DS L1
Climbing over the fence to my neighbor’s house wasn’t hard but avoiding the security cameras had been a bitch. Teddy boarded a flight to the Caribbean this morning to celebrate his engagement to the woman with dyed blonde hair and an overly toothy smile, just six months after breaking my heart. As I approached the small, frosted glass window to his bathroom, I wiped the sweat from my brow and cursed the humidity. The pealing paint crunched under my fingertips as I pushed the top ledge of the window higher, allowing a cold, dry breeze to escape from his home. Taking a deep breath, I threw myself through the window just as the growl from the air conditioner kicked on, vibrating the side of the house.
I landed in a heap on the cold tile decorating the floor, my face half smothered in a damp towel Teddy had left on the floor. The scent of his soap filled my nostrils as I rolled my eyes. The man couldn’t hang a towel if his life depended on it. Pushing up from the tile, the drip, drip, drip of the faucet caught my attention. He also never turned the water completely off. I sighed and turned the stainless-steel knob, stemming the flow of drops.
I readjusted my backpack and took a deep breath, inhaling the dry air that smelled of apple cinnamon and maleness. The thought of him using the candles I’d given him without me pulled a corner of my mouth into a frown as my feet moved onto the vinyl plank wood in the hallway. As I approached his bedroom, I shifted my bag off one shoulder and around to my side. Unzipping it, I pulled out the small device carefully while trudging over to his bed.
My knees, hitting the cool floor in a thunk, groaned in complaint, crackling and popping as I bent. Within a few moments, the bomb’s red light flashed indicating it was armed. I pulled back from the bed and let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding as I grabbed the soft, furry blanket on the bed to pull myself up. I smiled down as I wiped the sweat from my palms on my jeans and threw the backpack over my back again. It was set. He’d no longer leave towels on the floor. His faucet wouldn’t drip, wasting water. No, instead, when he returned to his cool, masculine home, fate would be waiting for him.
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The tyres of my car screeched sharply, splooshing the puddles in the gutter, as I pulled up into the drive. The rain was still pattering, its drops so soft and silky. I caught a gentle breeze rustling leaves in the trees, sending down gentle clatters of waterdrops down. Here and there I caught last calls of birds in the growing dusk before settling down for the night. It sounded so soothing, but it had no effect on me, for my guts were boiling so much at what I had just found out.
They boiled anew as I caught sight of my neighbour’s apartment, looking so sweet and innocent. Just like him. My new neighbour Derek. He was so nice, so handsome, a man pulled from the pages of Romeo and Juliet. How we met was quite surprising. You’d think a man would know how to set up a combination security lock on the door, but not Derek. I came over to say hello to my new neighbour, only to find him just about tearing his hair out from how you set up the bloody thing. He was astonished at how deftly my fingers could set it up in a matter of jiggles. But having one of my own, it was second nature.
“My, how do you do that?” he marvelled, and then cussed himself. “I just can’t understand why I can’t set up those damned keypad locks when I can do printing in a heartbeat!”
My laughing was goodnatured. “I guess we all have our odd little things that we can never understand. By the way, I’m Gina.”
From there we just hit it off. We both loved tennis and our weekends were spent on hours in the tennis court. I won more matches than Derek, but he never minded, he was a good sport. And he was so immaculate with his clothes. His shirts were so clean they would dazzle you and his suits were so immaculate you just wanted to lean over them and kiss your lipstick all over them.
But this evening I popped into the bar to grab a quick drink after work. As soon as I stepped through the door I saw him, and all thought of a drink vanished from my head. He was sitting with another woman at a table. A woman I recognised. It was Tania from the printing shop he worked at. And they were definitely not having a business discussion after hours. They were laughing and chinking their glasses, and then they were having the greatest smooch I ever saw.
“Shall we call it steady now, hon?” laughed Derek.
My teeth struck so hard they just about broke. He had said the same thing to me, not long ago, and I had said yes, and believing I was the only one for him had me in heaven.
And then I heard Tania say, “Of course, Derek. You’re the best man I’ve had in a long, long time.”
Best man?! You rat!
My jaw clattered and my heart broke so hard it was as if I could hear it. But I couldn’t stand the sight of what was going on there. I just ran out of the bar, my tears mingling with the downpour of rain in the street, my body shaking, but it wasn’t from the wet, it wasn’t from the cold. It was from the volcano erupting inside me. You rat, you rat kept flashing in my head. I jumped into my car and tore through the streets, straight home, wiping my tears against the wheel.
But as I pulled up in the drive, I saw his apartment, and my heart sank. I had forgotten that rat was my new neighbour. Great, just great. How could I live next door to him now? Maybe I should move?
As I stood in the drive, staring at his apartment in a mix of anger and misery, my feet suddenly turned in that direction, all by themselves, as if they were being pulled up there by a magnet. My shoes clattered on the drive, small puddles going squelch as my heels hit them, the dampness of my skirt catching against my legs.
Now a smile formed around my lips. Too bad for him I had set the security code to his house as he’d been too damn useless to do it. It would look innocent enough if I just walked in. Still, I must say, as I approached the door I began to feel like a burglar. The clacking of my high heels as I took my final steps to the doorstep sent nerves through me. I could hear the thumping of my heart right in my ears. But I didn’t stop. There was a clicking as my fingers hit the combination. My hand turned the door and it opened, sending a velvety ripple through the carpet. My heels fell soft and silent as I slipped through he door. A waft of lilacs my nostrils, and for a moment the scent eased my rage. I remembered how I loved how he always had a sparkling bowl of lilacs in his living room, but then my rage grew again at the thought that the Lothario probably used lilacs to lull and lure his women. Perhaps it was not just me and Tania he was luring. For all I knew, he was dallying a whole string of women on his lead.
I looked around. The lights weren’t on, casting the white walls of the apartment in a greying darkness. All was in stillness, except for the humming of his fridge, the steady ticking of an antique clock, and a creaking in the wall. It brought a moducum of clearness in my head, and for the first time I thought: just what was I doing here?
Revenge?
Yes, that was all I could think of.
But how?
What was I going to do?
I didn’t have a clue, and now my mind was whirling in confusion. Trash the house? Smash all his tennis trophies? Ruin all his precious suits?
All those ideas and more just kept swirling in my head. I could hear the joints in my knuckles popping as my fists clenched at what I could do. But eventually my hands dropped, slapping my slides in a limp. It just wasn’t me. I wasn’t the homewrecking sort. Besides, I suddenly realised now that the volcano was easing, I was tired and feeling so overwrought. I just wanted to get home and have a rest, lie on the couch with a drink, wallow in tears and feel sorry for myself.
Then the perfect inspiration hit.
My eyes lit up and my knuckles crackled again as I rubbed my hands in esctacy.
With a renewed burst of energy, I turned with a snap and headed straight for the front door. With the swiftest movements I had ever made on that lock, I changed the combination and closed the door with a soft thud. With an immense smile of satisfaction I pulled the handle once more, and I giggled as my hand felt the door was well and truly locked.