1
"Miss Daley? Open up! I know you're in there, your car is outside in the tenant car park!"
I groaned at the sound of the loud voice, and flicked my eyes open then quickly re-closed them. It took a few moments for me to be able to keep them open, and when I could, I couldn't see very well. I squinted through the darkness waiting for my eyes to adjust to the minimal lighting. When I could finally see, I quickly narrowed my eyes at the fat snoring male beside me. I shoved him hoping to knock him off the bed, but instead of falling off like I'd hoped he only farted and rolled over in my direction then placed a big sloppy kiss on my mouth.
"Storm!" I shouted and wiped at my mouth and tried not to heave, but the smell of Storm's breath made that very hard.
Storm lazily got to his feet, stretched and made some weird noises then proceeded to belly flop on top of me until I gasped for air. Storm, my two year old German Shepherd, needed to be put on a diet or one of these days the fat baby was going to smother me in my sleep.
"Off!" I gasped and shoved at his large body with both of my hands.
Storm did as ordered and got off me. But he didn't get off the bed, instead he just rolled back over to his side - yes, my dog had a side of the bed - which was just typical. The only time he willingly moved was if it was breakfast time, lunch time, dinner time or pretty much any time he knew there would be food in it for him.
"You pathetic excuse for a guard dog," I muttered as the banging on my apartment door started up again.
Storm replied with another fart that had me opening the windows before I left my bedroom to proceed down the hallway to open my door. I stubbed my toe on one of Storm's doggy toys as I walked and cursed the person on the other side of the door for making me get out of bed - it was the middle of the night for God's sake!
"I'm comin', keep your knickers on!" I shouted when I reached my door and began unlocking all the locks. There were five of them in total because in the area where I lived, one lock was not enough. I switched on my hall light and jumped when the bulb blew, coating the hall in darkness once again. I sighed as I turned to my front door, even though I was pretty sure I knew who was on the other side, I still looked through the peephole just to be safe.
When I confirmed the noisy menace at my door was in fact my neighbour, I unlocked the final lock and pulled it open then harshly glared at the man who was stood before me. Mr. Pervert - his real name was Mr. Doyle - was a middle-aged man who was the CEO at Perverts 'R Us. The man was a major creep, and I hated that I answered the door to him dressed in nothing but my nightdress because it gave him free rein to ogle me with his ever-roaming eyes.
"Can I help you, Mr. Per-Doyle?" I asked, biting my tongue so I didn't laugh at almost calling him Mr. Pervert out loud.
He snapped his eyes up from gawking at my legs to my face and cleared his throat as he lifted his hand - a hand that contained one single envelope. I simply stared at the envelope for a moment then flicked my eyes up to Mr. Pervert and found his eyes weren't on my face anymore. I knocked on the outside of my door with my free hand which made him jump with fright and me inwardly snort. When his eyes were once again on mine, I nodded to the envelope in his hand and then raised my brows in a silent question.
He cleared his throat again before he said, "I've been away the last few weeks and found this in my mailbox when I got home a few moments ago. It is addressed to you, but has my apartment number on it instead of yours."
I wanted to punch him. I used the light from the hallway outside of my apartment to look back inside and lock my eyes on the clock hanging on the wall behind me, it was twenty past three in the morning.
Couldn't he have just waited till morning before he delivered it to me?
The bloody eejit!
I sighed as I turned back to Mr. Pervert, who was back to looking at my body. I reached out and gripped the envelope and gave it a little tug until Mr. Pervert released it.
"Thanks, I appreciate you goin' out of your way to make sure I get me post." I faked a smile and then pulled the hand that now held the envelope away until it was tucked safely behind my door - along with the rest of my body - so Mr. Pervert couldn't see me anymore.
He blinked a few times and looked at my face, because it was now all that he could see.
"It was no problem at all, sweetheart."
Sweetheart? No!
I smiled and nodded my head as I inched my door closed. "Good night."
"Good-" I closed the door before he could finish his sentence.
I shook off my shivers then I relocked all of the locks on and closed the bolt at the top of the door. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Mr. Pervert's footsteps trot back across the hall and into his own apartment where he closed the door behind him. I looked at the envelope in my hand and decided to open it because I was curious as to what was inside it. I couldn't see very well because the hallway was still dark but I knew it wasn't a bill, it didn't feel like the envelope bills came in, it was thicker. From what I had seen it looked nicer than a bill envelope. Fancier.
I headed into my kitchen that also doubled as my sitting room and flicked on the light. I tossed the envelope on the kitchen table and went to the counter drawers to look for my envelope cutter. I found it after only a second of looking, but had to put it down when I heard my phone ring from my bedroom. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.
Who the hell would be calling me at twenty past three in the morning?
"Aideen," I said out loud and headed in the direction of my bedroom.