The Neighbor #3 (The Neighbor #3) (4 page)

“I am sure it’s edible. The house didn’t burn
down, which is a good sign. Mom, I do have one question.”

“Okay. What is it, Jenna?” my mother asked.

“Why are you wearing a skirt to make dinner
and take the dog for a walk? It wouldn’t be odd, but you are normally in
sweats.”

“Because I never know who I will run in to.
Have you seen Mr. Simmons lately? The man is getting in shape again. I’m just
testing the waters—I’m not dead yet.” My mother smiled as she walked out the
door.

I noticed Ryder’s lights go on as I set the
table for dinner. I pulled closed the curtain so as not to keep an eye on him.
It was my intention to have dinner with my mother, which was a rare event. I
decided to try to sleep and approach the next day with a positive attitude. I
had forgotten how to set a proper table. For years, my father was too ill to
eat at the table and then my mother drank at dinner alone. Ryder’s house was
the last place I had eaten a home cooked meal.

My thoughts wandered back to the first night
we ate together on his backyard patio. I hardly knew him, but the feelings were
strong. It was the night I gave him a blowjob. It seemed like a long time ago.
Back then, it was merely an infatuation, and now it was so much more. If he had
not thrown up a roadblock, I would have been with him on that night. Perhaps we
would have finally finished watching a movie—but probably not.

My mother snapped me back to the present when
she walked in the door. Although, it wasn’t a walk at all; it was a skip.
Potato hobbled in behind her. They both appeared out of breath.

“Good walk, Mom? If I’m not mistaken you seem
to have broken a sweat.”

“I had a great walk. Claude Simmons was out
for his jog, which he made into a brisk walk when he saw Potato and me. We
started to chat. The man is very funny and he tells a great joke, which I think
is a dying art. Tomorrow, I am back to sweat pants.”

“You have great legs Mom. Why cover them up?
As we age, we should know our assets and show them off,” I said.

“First of all, Jenna, you know nothing about
aging yet. Secondly, I am taking a jog with Claude Simmons. I may even head down
to the discount store and pick up a new pair of appropriate pants.” My mom
smiled.

Finally, a diversion from
my
obsession with Ryder.

“You are not going to a discount store Mom. We
are heading to the mall to hook you up with the latest
athleisure
-wear
and we will drop the cruller from your head. I have no idea why you have worn
you hair the same since I was a little girl. I knew you had it in you.”

“It’s not an official date, Jenna. It’s just a
jog.”

“It’s more than I have on my weekend agenda.
Let’s eat some chicken”

It was a chore to nibble through my mother’s
chicken. Despite her giant and obvious flaws, she was trying. I excused myself
from the table, leaving the dishes until the morning. The night view from the
sink was similar to the one on the toilet upstairs. I could not bear to watch
Ryder.

I made it up to bed and skipped the shower out
of Ryder avoidance. My sleep sucked. Knowing Ryder was next door and couldn’t
see me for an unexplained reason caused me to toss and turn the entire night. I
started to think the reason for his retreat was cancer. We never talked about
his disease in detail. I was clueless about when he received treatment or how
often. It was morose, but I almost wished it
was
his
cancer. In a way, it would be less hurtful than another woman would. Cancer was
only one of the scenarios I played through my head. It was a long night.

****

Finally, the sun peaked through my blinds. I
could hear my mother from the kitchen. If things worked out with Claude
Simmons, I would be happy for her. There would be at least one Walsh woman
getting lucky. I sighed and made my way to the kitchen.

“You are up early Mom. What’s the occasion?” I
said.

My mother was doing the dinner dishes from the
night before, which was out of character.

“Let me do the dishes. I always do the
dishes—which usually entails throwing away the plastic trays or fast food
containers.”

“No, Jenna. I will do the dishes.”

My mother was insistent on doing the chore,
which she hated. She even physically pushed me away from the sink.

“What the hell Mom? Are you spying on Ryder
for me?” I said jokingly.

I walked to the sink and looked out the
window. What I saw was shocking, especially at 7:30 in the morning. In Ryder’s
yard, a woman was playing with a young boy. Ryder was walking out of his home
carrying two cups of coffee. It looked ideal, as everyone was smiling and
laughing.

“Wow. Are you enjoying this Mom? The perfect
family has moved in next-door.”

“I left your relationship with the professor
up to you, Jenna. You said yourself that there were things you were still
discovering about Ryder.”

“It sounds as if you have seen that woman
before. Have you?” I asked.

“She is there about every other weekend.
Sometimes I just see the boy. They look like a happy family, Jenna, and I
didn’t say anything because it is something you had to see for yourself.”

“What I see is sickening. Ryder was dreaming
to think I wouldn’t find out. You are his next-door neighbor and of course you
would see him and report back to me.”

My mom was glad that the coffin of our
relationship was being nailed shut. She also felt pity for me as a woman. No
one deserved to find out that a man was cheating. Seeing it with my own eyes
was a gut punch.

“Mom, I am going to go lay down. I’m afraid
our trip to the mall will have to wait. Have a great time on your jog with
Claude. I am beyond embarrassed and if you say
I told you so
, I’ll hit
ya
– I might kill
you.”

I pounded up the stairs. I paused between my
bedroom door and the bathroom. I chose the bathroom with a clear view of
Ryder’s house and yard. I sat on the toilet, cracked open the clouded window
and sobbed. I had a front row seat to Ryder and his companion’s frolic on the
lawn below.

The woman was probably Ryder’s age, if not a
bit older. She was taller than I was at about 5’8”. Compared to my 5’3”, she
was an amazon. She had blonde-hair like me, but it was short. She was very fit
and strong and looked as if she were an athlete – maybe a golfer. Ryder had
mentioned Robin Wright from
Princess
Bride
and
House of Cards
as his
Hollywood crush. She resembled her.

The boy was younger than my nephew, who served
as my measuring stick. He was between seven and nine. They had set up a mini
Frisbee golf course on the lawn, which looked like fun. The trio seemed very
comfortable together as though they had been acquainted for a very long time.
Ryder had been lying for a while. This was not a one-night stand.

I began to have a panic attack. I called
Sayler and went to search my mother’s cupboards for a container of frosting.

Chapter
Five

I put my phone on speaker as I rifled through
my mother’s pantry for some sugar-laden goo. The shelves were filled with
processed food and a bevy of outdated items. I became distracted with the task
of cleaning it out. I pulled the trashcan close to me and tossed tuna, kidney
beans, envelopes of soup mix, crackers, and other sundries. Much of the stuff
was close to ten-years old. It was too old for the food-drive and there was
quite a bit of molded stuff that I was unable to identify. I finally came across
a can of
Betty Crocker’s
finest –
double chocolate supreme. My mom probably bought it to frost store bought
cupcakes when I was a child. She had forgotten it, along with most everything
else during those years. Finally, Sayler answered my call. I had to leave four
messages before she picked up. I knew she would pick up when curiosity got the
best of her.

“Okay. Clearly, you need to talk to your BFF.
I’m surprised that you remembered my number,” Sayler said with a touch of
bitterness.

“Speed dial,” I quipped.

“Good thing for that. So what’s up?”

“I know you think that I am calling you now
that I need some rescuing. And, it’s true. Will you come to my mom’s house? I’m
a complete wreck as I sit here eating frosting from the tub with a spoon.”

“I guess. Get another spoon ready. I’ll bring
along a couple of pints of ice cream for back-up and a box of wine if you need
it.”

“Let
yourself
in,” I
said as I dug into my frosting.

****

I sat in the kitchen waiting for Sayler. I
tried to avoid peering out the window, but I could hear giggles and laughs
emanating from Ryder’s yard. It was tortuous so I flipped on my mother’s sound
system. It wasn’t my musical taste but it helped drown out the joyous sounds
next-door. My mom preferred country music so I listened to Tim McGraw, Luke
Bryan, Brad Paisley and others whom I wasn’t familiar with.

“Hey, Jenna.
You don’t look so bad—although I don’t get
the country music. Is that something Ryder has gotten you into?” Sayler
arrived. She was not up to date regarding Ryder and me, but she clearly knew
something was amiss.

I pointed to the window in the kitchen.

“Look outside and you will see. It’s my Ryder,
or at least I thought he was mine, and another woman and a kid. They are
playing house for the weekend right under my nose,” I said.

“I have some catching up to do. I see Ryder
and he is…hot. He looks younger than thirty-three. I can see why you sucked his
dick. He looks yummy.” She turned to face me. “Okay, so I need you to catch me
up. I know that he is your professor and that you had a planned to continue
your relationship, plus it was to be kept a secret, and it was all hunky dory.”

“Yeah, Sayler, I thought it was great. The age
factor is a non-issue and we were learning to deal with keeping everything on
the down-low,” I said. I paused to open a pint of coffee ice cream and I
squirted it with some fudge out of a squeeze bottle.

“Well, Jenna, what the hell happened to this
nirvana that you guys created?”

“You’re looking at it, Sayler. Heaven has
rapidly disintegrated into hell. Ryder surprised me with the fact that he was
unable to see me this weekend and he gave no explanation. I come to my mom’s
house and see him with some chick and a brat. He has probably been leading this
double life since the beginning. He seems to be comfortable with the woman, and
especially the kid with whom he is very affectionate.”

“Have you had sex with the guy?”

“No, not really.
Just oral sex.
Outside of the bedroom, I thought we had really bonded since we expressed our
feelings towards one another.”

“Has he used the “L” word?” Sayler asked.

“No, but it is definitely implied. We haven’t
had to say it. Now, I feel like a fool for even thinking it.”

“Hold on Jenna, Let me grab the wine. What
time is it?” Sayler asked.

“Too early to drink, so pour me a big glass,”
I said.

“Did he give any hint that he may be cheating
or have an entire family?” Sayler pounded her glass of white wine and pulled
the spout to pour another.

“He was secretive when we first started seeing
each other. I found out what I thought was his big secret—he has cancer.”

Sayler was shocked. “He has fucking cancer?
When did you find out about this tiny morsel of information?”

“It was about a week ago. I happened upon his
stash of medications, which I knew from my father’s ordeal, that they were
cancer drugs. I don’t know if he is in the late stages of recovery or the early
stages of death,” I said to a stupefied Sayler. She had been my friend for most
of my life and I knew she did not shock easily.

“Jenna, I think he feels trapped and he is
fucking scared that his time is running out. You are young and the whole
secretive thing is probably a distraction. He is trying to soak up as much sex
and companionship as he can get. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I can
hardly blame him,” Sayler said.

“Bitch.
I am looking for a shoulder to cry on. You are taking Ryder’s side?”

“Relax, Jenna. I’m not taking sides. I think
you should be talking to Ryder and not me.”

“Okay Sayler,” I said sarcastically. “Why
don’t I walk over to him and his sweetie and apologize for intruding but I just
wanted to say hello. Why don’t I throw together some of my mom’s outdated food
and make them a casserole?”

“There’s an idea, but why don’t we just have
another drink instead? Your mom’s garden, if that’s what she calls the mess of
weeds out back, needs attention. I say we hit the project and you can take out
some of your aggressions.”

“You suggest I face my problems head on?” I
asked.

“We will be in full view of Ryder. It’s not
like you to hide. Let’s get dirty.”

It sounded like a plan. “I will pull on a pair
of jeans. Pick out some killer tunes. We’ll get good and dirty.”