The Dragon Next Door, page 1
The Dragon Next Door
By Holly Day
Published by JMS Books LLC
Visit jms-books.com for more information.
Copyright 2021 Holly Day
ISBN 9781646568970
Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com
Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.
All rights reserved.
WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.
This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published in the United States of America.
* * * *
Thank you, Gabi Cervenka, Leonie Duncan, Jean Malherbe, and Susana Perez!
The Dragon Next Door was written for National Neighbour Day, which is on September 28th. It’s a day celebrate the importance of being a good neighbour.
* * * *
The Dragon Next Door
By Holly Day
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Adrian Green leaned over the balcony railing to watch a bearded man on crutches snarl at a man carrying a moving-box.
“You’ll fall over.” Jesse, his former roommate, and now across-the-hall neighbor, rolled his eyes. Adrian didn’t see him roll his eyes, since he was watching the bearded dragon and his lover below, but he didn’t need to see him to know.
“I will not.” He leaned over a bit more to see how they’d manage to get through the door when one of them carried a box and the other was on crutches. He went up on tiptoe and tried to see farther below the balcony.
“Adrian, for fuck’s sake!” Jesse grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. “You’re giving me a heart attack.”
Adrian huffed. He hadn’t been close to falling over.
“Do you think they’ll move in next door?” He hoped they were a couple. It would be awesome not to be the only gay guy in the building. That way Mrs. Henderson would have to post her pamphlets about God’s wrath in two mail slots instead of one. It would do her good.
“There is no other apartment available, is there?” Jesse sat down on the balcony chair behind Adrian and reached for a pack of cigarettes. Adrian made a gagging sound and was again rewarded with an eye roll. Jesse shook one out and put it in his mouth.
“Think of my flowers.” Adrian gestured at the beautiful orange chrysanthemum he’d bought the day before.
“We’re outdoors and the flowers don’t mind.”
“You’ll die an early death.”
Jesse gave him a long look and lit the cigarette. He pulled in, rolled his neck, and blew out a cloud of smoke. Adrian secretly loved it. Cigarettes were bad. He’d tried smoking as a teen but always ended up nauseated. Still, smoking was sexy.
Smelled terrible though.
“I’m more likely to die of you leaning over railings than I am from a few cigarettes.”
Adrian ignored him.
A few minutes later, the balcony door next to Adrian’s opened, and he gestured wildly to Jesse. There was someone in the empty apartment.
“Could be worse.” The deep voice had Adrian swallow a squeal which Jesse somehow knew and shook his head at. The voice—the man had to work with audio. He had to, hiding a voice like that from the world should be illegal.
Jesse put out his cigarette and stood.
“What are you doing?”
Jesse frowned. “I’m hungry, so I’m gonna go home and eat.”
“No, you’re not.”
Jesse shook his head. “I’m not?”
“No!” Adrian threw his hands in the air. “We have to go over there and welcome them to the building. Don’t sigh!” He could do without Jesse’s sighing.
“It’s their first time here, and it’s a tiny apartment. I doubt two grown men are gonna move in there.”
“How did you know it was two grown men?”
Jesse shook his head. “A bearded dragon and his lover?”
“I never said that.” Had he?
“You did. Whatever swishes through your mind usually comes out your mouth.”
Adrian didn’t respond. Jesse was exaggerating, he always did.
“Come on now. It won’t hurt you to say hi.” Adrian grabbed his arm and pulled him through the living room and out into the hallway. He took the three steps from his door to the dragon and his lover’s and knocked.
Jesse didn’t move, but Adrian could tell by the stillness alone he wasn’t pleased.
The door opened, and Adrian came face to face with a forty-something beardless man with piercing blue eyes.
“Yes?”
“Erm…Hi.” Adrian waved but regretted it before his hand started moving. His hands always moved when he was nervous. “I’m Adrian, and this here is Jesse.” He gestured at Jesse. “We’re your next-door neighbors.”
The man didn’t show much reaction, but there was a slight widening of his eyes, then he nodded.
“I live there.” Jesse gestured at his door. “Adrian lives there.” He pointed at Adrian’s door. “Let us know if you need help with anything.”
Adrian smiled until he realized Jesse had turned around and was heading toward his apartment.
“Jesse!”
Jesse gave him a look over his shoulder and sighed. “Welcome to the building.” Then he shrugged at Adrian.
“Sorry.” Adrian grimaced at the man. “He’s a nice guy, but he’s a bit impaired when it comes to social skills.”
“He’s not the only one.”
Adrian smiled, not knowing if he meant himself, Adrian, or the dragon.
“So…are you moving in together?”
“What? No. I’m helping…Lorcan—” He motioned into the apartment. “—I’m helping him carry his stuff since his leg is broken.”
“Oh, poor guy. Let me know if I can help.” He straightened his back, trying to see inside the apartment. There was no one there, but Lorcan was a fitting name for a dragon.
* * * *
It had been two weeks since the dragon on crutches—Mr. Walsh, Adrian had checked the name on the mail slot several times—had moved in, and Adrian hadn’t seen or heard him. It was worrying.
No one had been to visit him and Adrian had tried to see past the divider separating their balconies several times.
There was no weird smell, so he assumed he hadn’t died in there.
Enough of this. Adrian stomped into the kitchen and set about baking cupcakes. It was a creation of pink frosting with candy flowers. Super cute. He put four in a box and headed out into the hallway.
With a speeding heart, he knocked on the door.
Seconds went by without a sound, so he knocked again.
Nothing.
He knocked a third time and stilled when he heard something that could’ve been rustling. He held his breath until his lungs screamed for air, then he opened the mail slot. “Hello?”
The door was yanked open, and the dragon almost fell over while balancing on one leg.
“Oh, hello.” Adrian smiled and held out the box with the cupcakes.
The dragon stared at him. He looked like he hadn’t slept for a week and hadn’t been in the shower for two.
“Welcome to the building.” Adrian moved closer, offering the box anew. “You’re Logan, right?”
“Lorcan.” The man cleared his throat.
Lorcan? Hadn’t the other man called him Logan? Adrian sucked at names. “It suits you.” A good dragon name that made him think of the green hills of Ireland which were where all dragons came from…or was it Scotland? It didn’t matter, Lorcan was here now.
Lorcan scowled, and Adrian curled his toes inside his shoes.
“Anyway, cupcakes.”
When Lorcan shifted his weight on the crutches, Adrian realized his mistake. Of course, Lorcan couldn’t accept the box, he had his hands full. It was too bad he wasn’t a dragon for real for if he had been, the fracture would have healed by now. “Oh, sorry. Here, let me…” He pushed the door open and walked past Lorcan into the hallway. There were no clothes. No shoes, no jacket, nothing. Did he use shoes? His gaze fell on Lorcan’s feet—barefoot. Poor thing. Adrian allowed his eyes to sweep up a strong, hairy leg. “Oh…”
Lorcan was in his underwear. His black T-shirt matched his black hair and covered the interesting bits, but still. Adrian’s mouth went dry.
When Lorcan didn’t speak or make a sound of any kind, Adrian turned his focus on the living room—the only room. It was a super tiny apartment.
It was barren.
Ther
Two weeks he’d lived here. Whatever moving company he was using, Adrian wouldn’t hire them the next time he moved. He hoped the next time he moved it would be to a house.
Lorcan grunted.
“I’ll take these to the kitchen.” He hurried along. Their kitchens shared a wall. It looked the same except Adrian had curtains and flowers in the windows, a table and four chairs, pots and pans and plates and—He opened a cupboard—empty.
He’d make some cuttings from his plants and put them in water when he went back to his apartment.
“Where do you keep your plates?”
Lorcan gestured at a package of paper plates in the corner of the kitchen counter. Next to it were plastic cups and clear plastic cutlery. A 360-piece set, the package announced.
“Plastic is bad for the environment.”
Adrian might have imagined it, but he believed there was smoke coming out of Lorcan’s nostrils when he breathed. Dragon. How could he have forgotten? The way he snarled at his lover—who most likely wasn’t his lover—when they moved in had told him he was an ill-tempered dragon.
“I haven’t been able to go cutlery shopping.”
Of course not. Sometimes Adrian was so stupid. “Hey, you can order something online, and I can get the package for you.” Sometimes having a mail slot was a curse, no packages fit and they had to get them at the post office. “When does your furniture arrive? Jesse and I can help you put things together.” He gestured in the direction of Jesse’s apartment.
“It’s not.”
“What?”
“Nothing and no one is coming.”
Adrian tried to decipher the look, the tone, the words, but Lorcan’s face was blank, his tone even, and the words…He sighed. “Well, you can’t live like this.”
Still nothing but a stony face. Those eyes, too damn blue for his black hair, bore into Adrian’s. Maybe he didn’t have enough money to buy stuff and was trying to stare Adrian to death so he wouldn’t have to admit it. Adrian had assumed Lorcan was on sick leave due to the leg.
“Let’s taste the cupcakes!”
He had an urge to run down to the second-hand shop right away. He bet if he told Doris that his neighbor had nothing at all, she’d help him find some great stuff. She always helped him find great stuff.
Chapter 2
Adrian carried a box of plates, cups, glasses, and cutlery. Not a single piece matched and yet they fit together beautifully. He and Doris had spent a good couple of hours going through the entire shop and settled on blue and white decor. They were all beautiful pieces, and Adrian wanted to keep them for himself, but it was a gift to Lorcan.
No wonder he was unhappy. All dragons needed a hoard, and his cave was barren.
Grinning to himself, he jogged up the last flight of stairs and found Lorcan’s doorbell with his elbow.
Seconds went by without any sounds coming from the apartment. Adrian pressed the doorbell again.
Still nothing.
With a huff, he put the box down and opened the mail slot. “Hello? Lorcan?”
Maybe it was wrong to assume he was a dragon? The growl coming from within sounded more like a werewolf. Adrian kept looking through the tiny opening of the mail slot until one bare foot came into view, then he stepped back and grabbed the box of crockery.
The door opened, and Lorcan scowled at him. “What?”
“I come bearing gifts.” Adrian bowed and pushed past him into the apartment, having learned his lesson from last time to not try to hand something to Lorcan.
He went straight for the kitchen and poured water into the sink. “Where do you keep your dish soap?”
Lorcan watched him with narrowed eyes. “I don’t.”
It took several seconds before Adrian understood what he meant. “I have an extra bottle.”
Hurrying out of the door, he almost ran into Jesse on his way to his apartment. “Hi!”
Jesse waved in the middle of a yawn. “What are you doing in there?”
“I brought him some plates and cups and stuff.”
Jesse shook his head.
“He has to have some plates.” Adrian put his hands on his hips.
“Whatever, man. Wanna watch a movie later?”
Adrian glanced at Lorcan’s door. He wouldn’t want Adrian to hang around for long. “Sure.”
“Sweet. Pizza?”
Adrian held in a sigh. Jesse always wanted to order pizza. Adrian worried about his nutritional intake, and did his best to sneak in some vegetables and fruit when they hung out. “I can make something.”
Jesse pursed his lips. “No tofu.”
Adrian threw his hands in the air. “There is nothing wrong with tofu.”
“I disagree.” Jesse grinned at him.
“Whatever. Seven?” It would give him time to cook something.
“Sure.”
Jesse headed down the stairs, and Adrian hurried into his kitchen and grabbed the extra bottle of dish soap he kept under the sink. Before he went back to Lorcan, he wrote dish soap on the shopping list he kept by the coffee maker. He always wanted a backup of everything, should he unexpectedly run out. And it was lucky he did, since he now had a bottle he could give to Lorcan.
He closed the door behind him and pushed down the door handle on Lorcan’s door only to find it locked. What the hell? He waited, thinking Lorcan must’ve heard him try to open it and would come to let him in. When nothing happened, he pushed the doorbell.
Seconds went by but he didn’t have to shout through the mail slot before Lorcan opened the door. “Oh, you’re back.”
“Of course I’m back.” Adrian glared at him. “I only went to grab detergent.” He held up the bottle. “Jesse and I are gonna watch a movie later, do you want to come? I’ll cook.”
“No.”
Adrian frowned. “It’s across the hall, at Jesse’s, you don’t have to walk far at all on the crutches.”
Lorcan gave him a look he couldn’t interpret—damned blank face. Maybe he was a gargoyle and not a werewolf what with all those stony looks.
“So, what made you move here?” Adrian poured some detergent into the dishwater and set about washing the plates, cups, and glasses he’d brought. He didn’t ask for a dish drainer. The plates truly were lovely. Maybe he should ask Doris to put some aside for him, should she get more.
“I had to find something fast. This was what was available.”
“Yeah?”
When Lorcan didn’t explain why he needed to find something fast, Adrian gritted his teeth. “Towel?”
A raised eyebrow was the only response he got. Adrian grunted and pushed away from the sink. “Don’t lock the door. I’ll be right back.”
Dish towels. He’d see what Doris had in the shop. Sometimes you could find beautiful towels of far better quality than those you bought new and for next to nothing. He grabbed one from his linen closet and headed back to Lorcan’s apartment.
“Which cupboard would you like to keep your plates in?” Adrian had his in the cupboard closest to the window, and he gravitated toward it with the stack of dried plates.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Sure it does.” When Lorcan didn’t answer, he placed the plates on the second shelf and the glasses and cups on the bottom. With a sigh of longing, he looked at them. So pretty.
“Are you sure you don’t want to watch a movie with Jesse and me?”
Lorcan shook his head.
“Okay, then.” Adrian dropped his shoulders. “If you change your mind, you know where to find us.” He motioned in the direction of Jesse’s apartment.
Chapter 3
Adrian strolled between the shelves in the second-hand store, eyeing a porcelain bowl with blue coloring that would look great with Lorcan’s cups and plates.
“Adrian.” Doris smiled at him. She was like the mother he wished he’d had instead of the ogre he’d been dealt. The voice in his head made him stop. His mom wasn’t an ogre. She looked like a pixie, small and fine-limbed—much like him—but her tongue was razor-sharp.
“Hi, Doris.” He smiled to hide what he’d been thinking. “Slow today?”
“No, busy. The back is filled with boxes I have to unpack.”
