The Man Next Door 1

“Hughhh, God” Vee murmured as she rolled out of her edgeless bed to pick up her phone that had been buzzing from the alarm she set the other night.

And as she came close to the phone, she discovered it wasn’t only the alarm but also a call since she had the same alarm and call tone.

Her phone had been ringing two minutes non stop.

She cussed under her breath wondering who and why anyone would call her non stop on a Saturday morning.

The time was 11:07am, she checked to confirm if it was still in the morning or not. As she picked up the phone, she realized it was her apartment's agent or caretaker as she loved to say. Still annoyed that he would call her by 11:05am on a Saturday, she accepted the call.

“Victoria here”

“Hi Vicky, I have been calling you for 2 minutes, where did you place your phone?”

She hates it whenever any one calls her Vicky especially her so called caretaker as she had corrected him several times that she prefers Vee or Victoria in full but he wouldn’t listen.

“What? You should be apologizing for calling this….” Before she could complete her sentence she had a pause and thought of if 11am was actually early or she would look like a psychic.

“wait, what are you saying?” Deck asked, confused

‘Yeah, his name is Deck, the agent'.

“Never mind, came out wrong”.

“Oh….. ok then” Deck continues talking,

“I’m about leaving for Columbia and I got you the roommate you requested”.

“That’s okay, when is she moving in”,

“She isn’t moving in, He is moving in today. And before you complain or say anything, He paid upfront and the ladies who also showed interest did not pay and you know the rules right?”

“Deck how do you expect me to live with a HE and besides I told you my roommate had to be a SHE, there’s an S in front of it, He could be dangerous Deck?”

“Nah, he will be a great roommate. He doesn’t have any criminal record and he has an excellent record in the aspect of paycheck, believe me”.

She became sick and grimy all of a sudden and also disappointed at Deck. He called not to get Vee's approval but to tell her that he had given the other key to her new roommate and she has no choice.

She doesn’t like Deck as he doesn’t care about anyone else except involves money.

She had just paid a year’s rent and it was a non refundable deposit. She loved the apartment as it was close to where she worked. It was rare finding an apartment this nice and safe in busy city of W. D. C.

“Alright, when does he move in?” She sighed with a hint of irrigation.

“If I’m not mistaken or planned wrong he should be on his way up”.

“What! Deck, you gave him the keys already? Were you ever going to inform me before now? You are so annoying” she said while stretching all her neck to show the extent of annoyance.

“Vicky, I’m trying to help you here so it won’t be a shock, I’m trying to do no harm”.

“You’re a jerk and you just showed it fully too” she was cut off by the noise from the door like someone trying to force themselves in and the key is just not working. The person couldn’t get in because the apartment also had an indoor security lock.

“Who’s that?” she shouted with her eye balls almost out of her eyes.

“That would be your roommate”. ,Deck said over the phone.

“Bob, the new roommate” A deep voice spoke from the other side of the door. The voice was thrilling but Bob? Every single person she ever seen named Bob were fat as f**k.

“Ehh, give me a sec” Vee said, Deck had already cut the call and let her face whatever comes towards her alone.

She moved to open the door. As she opened the door, she saw a tall and handsome man. The first thought in her mind was “were all other Bob fake or he told her a fake name” He looked well built with his abdominal muscles and his chest all broaded out like he works out every single day.

His black was perfectly tied back on his head in a little male bun. He stood admiringly. He smiled even though short and seems fake was actually perfect.

“Will I admit Deck was right for the first time?” She thought while staring at the trial that was now her new roommate. He looked at her otherwise without saying a word while standing still, well that was not his fault she wasn’t allowing him into the apartment with her gaze .

He wasn’t really surprised because he gets that a lot.

“You’re in my way miss” he said trying to break the awkwardness that his story had created.

“Um sorry”, she said while breathing so fast like she just ran a race.

“wow all this for Bob?” she thought with a smile on her face.

“V-vee Victoria” she stammered, embarrassed as she blinked repeatedly and shook her head like she is trying to get water out of her head without the use of her hand to clear her head and move out of the way for him to get into the apartment.

“Oh, I’m really sorry, the apartment!” she thought while actually saying it out of fright. The whole apartment was messy and dirty.

She had a party the other night and she had not woken up early even though she blames Deck for not giving her a heads up before today she might have done a good job at her first impression. Now she thought of how dirty he must think his roommate was.

“I had a party the other night that’s why the place looks like this, so it’s not always like this” She explained while at the same time trying to clean up the apartment because he looked around and he didn’t look impressed or in any way delighted.

“Look, I don’t really have parties but I know how the day after parties are and it’s pretty obvious so cut the crap with the explanation”.

Even though he said that, his face judged every part of her, she did not know why she felt like trying to convince him that she wasn’t dirty. She was not going to stand in a place and let him feel like she had to impress him.

“Um…….Yeah, let me just finish cleaning this up!”

He shrugged and turned to face her and he said with his face not changing “I do hope this isn’t your normal behavior though cause I told you I don’t really have parties not because of anything else it’s because I don’t like having crowd of strangers around me. Okay?”

She nodded affirmative like she was under a command or force as she could not explain what that was.

She raised a brow and knew instantly that he would be a difficult roommate. The man was already given her conditions in an apartment they both paid equally for.

She doesn’t party all the time, she even rarely party at all, it was her best friend Cat that threw all the party for her birthday because of how spacious her apartment is.

“Deck” she grumbles as she still blames everything on him.

Without talking she walked to the kitchen counter and got a recycling bag to put all she had been packing since. “It’s not my behavior” she finally said as she puts the plastic cups in the bags.

“It’s okay. Can you point me towards my own room?”

“Room on left”. ,she said without looking up

The apartment was a two bedroom apartment with the kitchen and the living room demarcated by a walking space.

Their rooms faced each other and they were going to share a bathroom together. It was very spacious. It was the space that made her rent the though it was expensive. She had just moved to Washington DC because she got a promotion on her job in marketing firm and she had to relocate from New York where she lived before now. She loved the apartment and she had a female Sam, who left the place to live with her fiancé and they had a problem free relationship and they were friends till she got engaged.

When that happened she told Deck that she needed another roommate preferably a female thinking she’d get another roommate like Sam but Deck decided to give the apartment to the person who gave him cash immediately.

She wondered how she would get along with the real Bob as he vacuumed the place. While she was at it Bob walked out of his room and told her he was going to get the guys who were helping him move in. She just nodded and wrap up the cleaning.

By the time the movers started coming in and bringing boxes filled with Bob’s properties, she was done cleaning and she sprayed some air fresheners to make the place smell nice.

She went ahead to brew herself a cup of coffee. Vee left some incase she needed to fill again which is probably going to happen.

She then moved to sit on the hanging flexible chair by the window as she stared out the window like it was a form of movie or so and he plugged in her earpiece to listen to music trying to distract herself from the whole movement stuff.

50 minutes later she noticed the movement had stopped “Hun” that was the only sound that came out of her mouth and Vee decided to make breakfast for herself.

“Breakfast?, It’s noon already should I call it Brunch or launch itself.

As she entered the kitchen, the left over coffee was gone (scuffed) “would you look at that” while smiling in a treachery way “Mr. I don’t have no parties can drink my coffee. Hmmm” she thought while also making gestures.

She made herself sandwiches and tried to call it the German way “sandviches” even though it’s still written as normal “sandwiches”

“Hmm, any how I don’t have to get it right, it isn’t my language” feeling confident with the way she said it.

She moved to eat in the living room while turning the TV on, now to watch a real movie not like the one she watched through the window the other time.

5 minutes later, she was done with her food and cleaned up and decided to go back to bed. As she walked to her room she noticed that his door was slightly opened and he had taken off his shirt.

She also noticed that he had magnificent biceps “if that’s what they call biceps then wow” she said to herself and he looked really hot unpacking but that might just be because she was still full of the alcohol she had the other night and needed to sleep she thought.

She opened her room door and neither jump nor walk into her bed but either way she was already on her bed.

She tried to sleep but sleep was playing a game with her and she was feeling slights of headache and she decided to take pain reliving pills as she thought of what really happened at the party.

She couldn’t remember most of what happened last night because she drank too much than she could maintain but it seemed she was not alone last night. It might have been Henry but she remembered that he told her he’d be working late so it couldn’t be.

She started to remember Poco a Poco ‘little by little'

She remembered she wanted to use the restroom but Cat was not nearby to guide her and she decided to go alone. There was a line in front and she decided to wait in her room instead.

As she walked into the room almost crawling since she couldn’t walk straight, the stranger had asked her if she needed help like she even had the capacity to reply.

He looked kind of huge as she recalls and sat at the edge.

Scoffs, “my bed doesn’t have a edge” she thought smiling, the room was very dim to the extent she could not recognize the man.

“Well is it because of the room or because I was drunk” she asked herself to clarify.

He helped her sit on the bed and the started talking bit what they were talking about she couldn’t remember.

“So who are you?” she thought getting frustrated

She thought maybe if she concentrates on her other senses then maybe something is going to pop up about the invisible Man.

She recalls he smelt of a freshly baked bread but also had a mint fragrance which kind of contradicts the former.

He said he liked the arrangements of the room. That watermelon calms his nerve. Henry hates watermelon she spoke out all of a sudden.

Apart from this, she remembers nothing they spoke of but clips of him kissing her.

She remembered how soft his lips felt against her lips. His hands were slowly moving into her shirt and she doesn’t want it to stop.

He slowly tilted her head and she slowly pushed her hair out of the way as she kissed her neck and his hands in her shirt roaming round all of it and made small circle with his tongue in a way she liked and she gripped his hair trying to keep him there like a little longer.

She let a little moan and called him Henry, he gently corrected her and told her his name but she didn’t hear anything he said.

Then there was no more to remember because the headache was becoming unbearable for her, she opened the drawer next to her bed to take the pill into her mouth and moved towards the door to get some water that was when she noticed the broken lamp that was always on the table in her room close to the door.

At the foot of the table was the blue shirt she wore for the party “why did I wear a shirt?” she also tries to remember but she gets nothing

Immediately she had a flashback of when she took of her shirt and threw it and in less than three seconds they heard something break, they had smiled about it and continued making out and she was on top of him and he slowly massage her butt and she likes it.

She remembered trying to take his shirt off but couldn’t get the buttons out and they both said a word at a time and then laughed this time.

As soon as she opened the door, Bob was also coming out of his room in only a towel, “I’m sure there’s nothing under this towel” she thought. He just walked towards the bathroom unaware or maybe unbothered by what his almost naked body did to her.

She hurriedly walked to the kitchen grabbed a bottle of water and swallowed the pill that was already in her throat.

She shook Bob out of her mind and then went back to her room and jumped into her bed this time around and closed her eyes.

2 minutes later she was fast asleep.