by Lacey Legend
Ruby shrugged and bit into her pancakes. “I guess because I’d feel a little embarrassed if my mother knew it was me. She reads my books, you know. I’m also kind of afraid that if I ever get really, really popular, like Mary Higgins-Clark popular, that I’ll have paparazzi beating on my door.”
“Oh honey, that only happens to movie stars. And lottery winners,” Julia said. “How is everything else in your life going?”
Ruby relayed the story of the loud party from the night before, including her call to the police.
“Why didn’t you just go over there yourself and tell them to shut it the hell down?”
Ruby shrugged. “I don’t know who lives there or how many people were in the house. It looked like a lot, and what if they said ‘no’ or just closed the door in my face?”
“You always were kind of shy about confrontation, weren’t you? Even in high school when that bitch Nichole Campbell and her friends called you Ruby Boobies. You never would do anything about it.”
“Please don’t remind me of that. High school was the worst four years of my life.”
“But in the end you got yours,” Julia said with a knowing smile. “Don’t think I didn’t know right away that Nikki Camp was modeled after Nichole Campbell. She met quite an untimely and painful end if I recall.”
Ruby smiled. “Indeed. The only payback, if you can call it that, was putting some of those people into my books and then killing them off.”
“You should put together a Welcome Wagon basket and take it to your new neighbor,” Julia suggested. “That way you can get the lay of the land so to speak. Figure out how many people live there and what they’re like when they aren’t partying. Maybe you can work in a ‘Please keep it down’ or something.”
Suddenly she looked at the door of the diner and raised one eyebrow. “Hubba hubba.”
Ruby turned in time to see a six-and-a-half-foot tall man in shredded blue jeans and an Iggy Pop tank top saunter into the restaurant. His spiked hair was platinum, except for the half inch of dark roots showing through. He wore sunglasses on his perfectly-chiseled face. Ruby always wondered at people who wore sunglasses indoors. She wondered if they were stoned and hiding the evidence or if they thought they were too good to make eye contact with other people.
“Wow,” she said quietly as the man took a seat at one of booths across the small restaurant. He slid his glasses up into his hair and winked at the waitress passing by.
“He’s friggin hot,” Julia said in a fierce whisper to Ruby. “Did you see that ass in those jeans? Carved by Michelangelo himself.”
Ruby giggled. She could see the edge of a colorful tattoo peeking out from under the tank top he wore. She wondered what the image was.
The waitress dropped a menu on the table in front of the man and rattled off the breakfast specials. The man was nodding along, reading the menu as she spoke. When she was done he laid the menu down and smiled up at her. Ruby noticed his beautiful smile immediately. It was the kind of megawatt smile she often wrote about, smiles that could make a girl melt into a puddle of hormones.
“I’m new in town,” he said finally. “I just moved here a few days ago. What’s good here?”
Ruby gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth as she looked at Julia. Julia looked back at her, not understanding.
“That’s him!” Ruby said in a fierce whisper. “That’s my new neighbor!”
“Oh my gawd, are you sure?” Julia looked at the man again, more appreciatively this time.
Ruby slapped lightly at her arm. “Yes, I’m sure. He just said he moved to this area a few days ago. That’s when I saw the moving truck at the house next door. Oh my gawd, what am I going to do?!”
“Do? About what?” Julia asked.
“I can’t go over to his house now that I’ve seen him. He’s an animal. Look at the way he’s dressed. He’ll probably chain me to his radiator or something.”
Julia gave a belly laugh then, drawing the attention of the man at the booth. He smiled and waved a hand in their direction. Julia waved back while Ruby cowered, pointedly looking out the window.
“Ruby, you have quite the imagination. No wonder you’re such an amazing writer.” Julia signaled for the check and when the waitress came over she handed her a twenty. “This is to cover the gentleman’s breakfast as well, and keep whatever is left over for yourself.”
“What are you doing?” Ruby said in the same fierce whisper.
“Being nice to the new neighbor.” Julia gave her a knowing wink. “You should really consider putting together that Welcome Wagon basket. I’ll bring you some of my banana nut muffins this afternoon and we’ll go over together.”
Ruby felt herself reddening at the prospect of talking to the stranger next door. Why couldn’t it just be some nice married couple with two-point-five kids and a miniature poodle? I can handle poodles.
Julia paid their check as was her usual practice when they met for breakfast, and she walked Ruby to her bicycle, which was parked outside the restaurant, chained to a tree. She patted Ruby on the back before waving goodbye and getting into her own car. Ruby sat on her bike seat for a minute before taking off. She thought she saw the stranger look her way a few times, but couldn’t be sure. She refused to make eye contact long enough to find out. Ruby reminded herself that she became a writer so she could live vicariously through her characters. She had no desire to go bungee jumping, or sky diving, or have a whirlwind affair with the Emperor of Japan, or the Empress for that matter. All of her characters could do those things. Ruby preferred to stay right where she was in her routinized life with no surprises.
***
Ruby chained her bike to the bike rack outside of the building where she worked and rode the elevator to the sixth floor. She worked in human resources for Avionics, Inc which occupied the top three floors of the building. Ruby’s job was easy and she liked it that way: matching resumes to job openings and scheduling interviews with department managers. Occasionally if they didn’t have any applications for a position, or not enough applicants, Ruby would go to a couple of the popular resume sites and look for candidates that way. She had worked for Avionics, Inc for six years, and had helped open the office she worked in currently. She sent out emails and made phone calls until her replacement arrived and took over.
Ruby some down time after her replacement arrived, so she posted a shout out on her author blog, letting Ophelia’s fans know that she had just handed in the manuscript to a new book. Then under her own name, she shared the post so her family and friends would see it. Ruby let them think that she was just a fan of the writer, never letting on that she herself was Ophelia. This was one way she collected feedback on the books and gathered suggestions.
Julia met Ruby at her house that afternoon bearing muffins and Girl Scout cookies. “Oh my,” Julia said when she saw the Thin Mints.
“Those are for you,” Julia said, opening the box.
Ruby grabbed a small wicker basket left over from some gift-giving holiday and lined it with paper towels. Then she layered the muffins, each individually wrapped, in the bottom of the basket.
“What else should we put in there?” she asked Julia. “Are the muffins enough?”
“Oh, how about some of those cream cheese strawberries you like to make?”
“Good idea, I have a batch I made yesterday.” Ruby pulled the plastic Tupperware container out of the fridge and set it on top of the muffins.
“I think that will do. Now write a note in case he’s not home,” Julia said.
That done, the two of them walked next door, across the small meadow-like field that separated the houses, and knocked on the front door. There was no answer. Ruby was silently thankful, not sure what she’d say if she came face-to-face with the man himself.
“Let’s just leave it with the note and go,” she finally said to Julia. Julia nodded and they set the basket down and left.
“Let me know what happens,” Julia said before she got into her own
vehicle and took off.
Ruby wasn’t sure if she wanted the man to come say thanks or not. She wondered if she should just go take the basket back and forget about the whole thing. He was just too perfectly gorgeous to even be real, she thought. The muscles in his arms had been well-toned, his cheekbones high and chiseled. Just like one of the Adonises in her novels.
Chapter3
Isaac stepped out of the sleek, black BMW he had hired to take him out for the day. Since inheriting his parents’ lottery winnings after their untimely deaths, Isaac hadn’t driven himself across the block, let alone to the grocery store or out to the movies. He tipped the driver generously and pulled his shopping bags out of the trunk. Isaac had decided to spend the morning at the massive, four-story Galleria Mall near Dallas. After getting a massage at the spa on the second floor, he made his way through the mall floor by floor, stopping to buy whatever caught his eye.
He made his way up the steps of the wide, wraparound porch and noticed a basket sitting to one side of the front door. Isaac set down several bags to unlock the front door and picked up the basket before going inside. He dropped the bags at the foot of the stairs that led to the second floor where the master bedroom and an empty guest bedroom were situated.
“What’s this?” he asked aloud, as he set the basket on the kitchen counter and lifted the clean, decorative dish towel that covered the contents. He pulled out the plastic-lidded container and smiled at the contents. Lifting the lid, Isaac popped a strawberry that had been stuffed with cream cheese into his mouth.
Under the strawberry dish he saw a layer of what appeared to be homemade muffins. He picked one up and looked it over. “Banana nut muffins,” he commented. He saw the note then, tied to the handle of the basket with kitchen twine.
“Dear neighbor,” he began aloud. “Welcome to the neighborhood. I hope you enjoy the muffins and strawberries. Your neighbor at 710 Burdock Lane.” He set the note down and picked up a muffin. Tearing it in half, he went to the kitchen and retrieved a paper plate and the butter dish. Isaac slathered butter on the baked good and popped it into the microwave for a few seconds.
Then he sat down at his laptop and took a hefty bite of the muffin. As he chewed he sent a message to everyone on his social media list. It read simply: PARTY TONIGHT! 720 BURDOCK LANE. BYOB! He hit the send key and leaned back in the chair as he ate the last of the muffin. He briefly thought about going next door to thank his “neighbor at 710,” since they had only signed the note R. Schmidt.
Maybe if they’re cool, he thought, he’d invite them to the party tonight. Just then his phone rang. It was his Aunt Amanda.
“Hey, Aunt Mandy,” he said by way of greeting.
Amanda Johnson’s voice came over the line. It sounded strained. “Isaac Nathaniel Ross, what in the world are you doing in Texas?”
“I needed a change of scenery,” Isaac said, dropping the front legs of the chair back to the hardwood floor. His aunt Amanda had a way of making him feel five years old again when she was annoyed at his life choices. It wasn’t on purpose, but he knew that leaving Missouri without telling her first had probably hurt her feelings.
“A change of scenery? I wonder why that is,” she said with an edge of sarcasm. “Could it be because you partied your way through almost every jail cell in the city? When I went by your apartment and found it empty, I thought for sure you were probably in jail. I half expected to get a post card.”
“Aw, Aunt Mandy,” Isaac said with an edge of wheedling to his voice. “I’m sorry. I needed to get out of that small town and I’m living in a suburb outside of Dallas now. It’s a nice, quiet street with only a few houses on it.”
“It was quiet until you showed up anyway,” Amanda laughed. Her voice was gentler then. “Do you need me to come help you set up house or anything like that?”
“No. I’ll be okay. If I had stayed there, I would have been the dead lottery winners’ kid for the rest of my life. Their deaths were just so public. I was tired of people looking at me and asking about it.”
“I understand. Look, I have some vacation days coming up in a few weeks. I’ll come down for a long weekend. Your house no doubt needs a little feminine touch. I’m guessing you haven’t even bought dishes or proper groceries yet.”
“You know me too well, Aunt Mandy.” After a few more minutes of chit chat they got off of the phone and Isaac hit the button that would show his contact list. He selected the number that would connect him to a booze delivery service. They didn’t normally deliver but when Isaac offered to pay double their retail price and a delivery fee to the driver, they capitulated. Isaac was realizing that money really could buy you anything you wanted.
***
Ruby’s agent called her around seven that evening. She had her headphones on and the windows in her house closed.
“Hi, Ruby, it’s Blanca.”
“Hi, Blanca. How did you like the book?” Ruby pushed back from her desk and hung the headphones on the hook she had put on the wall next to her desk.
“Love it. There may be a few edits needed here and there, but that’s to be expected. What’s that sound in the background?” Blanca asked Ruby.
Ruby sighed, irritated. “That is my new next door neighbor. He has thrown a party for the last two nights until after midnight.”
“Wow. Is he right next door to you?” Blanca’s voice had an edge of incredulity to it.
“No. He’s about half a block from me, but there’s nothing between us. So the sound carries, even when my windows are closed.” Ruby steered the question back to the book.
“You should really do something about that noise. My god, it must be a headache,” Blanca said before hanging up.
Ruby sighed and looked out the window across the expanse of lawn between the two houses. I really should go over there and introduce myself, maybe ask them to turn the music down. She walked out on to her porch and down the steps. Then she stopped and stared.
The bonfire had been lit again, and the dancers were circled around it once more. The sound of some kind of Middle Eastern drum was vying for airspace with the Bollywood style music pouring from inside the house. All of the windows were open and once more all of the lights were on. Ruby took a few more steps and then stopped again. What if she went over there and they laughed at her for telling them to quiet down? She looked at the neighboring houses and noticed that both of them were dark, the driveways empty.
No wonder the neighbors weren’t complaining, They’re not even home! Ruby took a few more steps and stopped once more. She was feeling nervous about confronting her neighbor while he was surrounded by all of his friends. His drunk, rowdy friends. Ruby turned and quick-stepped back into her house. She looked at the clock and saw that it was just after ten. She sighed and wondered if it would do any good to call the police again.
Probably not, she thought to herself. They went out there last night and here he is partying again.
Her phone rang again. This time it was Julia.
“I just got off the phone with Blanca,” she began. “We have things arranged for the launch party. If all goes to plan it’ll be in about three months.”
“In Miami?” Ruby asked.
“No,” Julia responded slowly. “I couldn’t sell her on Miami; too expensive, she thought, to set it all up.”
“Oh okay. Where then?” Ruby’s first two had been in New York City, one at a hotel and one at a swanky night club.
“Well, we were actually thinking closer to home. There’s a pretty happening LGBT bar in downtown Dallas. Blanca thought that since the new book has a trans-gendered character in it, that we might want to hold the party there.”
“I can see her point. Okay, whatever you two think, I’m okay with,” Ruby said. “That damn neighbor is throwing another party. How many nights a week can one person party this long?”
“Calling the police again?”
“I don’t know that it will do any good. It didn’t seem to matter last night.”
> “How about you just go over there?” Julia asked.
“I tried,” Ruby said. “I got about half way there and then started thinking about the sheer number of people there who are drunk and rowdy. It just didn’t seem safe.”
Julia laughed on the other end of the line. “You are such a pushover. You never leave your comfort zone, Ruby. How are you ever going to lose your virginity?”
Ruby huffed into the phone. “I’m not a virgin, thank you very much. I’m just picky.”
“Uh huh,” Julia said with a teasing edge. “Well, I’m going to get going; gotta meet a client in the morning. Tomorrow when it’s daylight and safe you need to go over there and talk to him. Wait, didn’t he come thank you for the basket?”
“Not yet. Probably got too busy planning that damn party. Whatever. I’m going to bed,” Ruby said good night and hung up.
Ruby went upstairs and got into bed with her new best friends: earplugs. She downed a sleeping pill with a glass of cold water and set her alarm for a morning run before work.
***
“You are so beautiful,” her neighbor whispered in her ear as he ran his hand down her taut stomach to the warm spot between her thighs.
Ruby moaned and closed her eyes, letting the waves of pleasure crash over her as his fingers probed deeper inside.
The man rolled from his position next to her so that he was hovering over Ruby. She looked up and into sapphire eyes as her legs parted to grant him entry.
Ruby woke, sitting bolt upright. A thin sheen of sweat covered her and she shivered as afterthoughts of ecstasy rippled through her lower body. What in the world… she thought to herself as she turned the ceiling fan on to cool herself off. She chastised herself for having wet dreams about her obnoxious neighbor. Suddenly she realized the night was silent. Ruby opened her bedroom window and looked across the yard. The house across the way was dark and silent; the windows were shut and the blinds appeared to be drawn again. The clock told her it was after four, so she laid back down leaving herself uncovered in the breeze of the fan.
