Rancor: Sinister Attachments, Book 1 (Haunted)

TWELVE

"I'm never drinking again," Maggie said, adjusting the sunglasses she had borrowed from Jess. "And thanks for letting me use these shades, my eyes are rather sensitive today."

Jess laughed as she pulled up to the sidewalk leading to the entry of Sandpiper Bluff. "I take it you're not going to church this morning, and no problem, you can keep them. I have another pair I like better anyway." Jess looked at the building and cringed. "Do you want me to go in with you?" 

Maggie opened the car door and got out. "That won't be necessary."

Jess waved as she drove away. Maggie felt woozy as she walked up to the double doors and inside the vestibule. She decided to look into the cloudy window of her mailbox to see if there was any mail in it, but as expected there was not. She unlocked the door and went inside the building. Glancing over at the superintendent's office, she hoped to see Mr. Zimmerman so that she could ask about getting a better lock for her apartment door, but he was not there.

Other than the sound of her shoes scuffing on the steps as she walked up to the second floor, the building was quiet. As she walked to her apartment, Bruce's door opened.

"Oh, hi, Maggie," Bruce said. He moved the garbage bag he was holding to his other hand and raised his eyebrows. "Do you feel okay?"

Maggie knew she looked awful. She had not showered, had bed head, and she still was wearing Jess's sunglasses. She stopped and looked at him. He wore a white T-shirt, blue denim jeans, and his black hair was swept neatly up from the forehead. She took the sunglasses off and smiled. "I'm fine, just had a little too much to drink last night."

"I have just the cure for that," he said, opening his door wider. "Come on in and I'll get you fixed up."

"That's all right, but I think I'll just go take a nap." Then she remembered she was out of aspirin. "You wouldn't happen to have any aspirin would you?"

"I have a whole bottle of pills. Come inside and I'll get them for you."

Maggie thought she had to get to know the guy anyway, so she might as well follow him inside apartment 20A. She looked at his lock on the way inside; it looked the same as hers. "The locks in this place are old; do you have to use a skeleton key?"

"No, not a skeleton key," he said, gesturing for Maggie to sit at the chrome dining table. His apartment was different from hers. The kitchen was the first room walked into; the living room was beyond that—it was larger than hers with south and west-facing windows—and the bathroom and bedroom were to the left.

Bruce walked to the bathroom and returned with a bottle of aspirin. He drew a glass of water and sat both the bottle and water in front of her on the Formica tabletop. Then he filled the teakettle with water and sat it on the stove's burner. "Chamomile tea with honey will cure that hangover of yours."

Maggie swallowed the aspirin. She did not want to stay, but he was already heating the water. "Maybe one cup."

He pulled out a turquoise vinyl covered cushioned chair and sat at the table across from her. "Are you liking it here?"