To The Rude Guy in Apartment Five - J. S. Cooper Page 0,35
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 droppd 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