Chapter 96

... Four months later...

So, Emma got settled in with Brent. She did visit about once a week or so and we had plenty of fun together (Brent included) just not as frequently as when she’d lived twenty feet away. Ah well. She also spoke to Jess (and, less frequently, me) on the phone nearly daily.

Mike, for his part, was the perfect neighbor. Jess thought him shockingly quiet and low-key for an eighteen-year-old living on his own for the first time. No parties, no loud music, no TV blasting, not even loud talking after 8 pm. Whenever Jess was coming home with groceries, Mike always seemed to see her car and would come running out to help her.

We had no way of knowing that he’d taken Emma’s comment about being a “good neighbor” very, VERY seriously. He was so excited to be out of his parent’s house that he wasn’t going to do anything that might jeopardize it. Emma had mostly said it as an inside joke, but it was no joke to Mike. He wasn’t sure how serious she was but with her subsidizing most of his rent, he was not going to take any chances at all. His quiet nature was ironic because Jess and I were rather noisy neighbors as was established way back in chapter one.

We met Liz about a month after Mike moved in. He was very nervous around us when she was there so we kept things rated PG for his behalf. Maybe he was afraid Jess would just whip a dildo out of her pocket at any minute or something. Not entirely an unfounded fear...

She was a nice enough girl and we could tell Mike really liked her. We, of course, knew the whole story about Mike, Liz, and Emma in the break-room, so we knew that Liz had a kinky streak too, but we liked Mike, so we tried not to stress him out when she was there. And we noted that she was staying over more and more frequently as of late. Good for him.

It was early winter, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when Emma called.

“Hey, I have some pretty big news to share with you guys,” she said.

“Really? What’s up?” Jess asked.

“I can’t tell you, it’s a secret. I have to show you. I’m going to text you an address. Can you and Aaron be there at 4 pm?” Emma asked.

“4? Sure, that should be ok. We’ll see you then!”

- - - -

Later that afternoon, Jess and I arrived at the address provided. It turned out to be a storefront downtown. The faded paint where the old signage was told us that it had, in a previous lifetime, been “Albert’s Hardware”.

The building was brick with a full-length glass front; we couldn’t see anything inside because all the windows were covered in brown craft paper. Waiting outside when we arrived were Liz and Mike. We parked on the street behind Liz’s Altima and got out.

“Hey, guys,” I said to them. “Anyone know what’s going on?”

“Nope,” Liz answered. “Just that Emma gave us the address and time to be here. I tried the door, but it’s locked.”

We didn’t have to puzzle over it much longer as Brent’s RAV-4 pulled up behind our car just after.

“Sorry, we’re late!” Emma said, hopping out of the passenger side door. “We had to get Bruiser squared away for dinner in case things ran late here.”

“No worries,” Jess said. “How ‘bout you tell us why we are all here?”

“How ‘bout I just show you?” Emma said, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the front door of the store.

She walked inside and flipped the light switch on the wall to the right of the door. Fluorescent lights hummed for a moment before kicking on and illuminating the large, open area. We’d been unable to gauge the size through the blocked windows but now, inside, we could see that the store was respectably large; I guessed around 6,000 square feet. The store was barren except for some empty shelving units and a dusty, worn sales counter at the front of the store.

“Tada!” Emma said, arms outstretched. We were all silent for a few moments.

Jess was the first person to speak with: “Huh?”

Emma explained.

“You are all standing in the new home of Russell Pet Supply!”

“Who’s ‘Russell’? Do I know him?” I asked. Emma frowned.

“Me. It’s my last name. Emma Russell. How did you not know that?” she said in exasperation.

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t think you ever told me or I ever asked. You are in my phone as ‘Emma Next Door’ even though you don’t live next door anymore.”

“ANYWAY,” Emma said loudly, getting back on point, “I am now the proud owner of this place. Well, proud leasee at any rate.”

“Emma,” Jess said, “That’s amazing. I’m so proud of you. But, I have to ask, how can you afford this place?”

“Yeah,” Liz added, “I know how much we both make!”

“Well,” Emma said, “I don’t talk about things much. Brent knows the story but the rest of you probably don’t. Hell, some of you didn’t even know my last name until two minutes ago” - she glowered at me as she said that - “but my parents were both killed by a drunk driver.”

She continued. “The driver, who’s in jail for another, oh, sixteen years or so now, was a wealthy lawyer with excellent insurance. The insurance settlement left me with over $1,000,000. Along with my parent’s inheritance, I have around $1.4 million in the bank.

“Holy SHIT, Emma!” Liz exclaimed. “How did I not know that?”

“‘Cuz I don’t tell anyone,” Emma said simply. “You all know that I work hard and live frugally. Obviously, people’s attitudes around me would change dramatically if they knew that I was filthy rich. I don’t need a bunch of fake friends looking to leach off of me. All of you are here because you are my true friends who didn’t want anything from me except friendship.”