondered if there was anything she could do to help, a thought about asking her landlord what Nikki’s new address was so she could bring the outfit to her arriving within her head.

  Would she even want it after it has been open?

  Kimberly knew if the situation was reversed she wouldn’t want the item, not if there was a chance it had been worn by someone else.

  Still, you should probably find a way of letting her know it arrived here so she can contact the company and get another sent.

  She looked at her phone. Placing another call to the landlord just seemed too exhausting after everything she had done today.

  It can wait.

  Another thought crept in, this one concerning Kyle and the idea that she should probably apologize for snapping at him.

  Ah, fuck that, a voice said. It belonged to Melissa. He probably deserved it for something else.

  Kimberly agreed.

  Thursday, August 18, 2011

  1

  Kimberly never did take the necessary steps toward finding out whom Nikki Smith was, the need to unpack, find a job, and prepare for her upcoming semester occupying most of her time. Had more items arrived then maybe she would have added finding out whom and where Nikki Smith was to the August Tasks list, but the one garment was all that showed up so she figured the situation had resolved itself.

  Not that she would have minded getting more outfits in the mail, the temptation to try it on one day proving it to be a perfect fit, but better that she didn’t because then she would have felt obligated to correct the continuing mistake.

  “Why?” Kyle had asked her one night when she voiced this thought to him -- at his place since he was still hooting and hollering over the cost of gas to drive out to her place after his first visit.

  “Because they’re expensive, and I would hate for her to be out that kind of money,” Kimberly had replied.

  “Hey, not your fault she can’t put the right address down,” he said. “Plus they make me so hot for you.” He had pressed her hand to his groin. “See and this is just with me thinking about you wearing one.”

  “Then part with some cash and buy me some,” she said and pulled her hand away. “They’re cheaper than these Play Station games you buy every couple of weeks.”

  “You know we all split the cost of the games,” Kyle said, the ‘we’ meaning him and his two roommates. “But he
y, we could all go in on lingerie next time and take turns enjoying you in it.” Then, before she could voice her disgust with him at that comment, he added, “Actually, you have three holes, so we could all -- ”

  “Kim,” a voice called. “Hey Kim, your foods up.”

  Kimberly looked over at the expo counter and saw the three plates for table five waiting, the memory of her breakup with Kyle fading as she grabbed the order and carried it out. “You need anything else?” she asked once the food was placed in front of the hungry customers -- two guys and a girl -- and waited a moment for a reply. None arrived. “Well, enjoy.”

  Kimberly returned to the expo area where Sandy was waiting, a drive-thru headset around her neck.

  “Still thinking about him,” Sandy asked; her ability to read Kimberly a tad unnerving.

  “Little bit,” Kimberly said.

  “Well, don’t let it get you down, from what you told me he was a real piece of shit.”

  “Yeah,” Kimberly agreed. “It just feels weird, though, you know. I was with him for almost two years, so to be single again . . .“ she shrugged “. . . but with classes starting and now working here it’s probably for the best.”

  “You got that -- ” a beep echoed from her earpiece, which she pushed back in place, the words, “Welcome to Steak and Shake,” leaving her lips as she walked to the drive-thru register.

  While Sandy was taking care of that customer, Kimberly made her way through the dining area to check on her three tables, all of whom needed drink refills, and then went up to the waiting area to seat the newly arrived couple, a practiced smile in place.

  2

  “Well, at least it’s something, right,” Bill said as his fingers carefully tore open the envelope that promised to have a check within, one that would be over a hundred dollars given the minimum payment the Adult Friend Finder affiliates required before mailing a check.

  Toby looked up at him but didn’t reply, and then hurried into the kitchen to sit by the treat drawer.

  Bill looked at the cat and shook his head, the words I’ve created a monster echoing within. He then looked at the check total and saw it was well over two hundred dollars, which was more than he had expected from this company, but less than he was expecting from the Amazon check he was waiting for. Actually, just getting a check from the affiliate program was more than he had expected since he had pretty much quit updating the various sites he had been running, the need for the money they provided him having vanished once his Amazon sales finally began to take off.

  A meow reached his ears.

  “Oh come on!” he urged. “I just gave you some!”

  Another meow, followed by the sound of Toby jumping up onto the counter, came from the kitchen.

  Bill sighed. Two years earlier he would have scolded the cat for jumping onto the counter, but now he knew it was a useless battle and instead just made sure to keep all his food secure. He also was quick at putting the drying dishes back into their spots within the drawers and cabinets, therefore making it less likely that Toby would rub up against them while on the prowl for something edible.

  Check in hand he went to his desk in the main room of his apartment and sat down. On screen, the curser waited at the end of the last sentence he had typed, his attempts at writing his daily movie review for his blog having stalled. It just wasn’t working today. Thankfully he had nine movie reviews scheduled for posting, along with four book reviews and ten miscellaneous posts that he would space between them, thereby making it so he had a variety of posts hitting the web every day. Still, even with so many posts ready to go, he hated failing to complete a review, mostly because it would then push back the review he would want to write for whatever he watched that night -- he still hadn’t checked the Netflix sleeve to see what he had received that afternoon -- which in turn could make the movie a waste if he watched another movie the next day and started a review for that one instead.

  In the kitchen he heard a THUMP as Toby jumped down to the floor. Not long after that he was jumping up onto the desk to sprawl out next to the laptop while Bill worked; his tail positioned perfectly to land upon the keyboard whenever such a distraction felt warranted.

  “I don’t think it’s happening today,” Bill said.

  Toby looked up at him and yawned.

  “I know, I know. I did a lot this morning.” A lot was an understatement. He had gotten twenty-two pages of fresh type into his latest novel, his mind having easily fallen into the story a few minutes after sitting down at his desk a little after five this morning; his daily goal of ten pages having been reached by seven. At that point his normal routine would have seen him getting up to go eat something, and then returning to the desk to write the movie review, but instead he had skipped eating, made more coffee, and continued with the novel until about ten forty. By then his fingers demanded he take a break, one that his stomach concurred with. A little over an hour later he had sat down to write his movie review, but rather than typing something up quickly as was his norm, he just stared at the screen, his finger occasionally distracting himself with the radio which he had set to 101.9 The Mix.

  Now he flipped on the radio again, the music from the Chicago station filling the room without any static -- sometimes it just didn’t reach him, which was always depressing -- his eyes having realized the Kill a Half Hour question of the day was about to air.

  “Think we’ll get it this time?” he asked Toby.

  Toby didn’t reply, but he did look up when Bill pushed away from the desk and started pacing the apartment, his mind trying to think up a way to write the review so that he could finally close the computer for the day and --

  What, read a couple hundred pages, watch a DVD or two, go to the library before they close and check your book sales?

  It all sounded dull.

  Go cash the check?

  He would have to drive to either St. Charles or Sandwich to do that since Chase didn’t have a branch in DeKalb -- something he had been shocked about after moving in two years earlier and going in search of his bank given how many of the suburban kids from the Chicago area came out here to go to college. It was a forty minute drive to either location, so it didn’t really matter which he decided upon. The only thing was he didn’t relish making the drive when he would have to make it again once his Amazon check arrived. Plus it wasn’t like he could go on a spending spree with the check, not when he was still knocking down the credit card debt he had accumulated on one of his two cards before the Amazon books had finally began to sell.

  Thoughts on how close he had come to being made homeless, and what that would have meant for Toby caused him to shiver, all because he had quit his job and moved into this apartment when Dorchester showed considerable interest in his first novel during the fall of 2009, his thinking being he had finally broken through.

  You were lucky.

  He looked at the blinking cursor again and realized nothing was going to come of him sitting at the desk.

  Just go cash the check.

  Or just get out of the apartment for a while.

  It was a good idea. The last time he had actually gone anywhere had been . . .

  Shit, Monday, because it was when you went grocery shopping. It was now Thursday.

  Yeah, time to get out.

  The trouble was he didn’t know what to do or where to go. Nothing appealed to him.

  Which is why you haven’t gone anywhere in four days.

  Start with the bank and then the library and go from there.

  It was the best he could do.

  3

  Two dollars! Kimberly silently shouted once the group of college students left the table. Fucking cheapskates!

  From two to four the place had been pretty much dead, the seating area seeing a total of five tables filled while the drive-thru got hammered. Things then picked up after that, the five to eight part of her shift always being busy no matter the day. It was a pattern Kimberly had started to recognize fairly quickly, her
week on the job having been enough time to learn everything she needed to know about working in the semi fast food burger joint. Another thing was that college kids never tipped well.

  “You should have seen it when I worked at Borders,” Max Benning said while the two were waiting for some shake orders. “They’d come in with their books and notes and take up tables all day and only order water, or coffee back when it was self-serve. They also complained about the wireless being slow or not free back when one had to pay for it.”

  “Um, I hate to admit it, but I was guilty of that too when I was going to school at U of I,” Kimberly said with a faint smile.

  “Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that -- ” he started.

  “No worries,” Kimberly said with a laugh while putting the three shakes on a tray. Five seconds later the place was filled with false cheers and statements of ‘put it anywhere sweetheart’ as the shakes splashed across the floor, a kid having charged around the seating area and smashed into Kimberly’s hip.

  One of the few not laughing, aside from the staff, was the mother of the boy who scolded Kimberly for not looking where she was going while attempting to cradle her crying brat.

  “He ran into me!” Kimberly replied. She would have said more but the manager got between the two, several different offers for free food and future discounts leaving his lips in an attempt to soothe the angry woman.

  4

  Visiting the library that afternoon turned out to be a good idea because Bill discovered an email from his book cover artist waiting for him, one that had a concept cover attached to it. Unfortunately, the library’s computers didn’t allow him to open attachments or upload anything from his external hard drive, which meant he needed to get online with his laptop. Such a connection was actually possible at the library. Whenever he needed to upload a weeks worth of posts to his blog or a novel to Amazon he would sit at one of their tower room tables and connect to the wireless system they provided. Going out and then coming back in felt odd though so he decided to simply head over to the Panera on Route 23. While making the stop at his apartment for the laptop he noticed someone standing by the front door of the house with flowers, but didn’t really think much of it until the person, a young man, called up to him from the driveway as he was heading up his steps.