To the Rude Guy in Apartment Five,
You asked for my number, but instead I shall give you this. Do with it what you will.
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
I hope it helps.
Your Neighbor in Number Four.
I placed the note on Jagger’s door at midnight and crept back to my apartment. I closed the door quickly, thankful that he hadn’t heard me and opened his door before I’d made it back to my apartment.
It had taken me over three hours to write the note, and I wasn’t sure if I’d written even a hundred words. I walked to the kitchen and decided to make some hot chocolate to go along with the brownies I’d made earlier. I always craved chocolate when I was emotional and feeling unsure about something.
I opened the fridge to grab the milk and then froze. A weird noise was emanating from somewhere in the apartment. I walked into the living room and grabbed the remote to mute the TV then stood still, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. And then I realized that it was coming from the other side of the wall. Jagger was playing music for me.
I rolled my eyes but walked over to the wall to see if I could tell what he was playing. I couldn’t quite make out the words, so I hurried to the cupboard and grabbed a glass, pressed it against the wall and then pressed my ear against the glass like I’d seen in old detective movies. At first, I still couldn’t make it out, but then I realized he wasn’t playing a song through speakers, he was singing it himself. He was strumming the guitar and singing. I giggled as I heard him cursing as he played some notes wrong, but then he started singing again. I finally recognized the song as “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi.
Jagger had a nice timbre to his voice, and I smiled as he sang. It was quite nice listening to him, but then he changed the song and I heard him singing about liking big butts.
“I hope you like my serenade, Magnolia,” he said through the wall and I froze. “I know you’re listening.” How the hell did he know? Was there a camera in my apartment? Was he spying on me? “I know you, Magnolia, don’t look so shocked.” And then he chuckled and started singing again. I wanted to walk away from the wall, but I couldn’t stop listening as he started singing “Good as Hell” by Lizzo.
“Oh, no, he didn’t,” I whispered to myself, a huge grin on my face as I giggled. He was still my funny Jagger. He could still make me laugh.
“If you want to see me dancing to the song, feel free to come over,” he said when he stopped singing. “I got your note, Dr. Watson, and while I have no idea what you’re talking about just yet, I’m going to figure it out.”
He tapped the wall, a series of short taps and longer ones. I frowned, trying to figure out what he was doing. “Once more for the lady in the back!” he yelled. I listened carefully as he tapped again.
It sounded like, “ditdit,” “ditdahditdit,” “dahdahdah,” “ditditditdah,” “dit,” “dahditdahdah,” “dahdahdah,” and “ditditdah”. I made up my mind to look online and try and figure out this Morse code thing. I was about to take the glass away when Jagger spoke once more. “Feel free to think of me tonight as you pleasure yourself. I’ll make sure to think of you too.”
Ugh. I stepped away from the wall and glared at it. “Pig,” I muttered as I walked back to the kitchen. It always came back to sex with him … though I had to admit that it did warm my blood to know that he would be thinking about me.
I woke up to my phone ringing, and I groaned. My head was pounding, and I hadn’t gotten much sleep. “Hello?”
“Magnolia?” Anna’s voice sounded too loud in my ear. “Are you still in bed?”
“Yes, I’m still in bed.”
“Still sleeping?”
“Obviously not.” I yawned. “You just woke me up.”
“How’s the new job going?” She paused. “Did you quit already?”
“No, I didn’t quit. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment today, so I'm not going into the office.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, it’s just my annual.” I sat up and stretched. “I guess I should get up anyway. How’s it going in New York?”
“Same old, same new.” She paused. “Guess who I saw yesterday at a comedy show in the Village?”
“I don’t know. Jim Carrey?”
“Jim Carrey?”
“Jennifer Anniston?”
“Magnolia!” Anna giggled. “Not anyone famous.”
“Then how am I supposed to know?”
“I saw Doug.” She paused. “As in, your ex-friend and ex-lover.”
“He was never my lover.”
“I know, but it sounds more dramatic to say that.” She giggled. “I mean, platonic boyfriend doesn’t exactly sound scandalous.”
“We weren’t completely platonic. We did kiss. What was he doing in the Village? I thought he moved?”
“I guess he was in town for business and was there with a colleague from work. This cute guy called Brandon. I was kinda hoping for an introduction, but he wasn’t exactly trying to help hook me up.”
“Oh, Anna.” I laughed. “You’re too much.”
“What? I have needs.”
“I have needs too,” I pointed out. “Get a toy.”
“I have many toys. How’s your dating going?”
“Meh, my date from the other day canceled, and I haven’t been on the app since.” I got out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make some cereal. “Anyways, how is Doug? I assume you called to tell me about him?”
“Well, I called to talk to my best friend, but yeah, he’s doing well. He looked good, seemed happy, showed me some pics of his wife and kids.”
“Nice.”
“He mentioned you …” Her voice trailed off. “He knows that Jagger lives next door to you.”
“You told him?” I stood still as I held the box of Frosted Flakes in my hand. “Anna!”
“No, I didn’t tell him. He already knew. I guess Jagger told him.”
“Oh, wow.” I licked my lips nervously. “What did he say?”
“Not much.” She paused. “Well, that’s not completely the truth. He said something that I thought was interesting.”
“Oh?” I continued pouring my cereal into a bowl and then grabbed my milk. “What’s that, then?”
“He said that the night, he, uh, caught you in flagrante with Jagger, he had received a text message from your sister’s phone.”
“Huh?”
“He said your sister texted him and said to meet him outside Jagger’s room. That she had something to say about the engagement.”
“My sister knew Doug was going to propose?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Anna replied. “I think he told Daisy and Jagger at the same time, when he got the ring. I guess he wanted to show off in his excitement.”
“Oh, man, this makes me feel worse.” My stomach lurched. “There was Doug, all excited to propose to me, and there I was, jumping his brother.” I felt sick to my stomach. “God, how could I have done that?”
“You were young, Magnolia, and you thought you and Jagger had a thing.”
“Yeah, I was stupid. El estupida.” I wanted to bang my head against a wall. “I just can’t believe I did that.”
“Well, yeah, anyways,” Anna sounded excited, “I was thinking about what Doug said, and it just didn’t make sense.”
“What didn’t make sense?”
“Why would Daisy text Doug and tell him to meet her outside Jagger’s room to chat?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Did you ask him?”
“No, I didn’t think about it until this morning. Plus I didn’t really want to keep asking him too many questions.”
“You brought it up?” I groaned. “Anna, why?”
“Because it always confused me how Doug and Daisy knew to walk into Jagger’s room that night.” Her voice dropped conspiratorially. “I mean, didn’t you ever wonder how they happened to walk in right as you were about to bone Jagger?”
“Not really,” I said with a sigh. “I never really thought about it. I had other things to worry about.”
“Well, I did think about it. Also, did you ever think about that night properly before they walked in?”
“What do you mean?”
“Daisy was already pregnant, right?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I didn’t know yet, though. No one in my family knew.”
“Jagger knew though, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“And Jagger wasn’t the dad, was he?”
“No, it was Justin’s. Daisy had been dating him secretly. Jagger was just pretending to date her so my parents didn’t find out because they thought Justin was a bad egg. Guess they were right. You know he doesn’t even pay child support?”
“Yeah, he sucks, but that’s not my point right now.”
“What’s your point?”
“The night you sent Jagger the note, the note you said was from Daisy, he knew Daisy was pregnant, and he had never slept with her before.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So he gets a note from your sister saying wear this mask, sit in your room at 8 p.m., and wait for me.” Anna was talking slowly and I was trying not to roll my eyes. “Then you enter his room at 8, start playing music, and you proceed to give him a lap dance.”
“I was there, Anna,” I groaned. “You don’t need to remind me.”
“You said that he touched you, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“During the dance?”
“Yes, his hands were all over me.” I blushed, remembering that night.
“And you then lead him to the bed.”
“Yes,” I said, my voice quiet. “And then I proceeded to kiss him. He wanted to take the mask off and I said no.”
“And what did he say?” Anna said.
“He said he never would have guessed I was so kinky but that was another reason why he loved me.” I flushed. “I’m going to hell.”
“Magnolia, I swear to God, you’re such a dumbass. I would slap you if I was there with you.”
“What why?”
“Magnolia, Jagger and Daisy were never really together. Why would he believe that the note was from her? And would he really want to fuck a girl pregnant with someone else’s child?”
“Oh …” I dropped my spoon into my cereal and froze. “Ohhhh.”
“Yes, oh.”
“You think he knew?” I swallowed hard.
“Do I think that he knew it was you?” Anna said, her voice excited. “Yes, yes, I do.”
“But how … what…” I was flabbergasted. “No way!”
“You didn’t process it properly at the time because you didn’t really know the truth of his relationship with Daisy.” Anna sounded pleased with herself. “But looking back at it all, it doesn’t make sense that he thought it was Daisy.”
“Unless he was secretly in love with her,” I said, suddenly deflating. “Maybe that’s why he pretended to be her boyfriend as well. Maybe he was hoping to make it real?”
“Magnolia, do you really believe that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Magnolia, maybe there was a reason why you thought Jagger was into you,” Anna replied. “Maybe he was.”
“I don’t know. I was young and dumb, and he was just nice.”
“You were never young and dumb … well only a little bit, but so was I.” Anna sighed. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“I don’t want to get my hopes up, Anna. I made a fool of myself once, and I don’t really want to do it again. I don’t want Kingston Jagger Scott thinking I’m some bimbo that can’t keep her hands off of him.”
“Girl, I don’t think he would think that.” She paused. “Also, maybe you should ask him why he no longer goes by King.”
“Because he grew up and didn’t want to be a douche anymore?”
Anna laughed. “Look I have to go, but we’ll talk soon, okay? Think about it and try to talk to Jagger.”
“I’ll see.” I sighed. “I should get ready for my appointment. Thanks for calling, Anna. I’ll speak to you later.”
I hung up and stared at my bowl of cereal. I’d lost my appetite. As I made my way to the shower, everything Anna had said tumbled around my mind. If it was true and Jagger had known it was me, why hadn’t he stopped me? And if he had known it was and had also wanted me, why hadn’t he asked me out before Doug had? I had so many questions and the only person who could give me answers was the one person I really didn’t want to ask.
I pulled off my t-shirt, walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I squeezed some toothpaste onto my toothbrush and stepped into the shower, brushing my teeth as the water cascaded down my body and memories flooded my mind.