A newly married couple finished packing up the last few boxes for the night, having already stayed up far later than reasonable. Not that either could sleep. They got the keys to the dream house tomorrow. They had been building it the past year and a half. It would’ve been finished sooner but with a layoff, progress had been delayed. They knew they were fortunate. No real college debt, a sizable inheritance, being passed a familial business, and some serious wedding gifts had put the couple into an extremely lucrative position. Even the contractor commented as he dropped the new keys into the wife’s outstretched hand.
“Be careful. Some people don’t like to see others so blessed.” The couple would’ve questioned it had the doorbell not made them jump a foot. It was loud and unfamiliar. They laughed it off and went to see who their first guest could be. The tall, lanky man at the other side of the door was unfamiliar, but his wide smile and large gift basket afforded him an invitation in for thanks and a brief chat. The contractor lingered. The couple noticed as did their new neighbor. The couple and neighbor quickly fell into a familiar report and soon, the contractor was gone, and the sunken sun shown them they needed to be as well.
Moving day was strange. The couple’s normally boisterous friends were notably stern and mute. It was like everyone was hungover. No one drank the beer they provided, or really touched the water more than they had to. Not a single person stayed to eat as had been planned months ago. Most didn’t even give an excuse, leaving their hushed and hurried behavior to tell the story. The few that did explain, only seemed to do so as a means to excuse themselves from the official housewarming party the following day. The only enthusiasm they saw was from their neighbor who passed through briefly to offer a hand with some larger pieces of furniture.
They laid in bed that night. Exhausted. Tense. Wide awake despite all the efforts of the day. They talked briefly about it. The strangeness of the day having been completely overshadowed the night they should be enjoying. Rejoicing in. Both eventually excused it all away to coincidence and sensitivities. The next day however, could not be denied. Not a single friend that helped them move in showed up for the party. A few friends texted their half heart apologies, but as a whole, it was again overshadowed by the happenings of who did show up. Less than half of those invited showed. No one stayed more than an hour. By midafternoon, the dejected couple sat on their new sofa contemplating what to do with the pounds of uncooked food they no longer had to grill. The husband sent a few stern texts while his wife excused herself under the guise of looking for an item; instead, she went to the other side of the house to cry.
Neither of them talked about it. They hung out in bed their first few months in the house. Plans for decorating the new home felt pointless. None of their good friends, actually none of any type of friends would come by.
“Maybe it’s like he said. Some people don’t like to see others be blessed.”
They held each other, neither saying anything. Which is how the first few months in the house passed along. More and more the two kept to themselves, eventually barely even speaking to one another. They occupied themselves with work, not even socializing there. In fact, the only regular interactions they had was with the nice neighbor who would stop on occasion to chat with either or both of them in passing.
One night, the wife received a text from an old friend that had been living abroad for the past year for work obligations. She was thrilled that the friend immediately invited herself to visit the couple and see their new house for herself. When she told her husband, it was as if they going to have the elated housewarming they had been robbed of. They spent the whole week cleaning, decorating and just unpacking. They even took off time from work so excited and renewed to have someone to share this with. When their old friend arrived, the gloom lifted and they were delighted at her stay, until it came to the last night of her visit.
After dinner and several bottles of wine, the friend reluctantly told the couple why all their friends had dropped them. Everyone had told her that the couple proved quite snobbish during the move and word spread to the other friends. The old friend didn’t believe it and had decided to see them directly. When they pressed her, it came out. The helpful neighbor had been quietly telling their friends pretentious and horrendous things about the couple as they moved in. Things that ranged from implying the couple was only using the group for help, to them wanting to upgrade their friends to match the new house. The couple didn’t even exchange a glance. Both felt heavy with the weight of similar experiences with the neighbor, seemingly benign statements implying things that had caused them to question the other and inevitably drift. It left the couple flabbergasted and the old friend was thankfully too curious to let the matter drop.
“I can see where everyone was coming from, like why would this random man lie. All I know is that you two have been my friends long enough you deserved the benefit of the doubt.”
Not much was said afterward. The couple was sad to have their only house guest leave, but they felt some relief at an explanation, but the creepiness of it only just began to sink in. The morning after seeing their old friend off, the husband marched right up to the neighbor’s house and pounded on the door until the adjoining neighbor poked her head out.
“Sorry Hunny, that house is going to be for sale! Only person in and out of there is the realtor.”
His blood went cold as he nodded and thanked her, barely able to cross the street back to his wife. The house wasn’t listed. No realty companies claimed the property. He called more than six realty agencies in the area inquiring. He was waiting on some information back from the city regarding the ownership. Then the wife had an idea. She called their contractor and managed to get the lead manager that had seen the ‘neighbor’ before disappearing that day. After a lot of unhinged explanations and the husband joining in on the call, the picture became very clear.
“Yeah, that guy hung around the job site constantly. Your house is worth a shit ton of money, and I know that guy from different jobs. He capitalizes on newly divorced couples. I’ve watched this man poach properties from at least six jobs I’ve run. Our company deals in some pretty high-income clientele. The owner is convinced this guy follows our trucks around to get leads on properties before other realtors can get the listing. I had a feeling this is the type of guy that makes his own luck. He watched us build your house like a hungry animal. I wouldn’t put anything past him. Let me know if you need a statement for the cops or whatever, I really got to go, my wife is waiting on me. I hope this helps.”
The two barely thanked him as they stared on shell shocked. Nothing had been a coincidence. Neither was sure what to do or even what to think about it. They didn’t get the chance to, a familiar shadow passed grabbing their attention just before the doorbell rang. The husband went over to the door and invited their ‘faux’ neighbor inside. The wife stared on mildly horrified but completely intrigued as her husband engaged him as if nothing they learned happened. She said nothing as she watched him engaged the man in lively conversation, pouring him glass after glass of wine till he could no longer stand.
Then, her husband’s face change to a sinister sneer she hadn’t known him capable of as he hunched over the man.
“We hear you like to make a killing on recently divorced realty lechery. Well, in all your times chatting me up, you never did ask what I do.”
The wife’s heart thudded to a staggered pause as her husband laughed throatily. The man slurred wildly, barely able to keep his eyes open as he struggled to turn and face her. Not that either of them was concerned. He was barely able to sit up. The couple exchanged a glance, immediately turning when they heard the thud of the neighbor faceplanting into the carpet before snoring louder than a lawn mower. They laughed in a surprised manic kind of way, a swirling mixture of relief and disbelief.