To The Rude Guy in Apartment Five - J. S. Cooper Page 0,33

new mini printer.” Olivia leaned forward. “You can print photos directly from your phone. It’s awesome. It’s pretty cheap as well.”

“I guess.” I made a face. “But that seems a bit provocative.”

“You want to shock him, right?” Jane said.

As I stared at the four girls next to me, I realized that she was right: I did want to shock him. I wanted to blow his mind. I wanted to wipe that smug look off his face once and for all. I wanted to have a conversation with him but not if he was going to try and act like everything was hunky-dory and all fun and games. I needed to see that he could be serious. He was thirty years old now; we weren’t children anymore. We’d had many great times as kids, but I’d matured in most ways. And even though I wanted to have some fun with Jagger, I wanted to make sure that it didn’t end up the way he had before.

“Okay, I’ll do it.” I pulled my credit card to pay my share of lunch. “I’ll leave my first note tonight.” I picked up my phone and placed it in my handbag. “I’ll let you guys know on Monday how it goes.” I looked at their surprised faces. “I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, and I’m interviewing some people the day after. I’m going to do some man-in-the-street interviews for the blog.” I bit down on my lower lip. “I’m a bit nervous, but Tate thinks it’s a good idea for me to go to the Mission and ask random people questions related to credit to see what the common man’s knowledge level is.”

“Oh, wow.” Millie sounded impressed. “That sounds cool. I guess that will help us figure out who our potential customers are.”

“Yeah.” Jane looked enthusiastic. “And who would be willing to pay for an app to help them get to an 800 credit score. Did I tell you that I told Tate I thought we should rename the app from Cool Credit to the 800 Club?”

“Ooh, no, but that sounds cool. What did he say?”

“He’s thinking about it,” Jane said. “He wants to do some A/B testing.”

“Oh, cool.” I looked at the time on my phone. “Oh, shit, we better get back. We’ve been gone an hour.”

“Jane can just give Tate a blowjob if he gets upset,” Olivia said, and we all laughed as she blushed.

“In his dreams.” She rolled her eyes as we all grabbed our credit cards and receipts and jumped up to head back to work.

“Magnolia, text us if anything exciting happens this weekend.” Millie grinned at me.

I just nodded, wondering what exactly she would classify as exciting.

Chapter Nine

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