Play The Part (Player Next Door Book 3)

53 | Heartbreak

This chapter is coming out accidentally a day early haha.  I totally thought we were one day ahead of where we were and panicking to get this out on time... 

Surprise!  To us all... hehe...

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Chapter 53: Heartbreak

*Luke's POV*

I turned away from Ripley's window and ran down the concrete steps, mired in green weeds that grew between the cracks. His house was near stores and a busier high street just round the corner, I could easily get away before he found me.

Wait.

What the hell happened to me?

Running away from a middle-aged man...

Spying through a living room window and getting caught doing it...

I stopped.

Fuck, I'm Minnie.

My shoulder collided with someone – a woman with a bag of groceries in hand, coming up the path I had just come down. The impact made her drop her brown paper bag.

"Ow, watch out!" she exclaimed, staring down at her groceries spilling out of the bag.

A carton of milk and bag of chips had landed close to my sneakers. I handed them over to her and, when she accepted it from me, I felt her entire posture change.

I didn't need to look at her to know why.

This happens.

They get all timid and smiley. They linger a little too close for a little too long.

It doesn't happen all the time, but enough for me to know when someone has looked at me... and liked what they saw.

Time to get out of here, for more reasons than one.

I got up, not saying anything, except to leave.

"Are you new here?" she called out to me, scrambling up with her worn out paper bag on its last legs, "I'm in apartment 3C."

"No."

I took a few steps, before realizing that she was a valuable resource. "Do you know the guy who lives there?"

She turned back to me, surprised that I was initiating conversation. She followed my hand to the window I was pointing to.

"Old man Ripley?"

Sure.

"Not really, he's kind of a loner," she shrugged, shuffling the weight of her grocery bag from one hip to another, "The landlord tried to kick him out a couple years ago, but he refused, saying he has family nearby. Crazy but they let him stay."

Now that hits.

"You!" a burly voice boomed.

We both looked at the front door, which had now been ripped open by an agitated M. Ripley. The man himself. Surprisingly tall.

What's his first name?

There's already one M. Ripley I know of. The world can't handle two.

"Hey, wrong house," I said, waving my hand as if to dismiss the conversation.

I tried to remember him.

He used to be my neighbor, but I have no real memory of him. I only vaguely remembered Millie and Flora growing up, but never paid attention to the neighbor's house until... the laptop incident.