The Boy Next Door (25 page)

To: [email protected]

From: Mel Fuller

Subject: The truth

You tell me you want me to open my door and let you in, but the fact is, I don’t know who “you” are. I don’t even know your last name. Do you realize that?

And you might as well quit knocking, because I am not letting you in. For all I know, you could be an escaped convict or married or something.

Mel

To: Mel Fuller

From: John Trent

Subject: The truth

I’m not married, and I’m not an escaped convict. My name is John Trent, and I’m a crime reporter for the
New York Chronicle
. That’s why you ran into me by the sinkhole that day—I was at work when it happened.

And I know how you feel about the
Chronicle
, but Mel, I swear to you, if it bothers you that much, I’ll quit. I’ll do anything, anything you want, if you’ll forgive me.

John

To: Mel Fuller

From: Nadine Wilcock

Subject: Well?

Did you call him? Has he apologized?

More importantly, HAS HE GIVEN YOU THE RING YET?

Nad

To: Nadine Wilcock

From: Mel Fuller

Subject: The apology

Oh, he apologized, all right. For what it’s worth.

And no, he hasn’t given me the ring yet. If it even is a ring. Which I doubt.

And as if I’d even take it, if it was.

Get this: You know who he is? You know who he really is? You’ll never guess.

Go on. Try. Try to guess who he really is.

Mel

To: Mel Fuller

From: Nadine Wilcock

Subject: How am I supposed

to know who he really is? He can’t be the transvestite killer, I know that, since they just arrested a guy for that. He’s not, oh, I don’t know, a professional mime, or something, is he?

Oh, wait, I know: He’s your long-lost illegitimate brother.

Just kidding.

Come on, Mel, how bad can it be?

Nad

To: Nadine Wilcock

From: Mel Fuller

Subject: Bad

Worse than a mime. Worse than my illegitimate brother.

He’s a reporter. With the
Chronicle
.

Mel

To: Nadine Wilcock

From: George Sanchez

Subject: Where the hell

is Fuller? She better not be in the ladies’. I swear to God, I’m beginning to think there’s somebody in there serving lattes, you all spend so much time locked in those damned stalls….

Go in there and tell her I want that story on the Ford/Flockhart breakup by five.

George

To: George Sanchez

From: Nadine Wilcock

Subject: Show a little compassion, will you?

She just found out her boyfriend is a reporter with the
Chronicle
. She’s been crying her eyes out ever since. You can’t expect her to snap back like it was nothing.

Please don’t tell anyone about it, either, all right? She’s in a very fragile emotional state right now. What she needs is closure, and she’s not going to get it if everybody keeps hounding her for an explanation as to why her eyes are so red.

Nad

To: Tim Grabowski

From: Jimmy Chu

Subject: Mel Fuller

I told you it wasn’t going to work out between the two of them.

Jim

To: Jimmy Chu

From: Tim Grabowski

Subject: Mel Fuller

No, what you actually said was that if she slept with him and it didn’t work out, she was going to have to see him every day, since he lives right next door, and that that would be very awkward. You did not actually predict this breakup.

Sorry, no points for you.

Tim

To: Stella Markowitz

From: Angie So

Subject: Mel Fuller

I told you he was too old for her.

Angie

To: Angie So

From: Stella Markowitz

Subject: Mel Fuller

It’s not his age that matters. It’s the fact that he’s—did you hear the latest?—a reporter for the
Chronicle
.

Yes, the
Chronicle
!

Can you believe it? Talk about sleeping with the enemy.

Stella

To: Adrian De Monte

From: Les Kellogg

Subject: Mel Fuller

Did you hear? It turns out that guy Mel’s been so crazy about is a reporter. With the
Chronicle
, no less.

I guess it could have been worse. He could have turned out to
be sleeping with Barbara Bellerieve all along, like the last guy she went out with.

Les

To: Nadine Wilcock

From: George Sanchez

Subject: Mel Fuller

I don’t care if it turns out the guy’s on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list: She’s going to have to come out of that bathroom and deal with him, because he’s downstairs by the security desk, trying to get signed in. Go get her.

George

To: [email protected]

From: Mel Fuller

Subject: John Trent

Please do not allow John Trent access to this building. He is a reporter with the
Chronicle
, in addition to being a very dangerous individual. I strongly encourage the use of force in removing him from the building.

Melissa Fuller

Page Ten Columnist

New York Journal

To: Mel Fuller

From: Amy Jenkins

Subject: John Trent

Dear Ms. Fuller,

Please note that in the future, requests for individuals to be made personae non gratae in any building falling under the administrative management of the
New York Journal
must be made in writing through Human Resources, where they will be reviewed and then passed on to the security department, if deemed valid.

Additionally, you will find that the cost of the rubber tree plant destroyed outside the fifth-floor elevator bank will be deducted from your next paycheck. This is due to the fact that the individual to whom this destructive act was ascribed was apparently an acquaintance of yours. Please note that in section E, page twelve, of the
New York Journal
employee handbook, it is stated that employees are at all times responsible for their guests, and that any damage incurred by said guest is the responsibility of the employee by whom he/she was signed in.

You should consider yourself fortunate that you are not being charged for the cost of reconstructing the cubicle into which your guest threw Mr. Spender. We have chosen to send the bill for that to Mr. Trent himself.

Might I suggest that it would behoove you to conduct your romantic affairs well outside the administrative offices of this newspaper?

A copy of this letter has been inserted into your permanent personnel file.

Have a nice day.

Amy Jenkins

Human Resources Representative

New York Journal

To: Mel Fuller

From: Dolly Vargas

Subject: John Trent

Darling, how was I to know? I mean, there he was, standing there in the lobby with that dejected look on his face, and all those roses. Why, it was enough to break the heart of…

Well, even
me
.

And I know what you’re going to say: “Dolly,
you
have a heart?”

Surprising, but true. Sometimes I surprise even myself. Why, just the other day, I turned Peter loose, and told him quite firmly to go back to his wife. And the fact that I heard a little rumor that his employment contract wasn’t going to be renewed didn’t have a thing to do with it.

Anyway, it wasn’t as if Security hadn’t gotten your memo. About John, I mean. They said it came just moments after my signing him in.

Really, sweetie, what harm did I do? So he pestered you a little. I for one quite enjoyed the performance. You have to admit, he was impassioned, for a blue blood. I think Aaron’s going to lose several of his teeth. Well, the silly nudge shouldn’t have tried to stop him from getting to your cubicle like that.

Still, it is always so delicious to have two men fighting over one, isn’t it?

But do you really think it was wise to throw that Tiffany’s box he tried to give you back at him? There’s no telling what might have been in there. With his kind of money, it was probably three carats, at least.

I do hope you aren’t going to be as unforgiving toward me as you’re being toward that unfortunate young man.

XXXOOO

Dolly

To: Dolly Vargas

From: Mel Fuller

Subject: John Trent

Dolly—

What did you mean when you wrote “blue bloods”? And what money? John doesn’t have any money. All of his credit cards are maxed out. You must be mistaking him for somebody else.

Mel

To: Mel Fuller

From: Dolly Vargas

Subject: Au contraire

You are too precious. Are you trying to tell me you don’t know that your John is one of the Park Avenue Trents?

I thought that was why you were so angry with him—I mean, aside from the whole pretending-to-be-Max-Friedlander thing. After all, he introduced you to his grandmother at that Lincoln Center benefit you reported on last month.

Although now that I think of it, I suppose he didn’t tell you she was his grandmother, did he? On account of his pretending to be Max.

Oh, dear. No wonder you’re so angry. He did make a bit of a fool of you, didn’t he? His credit cards were maxed out, he said? Well, I’m sure he only told you that so he wouldn’t have to pull one out. His cover would have been blown for sure if that had happened, don’t you think? Supposing you see the John Trent on his Platinum AmEx, instead of the Max Friedlander you were expecting?

I have to admit, it’s a typical Trent trick. You know half their clan is in jail—John’s own father among them. And the rest of them are in rehab. Goodness, what chance did a small-town girl like you have among them? John’s the worst, from what I hear—he got a job as a crime reporter so he could go “slumming” whenever he felt like it, and not arouse suspicion that he’s one of “them.” The Park Avenue Trents, I mean. Why, I hear from Victoria Arbuthnot, who used to go out with him, you know, that he’s even pretending to be working on a novel.

Poor little Mel. You should have kept the Tiffany’s box. Whatever was in it, you deserve it, for all embarrassment he’s put you through.

Oh, well. I hear there’s a sale at Barney’s. Want to go? I’ll buy you a scarf. It might cheer you up….

XXXOOO

Dolly

To: Nadine Wilcock

From: Mel Fuller

Subject: That’s it.

This is war.

He thinks just because he’s a Trent of the Park Avenue Trents, he can trick people and use them for his own amusement and get away with it?

Not this time. Nobody goes slumming with a Fuller of the Lansing, Illinois, Fullers.

Nobody.

John Trent is about to get what’s coming to him, but good.

Mel

To: Mel Fuller

From: Nadine Wilcock

Subject: I almost hesitate to ask,

but what are you talking about?

This doesn’t have anything to do with Dolly, does it? I mean, Mel, consider the source before you do anything rash.

Nad

To: Nadine Wilcock

From: Mel Fuller

Subject: It’s easy for you to talk

You weren’t the one worrying about how much money he was spending, and how he was ever going to get out of debt.

You weren’t the one who introduced yourself to his grandmother and didn’t even know that’s who she was.

You weren’t the one who bragged about him to your mother.

You weren’t the one who thought that finally, at last, you’d met that rarest of all things, a man who wasn’t afraid of commitment, a man who seemed utterly and sincerely devoted to you, a man who was completely different from all the other men you’d ever dated before, a man who didn’t lie, didn’t cheat, who seemed genuinely to love you.

You weren’t the one whose heart got completely stomped on.

But, never fear. I am a reporter, Nadine. I always check my sources before I run with any story.

Mel

To: John Trent

From: Aaron Spender

Subject: Pending lawsuit

Dear Mr. Trent:

This letter serves to inform you of my intention to pursue litigation against you for the pain and suffering, as well as the medical costs, incurred when you struck me in the face in my place of employment.

It might interest to you know that as a result of your vicious and unprovoked attack, I have already endured extensive dental surgery, which will require additional follow-up, I am informed, in the form of two dental implants through the course of multiple visits over a twelve-month period at a cost in excess of $10,000.

Moreover, to insure that such an incident is not repeated, my counsel advises that I also pursue a restraining order against you, which I can assure you I am pursuing.

I am encouraging Miss Fuller to do the same, as it was in her defense that I first laid hands upon you. It was quite clear that Miss Fuller did not welcome your advances, and I personally consider you a coward and a cad to have confronted her in such a manner in her place of work.

Furthermore, I happen to hold a brown belt in tae kwon do, and it was only due to my concern of injuring innocent bystanders that I did not give you the thrashing you so roundly deserved.

Aaron Spender

Senior Correspondent

New York Journal