My Irresistible Neighbour: Lies & Love

POV: Rhys Anderson

The annoying lipstick girl had barely left when Nathan suddenly pulled me inside the apartment, taking me by surprise, then he slammed the door behind us and began to pace around the living room with his hands placed thoughtfully around his neck.

“What’s wrong?” I inquired.

“Rhys, do you know who that girl is?” He asked, still pacing around as I stared at him in a state of confusion.

I shrugged. “She’s the girl I told you about yesterday,” I told him.

His eyes opened wide in surprise. “What?”

“You heard me,” I said.

He walked close to where I stood, then stopped about a few feet away from me still looking stunned. “She’s lipstick girl?” He asked again.

I nodded my head in the affirmative. “Exactly. She is lipstick girl,” I affirmed.

“Fuck! No!” He exclaimed, then immediately raced away from the living room and went to his own bedroom.

I stood still watching him from a distance, wondering what was going on with him. He was mostly weird, but when it seemed like he was panicking, it was usually for a good cause.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, calling after him in a deep tone.

“Just a moment,” He said.

I walked gently and sat on the couch, waiting for him to come back and tell me exactly what it was that was bothering him.

A few seconds later, he came back to the living room with his laptop in his hands.

He sat on the couch beside me and drew the centre table close to where we sat.

“What’s all this fuss about?” I inquired, still somewhat confused.

“All this fuss is about lipstick girl, who I feel is a very important person that you just treated like trash,” He said.

“Trash? I treated her like trash? For crying out loud, I haven’t done anything to this girl. First, she stained my white shirt...”

“...which was an accident,” Nathan interrupted.

I rolled my eyes at him, and continued with my statement. “Next, she clearly told me to my face that I had to be a servant in this house because she was so sure that I couldn’t afford to stay at a place like this...”

“...and why shouldn’t she have thought that a grown-up man who collected five hundred dollars from her because of a small lipstick stain isn’t capable of affording luxury? You go about collecting even a change of fifty cents and expect people to think you’re well-to-do? Funny,” Nathan said, cutting in again.

Sure, he did have a point, but I wasn’t ready to hear what he had to say. “Anyways, she laid a false accusation...”

“...which she apologised for, but you wouldn’t stop rubbing her mistake in her face,” Nathan said, opposing me again.

I threw him a glance, which showed how very much annoyed I was. “Are you seriously supporting that girl over your best friend?” I asked.

He made a gesture for me to look at the laptop on the table, without even bothering to answer the honest question I had asked.

What I saw on the laptop made me shocked to the bone and I couldn’t take my eyes off the laptop for several moments, being held spellbound by bewilderment and astonishment.

“She’s...she’s the target?” I asked out loud.

“Yes, she is, and this is something you should have known had you not been too preoccupied with other stuff instead of your main job,” Nathan said, banging his fist on the table.

“No. This has to be wrong,” I said, punching a few buttons on the keyboard of the laptop, which was staring right in my face.

“It is not wrong, Rhys. Clearly, the universe had already been giving you chances which you could have utilised properly, but you ended up throwing it all away in the air,” Nathan said.

I ran my hands through my hair at a loss for words. “Nathan, how the hell was I supposed to know that she was the reason I am even in Texas right now?” I managed to ask him, trying not to express my disappointment in my tone of voice.

“That is why you should learn to be nice to everyone. When she had bumped into you, you could have overlooked it and told her not to apologise for doing anything since it was clearly a mistake, and everyone makes mistakes. You should have told her she looked beautiful and held her hand when you noticed she was scared in the elevator...”

“I stayed by her side,” I interrupted, defending my actions.

“Whatever, Rhys. When she came here just this afternoon, you should have been nice to her instead of being unnecessarily rude and an annoying arse to her,” Nathan said.

I heaved an exasperated sigh. “Yes, I have made a mistake, but you are also clearly at fault here. I told you to get an apartment close to hers and I never told you to get one in the same estate as hers,” I said.

“And what is the difference?” He asked.

“The difference is that it would have been less suspicious if we weren’t neighbours. Even if we were neighbours, we could have still worked things out smoothly, but the problem is that you failed to tell me you rented an apartment in the same estate as hers...not only that, our apartments are close to each other. If you had told me that, I would have been nice to everyone I met in this estate,” I explained.

“Are you trying to pin the blame on me or what?” Nathan fired at me.

I shook my head in negativity. “Not at all. What I am trying to say is that we both made mistakes...”

“Not this time, Rhys,” He cut in.

“What?” I asked, perplexed.

“Don’t try to make me share the blame with you this time, Rhys. Today, all that happened is all on you. Even if I failed to tell you that I rented an apartment in the same estate as this lipstick girl, it was your job to have known that she is your target. You love procrastinating when to do things and that act has finally caught up with you. This deal may not work out because of your mistake...”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong. When the lipstick girl finds out about the amount of money I have invested in her modelling agency, she is going to have a change of heart towards me,” I declared.

“Hopefully, she will, but what if she doesn’t? What are you going to tell the boss? He doesn’t take lightly to failures, so what exactly are you going to say to him? You already collected more than half payment for the job, not so? Are you going to return it to him?” Nathan asked.

A smirk played around my lips. “I won’t be returning anything, Nathan. Any money that comes into my hands never leaves, and as for the job, it’s going to be successful. Just trust me,” I told him.

Nathan looked like he was having a hard time with believing my words. “I don’t know, Rhys. First impression matters, and twice now, you’ve made a wrong impression on her,” He said.

“I know, but I have made greater messes in the past, all of which I ended up successfully cleaning up. Tell me, Nathan, have I ever left a job halfway or failed at any job?” I inquired.

“You’ve never,” He replied.

“Good,” I said, entwining my fingers together in deep and calculative thoughts.

“What are we going to do now?” He asked.

“For now, I’m going to sleep as we had planned earlier. I work better when I have rested well enough, and as for you, you’re going to prepare that mac and cheese we talked about,” I said, wearing a small smile.

My phone began to ring suddenly, and when I checked, it was the boss who was calling.

“He always has the ability to know when something is amiss,” Nathan noted.

“That is his business, not mine. I’m not going to pick any of his calls. In fact, I’m putting my phone on silent mode,” I declared, picking up my phone from the table.

“Then, he’d just call me instead,” Nathan said.

“Which is why you should either put your phone on silent mode or simply switch it off,” I said to him, rising to my feet.

“About what you said earlier on...”

“What exactly?” I asked.

“You said we were both at fault. I should have told you that lipstick girl is the main target when you were busy exchanging words with her, but I also wasn’t sure if she was truly the one. We all make mistakes, I guess, and I’m truly sorry about that,” Nathan apologised.

I bopped him on the arm in a playful manner. “You don’t need to apologise for a mistake that would be fixed soon. We all make mistakes, yes, but only few people like myself can turn things around for their own benefit. I haven’t even slept yet and I’m already optimistic. Wait till I finally feel refreshed after having a long time sleeping, you’d be amazed by the number of plans that I’ll come up with to turn things around in our favour,” I said to him, wearing a broad smile.

“I believe in you,” Nathan said, smiling back at me.

“That means so much. Thanks,” I said, and began to walk towards the bedroom, hoping that no one stopped me from sleeping again.

When I looked at my phone screen, I could see that the boss was still calling, good thing I couldn’t hear the sound of the ringtone. Normal people called you once or twice and stopped calling when you failed to pick their calls, but his case was different. He would ask one of his bodyguards to keep on dialling your line until you picked his calls.

Sooner or later, he was going to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t picking up his calls today, and I’d probably be fast asleep and off to dreamland when that happens. Even when I returned his call later on when I woke up, there was no way I could tell him about what had happened, given the fact that I had made him believe that I already went through the girl’s pictures and even knew her name.

I had thought that I was going to be over with this issue in a matter of weeks, or mostly, one month. However, with the mistake I had made, I was probably going to be around for a year, which was three hundred and sixty five days. Yes, I had acted all optimistic with Nathan, but truth be told, I didn’t expect lipstick girl to come around soon because of my actions towards her.

Damn! I really needed to find a way around this new unwelcome development. Harmony Winters... I am coming for you.