-The Man Next Door-
Part 1
The neighborhood was a semi-upscale area of town but it wasn't Beverly Hills by any means. Selene had inherited the house she currently lived in 2 years ago after her mother had passed away.
She was an only child so there was no one with whom to divide her mother's belongings. Her mother had passed away after a long battle with Muscular Dystrophy.
Selene looked out the upstairs bedroom window as she pondered one of the last photos of her mother prior to her death as she still considered whether or not she wanted to continue to live in the house. Today would be extremely difficult for her being the 2nd anniversary of the death of her mother. She knew that she would probably go to the grave site, leave some flowers, say a few words and then return home only to find herself once again alone in the somewhat palatial home.
It was almost 9 AM which meant that she had spent way too much time standing around pondering things she could do nothing about.
Selene quickly gathered herself together, got dressed from her pajamas and went downstairs to the kitchen. The kitchen had always been one of her favorite rooms in the house. She liked to cook and therefore spent a lot of time in the room. It was very inviting. The kitchen was painted in light browns leafy greens, earth tones. The kitchen smelled of spices and other such cooking ingredients that she used regularly in her extravagant recopies.
She opened the fridge and then realized that she didn't feel much like eating so she took out a can of Coke instead.
"Nothing like a cold Coke to kick start the day" she said aloud to herself as she pattered around barefoot across the tile floor.
Selene sat at the small table for two by the window facing the house that had stood empty beside her for a few months. She noticed as she sipped the coke that some moving vans were parked in the driveway and that furniture was being moved into the house. She contemplated who her new neighbors would be, what they would be like and whether or not they would be desirable. She still hadn't forgotten the previous neighbors who had lived there with their yip yapping pocketbook dog that just wouldn't shut up-ever. She was glad to see them gone and their little dog too.
As she watched, she saw several nice pieces of furniture being carried into the house, a piano among other musical instruments and then a couch.
"Must be somebody with a lot of money" she said to herself as she took another sip of the Coke from the can. "Maybe a musician or something."
After about 20 minutes of watching, finally a sports car pulled up in the driveway. It looked like a Mercedes of some sort. Black with white leather interior, a 2 seater convertible.
"Very hot car" Selene chuckled to herself with anticipation that came out of nowhere.
Just at that moment she noticed what she considered to be at first glance, a reasonably attractive man. The hedges were in the way so she didn't get a very long glimpse of him before he disappeared into the garage that connected to the house next door.
Selene finished the Coke she had been drinking and then realized that most of her depression and even the remembrance of her mother had faded for a brief moment as she had watched the events next door. She felt somewhat bad about being so nosy and enthralled with what her new neighbors were doing as well as the fact that she had temporarily forgotten her sorrows. She felt as though she should still be grieving her mother's death and that it was wrong to move on just now.
"Dammit!" Selene snapped as she attempted again to start the car. It didn't want to start again and she had just replaced the battery last week! She persisted a few more times in an attempt to start the car with no success.
She had just wanted to drive to the cemetery, put some flowers on her mother's grave and come back home for the day. Maybe even watch the new neighbors some more. That was likely going to be the highlight of her day.
Selene pulled the hood latch under the dash and popped the hood on the 1990 Chevy she had been driving for the last several years of her life. She had no idea what could be wrong with it but she had known for a few years now that it had been time for a new car. She didn't expect to find anything but she figured taking a look around anyway couldn't hurt anything.
"Engine, radiator, wiper fluid, alternator, battery..." everything looked alright under there-which probably meant there was a problem.
"Hi, I just noticed that your car wasn't starting, did you need some help?" a man's voice ask.
Selene turned around from the car to see a somewhat tall man, slicked back hair tied into a ponytail dressed in a classy looking black outfit.
"I am just moving in today so I was on my way back inside the new house when I noticed you" he added to what he had just said to her.
"The car's old. I'll just have to have it towed and get somebody to look at it again. It's not been long since I put a battery in it. Last week as a matter of fact." Selene responded.
"Selene McHannoy" she said as she stepped away from the car and moved toward the man next door and extended her hand for a handshake.
"I'm Micky, Micky Dolenz" He said, smiling at her while shaking her hand. There was something comforting about that little squeeze he gave her hand before ending the handshake. She smiled at him.
"Well, Selene, I don't mean to be keeping you from whatever it was that you were intending on doing but since the car isn't running perhaps you could direct me to the nearest convenience store. We've been moving in since early this morning and we're about half starved."
"Oh, there's one just down the road about 4 blocks and around the corner on the right. You can't miss it." Selene said.
"I would offer to let you ride with me since I was going in that direction but...well, the car isn't running obviously." She said as she turned to look back at the car sitting in the driveway with it's hood up.
"Where was it that you needed to go?" Micky asked her, his look shifting from extremely happy to a look of compassion.
"I - I was just going to drive to the cemetery and then back home again." She answered not really wanting to share her problems with him just yet nor wanting to say anything depressing.
"The cemetery?" he said.
"Yes, I wanted to put some flowers on my mother's grave." she added.
"Well, that shouldn't take too long and I need a break from moving so what if you direct me to that little corner store and I take you by the cemetery?" Micky asked.
"Ok, since your car is running and it isn't too far, that sounds ok. It would help me out a lot." Selene said as she turned to get her plastic flowers out of the passenger seat of the non running Chevrolet sitting in the driveway.
Micky walked over to the Mercedes parked in his driveway, hopped in and waited for her to come over.
Selene popped through the hedges and got into the car with Micky.
"This is a really nice car you have." Selene said to Micky as they backed the Mercedes out of the driveway and began to go down the road.
"I just got it a few months ago. It's a 320 SLK." Micky said.
Micky continued "I lost the house but I managed to keep my car in the divorce settlement." he said with a little bit of sadness.
As the short ride continued Selene and Micky continued to talk. Micky had been recently divorced from his wife apparently because she just decided that she loved someone else. He seemed to still be hurting from this event in his life but nonetheless he had left his wife with the house and another vehicle as well as a decent amount of money to live from. Selene told Micky a bit about her life as well, about her mother, about the car, about daily life in the neighborhood. There was something oddly familiar about this man Micky. She couldn't put her finger on it but she felt as though she should know him or perhaps had met him. She just couldn't figure it out. In particular his voice seemed oddly familiar to her for an unknown reason. There was an apparent age difference between the two of them. She had sized him up to be somewhere between 55 and 60 years old although he was very handsome and well maintained for a man of that age while she herself, was 27.
"The cemetery is over the next hill on the left." Selene directed.
Micky pulled the car into the cemetery, slowly drove around the circle drive and stopped the car.
"Where should we go from here." he asked
"Over there." Selene pointed just ahead.
Micky drove the car further around the circle drive in the cemetery until Selene asked him to stop. At that point he turned the car off, got out and stood beside the car as though he were soaking up the California sun.
Selene walked to the grave site, placed the flowers in the vase on the grave and spent the next 5 minutes or so at the tombstone. She realized that a tear had escaped her eye and was rolling down her cheek. She quickly brushed it away as she turned around to walk back to the Mercedes.
As she got into the Mercedes, neither herself or Micky said a word to each other for a few minutes. Before starting the car Micky looked over toward her. Her head was turned away from him. She was intentionally looking out the window in the car rather than at him or straight ahead.
Micky realized that she was hurting and probably would like someone to talk to. He took her hand from her lap gently. She turned toward him almost surprised but a little shocked. She was at a loss for how to react.
"I know we were going to just grab something from that convenience store but would it be ok if we went somewhere a little nicer than that, maybe talk a little bit and get to know each other a little better since we're neighbors?" he asked in a sincere tone that she had never heard from a man before.
Selene almost stumbled the words out of her mouth. "Well, I suppose that would be alright. What kind of food were you wanting to eat?" She asked him
"What's close?" He responded as he started the car and drove out of the cemetery.
The two of them briefly discussed food and nearby eateries and settled on a little cafe about 4 miles from where they lived called The Coffee Bean. It was a nice little out of the way place with a calm serene atmosphere where you could go out to lunch and have quiet conversations without a lot of noise or background music. It smelled nice too.
Micky was enjoying his time away from moving into the house. After all he had hired some moving men to help out with the job and they should be just fine by themselves for a while. He was also secretly hoping that by it being only a little after 10:30 in the morning that perhaps The Coffee Bean would be empty and no one would run up to him asking him for an autograph. He suspected that Selene had no idea who he was, that he was a celebrity or even that he was a musician unless he had let that slip at some point during their earlier conversations.
The two of them ordered Chai lattes not intending to order the same thing-it just happened. They laughed about it and proceeded to order their lunch. Selene hadn't had anything to eat so far other than the Coke from earlier so she opted to order a flat bread sandwich while Micky ordered a sub.
Something caught Micky's attention on a nearby TV in the cafe, while he turned to look at that, Selene was looking at him. She was taking in every detail of his face, hair and style. She didn't want to let him know that she had become quite smitten with him at this point. She had no idea what it was about him that was so attractive to her since he was at least twice her age.
Micky turned back around after a minute or two of watching some little news blurb on TV. "So what is it that you do?" he asked her.
"I have a job as a part time singer at a local club. The rest of the time I try to be a writer but the singing job pays pretty well." she answered.
Micky looked a little surprised with that answer and almost told her that he too was a performer but refrained because he wanted to enjoy the innocence in the conversation a little longer before jumping right in and telling her about his past as a Monkee and a sort of teen idol of the 60s. He realized this was well before her time and he didn't want it to taint their friendship this early on.
"That sounds really interesting." Micky said. "What sort of stuff do you write about?" he continued.
"Mostly I write articles on local news items for a group of local newspapers but once in a while I get asked by local bands to review their latest CD." she said before beginning to suck the Chai latte through the straw and take a bite of her flat bread sandwich.
"I've been working on a novel-well, was working on a novel until a few years ago and I haven't been able to get in the mood to go back to that." she said.
As the conversation went on, Micky and Selene opened up a little more to each other. Micky told Selene about his marriage and divorce while Selene told him about her college days and then how she had dropped out of college to take care of her mother up until her death and then resumed online classes to finish her degree.
Micky realized that it was getting close to 11 which meant that there would be more people coming in for lunch. Up to this point, hardly anyone was in and out of the place. Mostly the local high schoolers who were out of school for the summer. He also realized that he had been doing more talking than eating and began eating the other half of the sub that he had ordered.
Just as he had that thought about it being nearly lunch time and people would be coming in, he noticed a couple of middle aged women looking in through the window. He tried not to turn toward them in an attempt to not be recognized but he just knew that it wasn't working.
"I think a pastry to go sounds really great" He said to Selene out of the blue.
"Mmmm hmmm, sounds really great she said as she chewed the last bite of her sandwich. I'll go get us some."She added.
Just at that moment Micky saw a way out.
"Selene, I think I left my wallet in the car, i'll be right back." he said as he got up, walked outside toward the two ladies who were peering into the window and hanging around outside the door. They were most likely waiting for him to come out because they didn't want to bother him while he was eating. They probably just wanted an autograph and a picture if they had a camera. It wasn't that he didn't want to be bothered by fans, it was just that he didn't want his fans to tip Selene off to his past as a Monkee just yet.
"Micky!" one of the two ladies screamed as he walked outside.
"Hello Ladies" he said back to them.
Both of the ladies nearly hung off him as they begged him for a moment of his time and an autograph. Once he had signed the autograph for them, talked with them very briefly and managed to get back into the Cafe he found Selene eating a pastry. She had apparently watched some of what had just happened outside.
"Something's up with him." She thought to herself.
"I already paid for us, we can go. Here's your pastry." She said as she handed him something wrapped in a wax paper."
"You paid for mine too?" Micky asked.
"Yeah, no problem. It's ok." Selene said with a smile.
"You know, that's probably the most you've smiled all day today." Micky noted. "You're a pretty girl when you smile." he added.
Selene blushed. "Thank you." she said.
Micky walked ahead of her and opened the door to the Mercedes for her then walked around behind the car to the other side and let himself in.
"I can't believe that your ex wife decided that she just didn't love you." Selene said out of nowhere. "You seem like a really sweet guy to me." she added.
"It's complicated." Micky said "And I would rather not talk about what happened with us any further...at least not now. Maybe at a later date whenever I can handle it and whenever I've had time to move past it."
"I'm sorry." Selene said.
"No, it's ok, you didn't know. Don't worry about it. I didn't mean to sound rude or anything whenever I said I didn't want to talk about it. It's more like i'm just not ready to talk about it." Micky said.
As the two of them drove back toward their homes Micky asked Selene about her car. "Would you like for me to take a look at your car later today after I get my stuff in the house?"
"If it isn't too much trouble, that'd be great. Especially if you can figure out what's wrong with it and save me the expense of having it towed and having a mechanic look at it." She responded.
The two of them finished out the ride home by discussing the problems of the car with Micky throwing out suggestions as to a diagnosis. Before they knew it, they were home. Micky parked the car in his driveway, put up the top and switched the vehicle off.
Selene had watched how the top of the Mercedes had popped up out of the trunk, came over the top of the car and automatically latched shut. The sheer wizardry of the mechanics of this amazed her for an odd reason. It was just neat to watch. In watching the top go up and just sitting there pondering it, she hadn't realized that Micky had gotten out of the car, walked around to her side and opened the door. By the time she actually came out of her temporary brain fart, she felt a little embarrassed. Micky's hand was extended toward her as he looked down at her with those big brown eyes smiling at her.
She took his hand in getting out of the car and stepped out. That gentle squeeze was still there from earlier. She liked something about his hands too. He felt strong, yet gentle.
"I hope you wouldn't be offended if I were to walk you home." Micky said as he looked at her and grinned sheepishly.
"No, not at all." Selene said still holding his hand partly intentionally.
This time Selene walked around the hedges rather than through them into her driveway and to her front door with Micky beside her.
"I've had a nice time today." She said before going into the house.
"Me too." Micky answered smiling. "It felt good to go out with someone and just have a nice conversation and make a new friend.
"I'll come back say...around 5 or 6 this evening to take a look at your car. Maybe earlier if I finish moving things into the house." He said as he turned to leave her doorstep.