The Bug in the Trash

The red dot started moving, and right away I knew he'd taken the bait. Late at night, that familiar figure came to my door again and stole my trash bag.

And hidden inside that bag was the bug I'd planted ahead of time. I opened the tracking app on my phone and watched him lead me, step by step, toward the answer.

I was quietly gloating. This time, you're so not getting away! Chapter 1 This was the fourth time he'd stolen the trash I left outside my door.

Every time he came, he wore a cap and a face mask. And every time, I watched him through the peephole. He'd open the bag first and go through what was inside, one thing at a time.

Sometimes he'd even hold something up to his nose and sniff it. Anything that caught his interest went into his pocket.

So this time, going by his tastes, I'd made a point of putting a Mickey Mouse keychain in the bag. My bug was hidden inside it.

He probably liked stealing my trash so much because I was pretty. What he didn't know was that I was actually a man. This wasn't the first time I'd dressed as a woman.

What can I say… it works. Sure enough, he was very interested in the Mickey Mouse keychain. He played with it for a good while, then tucked it into his pocket.

Honestly, I was a little sorry to part with the thing. After all, my exgirlfriend had given it to me. But then I thought, forget it. Out with the old, in with the new.

The man lingered at my door a little longer, then walked off with the trash bag, perfectly satisfied. The receiver app paired with the bug had a location feature.

It could track him right to where he lived. Watching the red dot move across the screen, I was thrilled. About a minute later, he was already downstairs.

Then he started heading north. My balcony happened to face north. I quickly switched off the lights in my apartment, went out to the balcony, and looked down.

I lived on the fourth floor. By the light of the lampposts in the complex's green space, I soon spotted that familiar figure.

At that moment, the app showed the straightline distance between us as only 33 feet. He walked up to a trash can and tossed the bag in.

Then he pulled the Mickey Mouse keychain out of his pocket, held it to his nose, and sniffed it, then put it back in his pocket and kept walking.

Sure enough, he really liked the little gift I'd prepared for him. What I didn't expect was that he walked straight into the building across from mine.

So he lived at Buttonwood Gardens too. Before long, a light suddenly came on in a southfacing unit on the fourth floor of that building. The curtains on that balcony weren't drawn.

The familiar figure appeared in the room. Holy crap. Not only did the guy live in the same complex as me, he lived on the fourth floor of the building right across from mine.

Our balconies faced each other. The app now showed the straightline distance between us as only 79 feet. That was it. He must have spied on me from his balcony.

No wonder he knew where I lived. I instinctively shifted farther behind my curtain. I couldn't let the guy across the way catch me watching him. He was fairly careful too.

The first thing he did once he got inside was go to the balcony and draw the curtains.

Or maybe he was hiding behind a gap in them right now, staring in the direction of my apartment. I put in my Bluetooth earbuds and turned the volume all the way up.

A rustling came through the bug. He was probably playing with the Mickey Mouse keychain I'd given him. Chapter 2 Then I heard him talking to himself. "Such a cute Mickey Mouse.

Why would anyone throw it away? "It smells so good. Just like her." I laughed when I heard that. That was my exgirlfriend's scent. Next came the sound of running water.

From the sound of it, the man was getting ready to shower. Uhoh. He wasn't going to wash the Mickey Mouse keychain along with himself, was he? Then again, no, he wouldn't.

Because if he washed it, it wouldn't smell good anymore. In the meantime, I went to the bathroom to take a dump.

When I came back to keep listening, there was suddenly a woman's voice coming through the bug. Only from their conversation did I figure out that the woman was the man's wife.

The man asked, sounding a little guilty, "Weren't you on the night shift tonight?

How come you're home so early?" "Oh, I swapped shifts with a coworker today, so I got back early." Then the woman turned the question around on him. "It's so late.

Why are you still up?" The man answered in a rush, "I just got up to use the bathroom." After a while, the woman suddenly asked, "Why does it smell like perfume in here?

Don't tell me you had a woman over?" The man stammered, "Nno… of course not." Then came the sound of plastic rustling. "Huh?

Why is there a Mickey Mouse keychain on the table?" The man hurried to explain, "Oh, I bought that from a street vendor today." The woman's voice brightened. "It's so cute!

Did you get it for me?" "Yyeah… do you like it?" "I love it. So this is the thing that smells so nice.

But…" "But what?" The woman paused. "This scent… it's so familiar." "Huh?" The woman didn't pursue it. "Nothing. You go to bed first. I'll come once I've showered.

Wait for me, okay?" I put down my phone and took the chance to go get a drink of water too. Ten minutes later, I lay down in bed and put my earbuds back in.

What came through them were sounds I won't describe. About ten minutes after that, the woman nestled in the man's arms and said, "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you something.

I heard somebody died in our complex." The man didn't say a word.

The woman went on, "I heard it from the security guard at the complex gate on my way home from work." The man asked, "Do you know which unit it happened in?" The woman said, "I think it was 504, in Building 4 across the way." I glanced up at the ceiling without thinking.

She meant the apartment right above mine. The woman continued, "It was a young woman. I heard she was strangled." "Strangled?" "Yeah. Such a shame.

She was really pretty, too." "Pretty? How would you know?" "Because she liked doing yoga on her balcony.

I saw her all the time." The man said, "Oh." The woman added, "Come to think of it, quite a few pretty girls live in the building across the way." "Really?" "Yeah.

Like there's another one on the fourth floor, really tall, always wearing all kinds of dresses." Without meaning to, I glanced at my balcony.

Several of the dresses I wore all the time were hanging out there. The woman suddenly asked the man, "Those two girls across the way, on the fourth and fifth floors.

Which one do you like more?" The man said in surprise, "What? I've never paid any attention to them." The woman seemed to give his cheek a pat. Chapter 3 "Oh, stop playing innocent.

Don't you peek at them from the balcony all the time?" The man suddenly started stammering. "No, I—I don't!" The woman giggled. "Keep pretending.

Those binoculars in the drawer have gotten plenty of use, huh?" The man kept denying it. "I don't know what you're talking about." The woman laughed even louder, then went on, "I used to have a cat.

You know that, right?" "Yeah. So?" "I put a camera in the apartment so I could see what the cat was up to in real time." "What? A camera?

How did I not know about this?" "Of course you didn't know.

I forgot to tell you." "Where did you put it?" "Um… in the light bulb on the balcony." "?" The woman continued, "I kept seeing on the camera that you liked to hide behind the balcony curtains and look at the building across the way through binoculars. "At first I didn't know what you were looking at. "One day when you weren't home, I hid behind the balcony curtains and looked for a while too. "Turns out there are two pretty girls living across the way, one on the fourth floor and one on the fifth. "The girl on the fifth floor likes doing yoga on her balcony. "The girl on the fourth floor likes sunbathing on hers. "And from our balcony, the view for spying on them is perfect." The man went completely silent.

The woman teased him instead. "What's wrong? It's no big deal." The man asked tentatively, "You're not mad that I spy on other girls?" "What's there to be mad about?

Those two girls really are easy on the eyes." "You don't blame me?" "Why would I blame you? It's only human.

If some hot guy lived across the way, I couldn't help sneaking a peek either." The woman paused, then asked again, "So, the two girls across the way, fourth floor and fifth floor, which one do you actually like?" "Can we not talk about this?" The woman giggled. "Fine, let's change the subject.

Where did this Mickey Mouse keychain really come from? Did you really buy it?" "Mm… mmhm." The woman giggled again. "Nope.

You picked it out of somebody's trash bag, didn't you?" "You… how did you…" "You want to ask how I know, right? Because these last few nights, I've been following you." "What?

You've been following me? Weren't you on the night shift at work every night this week?" "The night shift was just a cover, silly." The woman couldn't stop giggling.

Then she went on, "I saw on the camera that you've been going out every night lately. "And every time you came back, you brought home all kinds of weird stuff. "I was dying to know what you were up to. "So four days ago, I swapped shifts with a coworker. "I've been following you every night since. "Turns out you've been going to the fourth floor of the building across the way. "While you were going through the trash bag that girl left outside her door, I was hiding in the stairwell, watching you. "The first day, you brought home a pair of worn pantyhose. "The second day, you brought home a used lipstick. "The third day, you brought home a broken makeup compact. "The fourth day, today, you brought home a Mickey Mouse keychain." At that, the man couldn't help confronting her. "You followed me for four days?" Chapter 4 "No.

Three days, to be exact. I didn't follow you today." "Whwhy not?" "Because today, I went straight into that girl's apartment!" When I heard that, my drowsiness was gone.

I was wide awake now. The man asked in shock, "What did you say? You went into her place?" "Yep. Seeing you so obsessed with that girl made me really curious.

I wanted to get to know her better too. So tonight, while she was out, I snuck into her apartment." "Hhow did you get into her place?" "Easy.

She likes to keep her key under the doormat." I shook my head without meaning to. Apparently a key under the doormat really was no secret.

The woman went on, "I looked through her shoe rack. There were a few pairs of heels, and a few pairs of men's sneakers. "So she doesn't live alone.

She must already have a boyfriend. "Then I checked the bathroom counter, but I only found one toothbrush cup. "So her boyfriend doesn't stay there much. "I figured she must be pretty lonely most of the time. "I lay down on her bed and smelled the sheets.

It was a faint perfume, mixed with a man's scent. "So her boyfriend stays over plenty after all. "Then I opened her closet.

It was packed with all kinds of dresses. "She really does love wearing dresses. "I couldn't resist trying on a light blue one.

I held her lipstick up in front of the mirror, imagining I was her. "Then I went out to the balcony and leaned on the railing, gazing into the distance the way she always does. "And I wondered, would you, hiding behind the curtains across the way right now, mistake me for her? "If only you could be this obsessed with me too.

How nice would that be." The man hadn't said a word in a long time. The woman went on, "I stayed at her place for over an hour.

If she hadn't suddenly come home, I might not have wanted to leave." "Did… did she catch you?" "Of course not.

I… hid under her bed." The woman giggled yet again. "When the girl came in, she took off her jacket and tossed it on the couch, then started tidying up her clothes. "When she bent down to pick a sock up off the floor, it almost brushed my face.

I was so scared I didn't dare breathe. "After she was done, she grabbed a mop and mopped the floor. The handle bumped the edge of the bed several times.

I stayed curled up in the corner under the bed without moving a muscle. "Later she threw a Mickey Mouse keychain into a trash bag, and then she set the bag outside her door. "Not long after, I saw her suddenly press her eye to the peephole. "I knew you must have come to steal her trash again. "The girl was watching you through the peephole. "I was watching her from under her bed. "After you left, the girl went out to the balcony. "She had earbuds in, and she was playing on her phone while she watched you down below. "It wasn't until she went to the bathroom that I got my chance to slip out of her place and come back to you. "So this Mickey Mouse keychain, you just picked it up, didn't you? "It still smells like that girl's apartment. "No wonder it smelled so familiar." Hearing that, I couldn't help laughing out loud.

Now that was a real thrill. Chapter 5 Still, it was fine. Totally fine. First, the whole time the woman was under my bed watching me, I'd been dressed as a woman.

Second, she hadn't seen me put the bug inside the Mickey Mouse keychain. Third, I'd had earbuds in, so she didn't know what I was listening to. So the game could go on.

The man's trembling voice kept coming through my earbuds. "I'm sorry. I really did pick this keychain out of a trash bag. I shouldn't have lied to you