Ruby gritted her teeth. “Sorry. I’m just stressed. I’m finally making progress, but it’s not enough.”
Hilary turned back around, blinking rapidly. “I don’t understand this…need you seem to have for him,” she said. “If I understand this correctly, you dated him for a semester, what, ten years ago?”
“Nine,” Ruby said, smiling fondly. Wishing that she had actually dated Sean, instead of him just being her years-long college crush. She was glad she’d lied to Hilary about it thought. This way she got to remember the relationship the way it should have been.
“Why’d you guys break up?”
Ruby looked away. “It…wasn’t my decision. Obviously.”
Hilary continued, using her fingers to tick things off. “So, we know he’s an asshole.”
“He’s not—”
“Then you barely saw him for a few years until, what, five, six years ago? When he told you he was engaged to some gal named Millicent, and you moved to San Francisco with Simon. Right?”
Ruby sniffed. “That’s a bit simplified—”
“You barely knew him!” She waved her arm to cut off Ruby’s explanation. “And before you say it, I know you feel like he’s ‘the one’, but it’s been almost a decade with no contact—”
“No, it’s only been six years with no contact.”
Hilary rolled her eyes before continuing, “In our lives, there are more than just one ‘the ones.’ Life is a series of compromises. It’s about settling, to one degree or another.”
“Just because you settled, doesn’t mean I want to.”
Hilary shrugged and let that barb go by uncharacteristically unchallenged. Ruby hesitated before asking, “…Is everything okay between you and Tom?”
“Sure,” Hilary chirped, and changed the subject back. “Stop obsessing over the one that got away and move on to someone you can actually have.”
Ruby walked over to the window and gazed out into the darkness, glad they were back to focusing on her problems again. “I know you don’t understand this, but for an entire semester, I was his soulmate. Even when I was dating other men, I always knew he was the one for me. No one’s ever affected me so strongly. We’re still soulmates. He just needs reminding.”
“Good luck. I hope you find him soon. I hope it goes the way you want.”
Ruby sighed heavily. Hilary could never understand. No one could. “It will. My goal is to celebrate Halloween together as a couple, and that’s less than a month away.”
Hilary perked up. “Costume party?”
“If I have one, it’ll be all out, as usual. And don’t think you can come dressed up in Tom’s waders again and call it good. You’ll need to up your game.”
“Oh, ye of little faith. I once dressed up as a cat for Halloween and it was so realistic, I fooled a veterinarian.”
Ruby burst out laughing at this foolishness and soon Hilary joined her. When they were calm, Ruby said, “What do you really think of my hair? It was an impulse move. I wanted a new ‘do for my new life, but I’m having second thoughts. What if Sean hates it?”
“Too late now.”
“Hilary!”
Hilary pursed her lips and considered her. “Who knew you had cheekbones? Or blue eyes for that matter, with all that heavy, dark hair always in your face.”
“You’re diggin’ a hole—”
“It’s cute. Makes you look younger. Sorta like Tinker Bell.”
“Tinker-frickin’-Bell. Thanks a lot.”
“I mean like a pixie. A sprite. You know,” Hilary said. “Don’t be so sensitive.”
Ruby smiled. “A pixie, huh? I can live with that.”
CHAPTER 3
Ruby pulled up to her house and checked the clock on the dashboard. Almost midnight. She thought of the priceless phone number in her phone and sighed. Definitely too late to call. Well, first thing tomorrow…
She lived in a two-story house with a big yard on Shiloh Hill, which was located on the outskirts of Kamata. Shiloh Hill was a steep, lonely road that meandered its way around and through a shallow, second-growth redwood forest. The road was sparsely populated with old houses that had long driveways and thick woods screening them from traffic. Ruby reveled in her privacy, and she loved her house. She was just renting, but once Sean moved in, she could see setting down permanent roots.
And it was so cheap here, compared to the city, where she had paid triple rent for less than a quarter of the living space. Here, she could afford to live entirely off her comic strip without dipping into her mad money account—a separate checking account where she squirreled away the interest from her inheritance. After furnishing her house exactly the way she wanted it, she still had enough money in that account for a down payment on a nice house. If Sean didn’t like this one, they could pick a better one out together. Maybe one up the road in Trinidad, with Pacific Ocean views…
She parked in her yard and hurried up the six steps on her expansive front deck. She scrounged in her purse for her keys while gazing distastefully at the empty house next door. That was the only problem with this location; the two houses sat much too close together and there was no fence. Her house was the larger of the two, and she figured the empty house had originally been built as some sort of outbuilding or guest cottage to serve her main house. The property had been split, but they still shared a turnaround and a narrow, gravel driveway.
The small house had a For Rent sign. She’d seen a red convertible there last week and a black SUV there yesterday, but no moving vans yet. She just hoped whoever eventually moved in was quiet. If it turned into some frat-boy party house, or another of the seemingly endless drug houses that were ruining the area, she’d be forced to break her lease.
She finally got the front door unlocked, stepped inside, and relaxed. When she’d lived with Simon, she’d lived surrounded by his taste. He’d preferred dark leather furniture and lots of glass. Everything had been black and white and brown and boring.
The years that she had lived in that dumpy studio apartment in San Francisco had been worse. She didn’t like thinking about that hellhole.
And now…she grinned as she took it all in. She had painted her living room light pink, which was flattering to everyone’s skin tone. She had splurged on the world’s most comfortable couch: a bright yellow, white, and lime floral behemoth that shouldn’t work in the space, but did. Two comfortable armchairs sat next to the fireplace, and a bay window seat overlooked her deck and front yard. She had hidden the flat screen TV and DVD player inside a cabinet, because she rarely had time to watch anything, and when she did have a bit of time to waste, she binge watched her favorite shows on her laptop.
She’d updated the kitchen, painting it the color of sunshine and carving out a cozy little studio for herself out of the former breakfast nook. Her drawing table was nestled between two floor-to-ceiling corner windows, affording her a great view of the ferns and redwoods. Beside her drawing table sat her MacBook, her drawing supplies, a light table, and large horizontal file cabinets where she locked up her finished originals. She preferred not to work digitally because she liked having a tangible finished product.
The kitchen was the sunniest spot in the house. She found it hard to stay depressed in her cheerful house, and she usually didn’t try.
Kamata was her fresh start, and she had Hilary to thank for it. After moving away with Simon, she had dropped all her friends except Hilary, and that was only because Hilary had refused to be dropped. Hilary had written her long, chatty letters every couple weeks. She had kept up with Ruby on social media, and she never missed sending a Christmas card or a cheerful birthday greeting. She kept calling and texting long after Ruby would have stopped.
Hilary had urged Ruby to move back to Kamata, which had reminded her about Sean, her one true love. Ruby swallowed the lump in her throat. She was so glad she had listened. Kamata meant hope. Kamata meant Sean, and with him to focus on, the sun finally shone in her life again.
…Which was
why everything in the place had passed the will Sean like it test. Though it was mostly speculation, she liked to think that she had a handle on his taste.
Her favorite thing of all was the pool table in the den. She never played pool, but she knew that Sean used to love it. The table was pristine, just waiting for him. He would give her lessons, and it would be so cozy, just the two of them, standing so close together…He’d practically have to hug her to show her the correct way to hold a pool cue, and after the lesson, he’d lay her gently back on the table, unbuttoning her blouse with exquisite slowness, while her hands roamed his chest before moving lower…
Her vision cleared and she shivered. How long had she been standing there with the front door wide open?
She locked the door, kicked off her shoes, and noticed her answering machine was blinking. There were four messages. She carried the phone with her as she went to hang up her damp coat in the closet. She had swiped Hilary’s half-filled bottle of prescription sleeping pills, and she hid it in the cabinet above her fridge before fishing the parrot bottle opener out of her pocket. She made a face and slung it into the jumble inside her utensil drawer without a second glance. A minute later, she took the sleeping pills out of the cabinet, peeled off and tossed Hilary’s label, and put the bottle back. She was putting away her ice cream and her apples when the first message started. It was just a hang up.
She’d gotten so many of these in the past few weeks, that by now she knew the phone number on her caller ID by heart. 555-0207. She had called it back once, but nobody answered. “Creepy Unknown Caller,” she muttered. “Just you wait.”
The second message started. “It’s me, Jeremy. I thought you were going right home because you were busy? You didn’t lie to me, did you? Gimme a call when you get in. My number is 555-7123. Bye.”
That creepy-gorgeous-weirdo from the store? She’d forgotten all about him. He sure hadn’t wasted any time.
The third message was also from him. “Where are you? It’s almost 10:30. You should have been home hours ago. Call me as soon as you get this.”
She chewed on a hangnail as the last message played. It was Jeremy again, of course, and now his voice was urgent. “Please call me when you get home. I’m worried sick. Gimme a call as soon as you get this, no matter how late. Again, my number is 555-7123.”
Why was it so important to him that she call him back? She was about to hit replay on the machine so she could write down his number and stopped herself. What was she doing?
She deleted the messages. Step away from the crazy, Ruby.
She grabbed her last Diet Pepsi from the fridge and had guzzled most of it before she realized it was flat and bitter. She poured the rest down the sink and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin.
She went to wash her face, only to be disconcerted when she saw her reflection and remembered, again, that her hair was gone. She bit her lip, no longer sure if she liked it. She turned her head this way and that. Oh well. She pulled her bangs back with a hair band and smeared cold cream on her face. She was wiping it away with a hot washcloth when the phone rang again. She wiped her hands and picked up the phone to check her caller ID. What if it was that freak again?
She heard the message start to play from the phone base in her living room. This time Jeremy was frantic. “Something must have happened to you. If I don’t receive a call back in the next ten minutes, I’m calling the police—”
She put the phone to her ear, getting face cream all over it. “What the hell? I’m fine. It’s late. What do you want?”
Her words must not have registered with him because he sounded flirtatious. “So, you’re there after all. Have you been ignoring my calls? How rude!” He chuckled.
“Look, I just walked in the door.”
“Where were you?”
“What?”
“You said you were going right home. That’s what you said. Where’d you go instead?”
“None of your business.”
“Well, soorrryyy. I was just worried about you. Not that you’d care. Not that you’d—”
“Good-bye—”
“No, wait!” he shouted.
She put the phone back to her ear. “I’ve spent the entire evening worried sick about you. Can’t you at least tell me what was so important—”
“I went over to my friend Hilary’s house because her husband’s away fishing and she was lonesome.” Why did she tell him that?
“Not Hillary Shaw, by any chance? That’d be too weird.”
“No. McIntyre.”
She didn’t ask who Hillary Shaw was, but he told her anyway. “I dated a Hillary Shaw at Kamata High School, and we lost touch after graduation. I thought it might be the same girl. You know, small world and all.” When she didn’t reply, he said, “Anyway, you didn’t have to lie about your plans.”
She yawned, covering her mouth. “Ahhh, Excuse me. Really, it was a last-minute thing.”
“You’re forgiven.”
“I’m going to go to bed now. Good-bye—”
“Ruby, wait. I called to finalize plans for tomorrow night. How does seven sound? We can do anything you want. Sky’s the limit.”
Finalize plans? What plans? She made a face. “Look. I have a boyfriend.” Wait a minute. Did he say he went to Kamata High School? Sean had graduated from there too! It was a tiny school, and they were probably around the same age…they might know each other. It was a long shot, but… “Um…did you say you went to Kamata High School?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I have friends who went there.…What year did you graduate?”
He told her, and she calculated quickly in her head. That put him a year behind her, and three years behind Sean, which meant he was a freshman during Sean’s senior year. Hmmmm. How to play this? Should she flat out ask him if he knew Sean? No. She sensed that would be a mistake. “…Do you have any of your yearbooks?” She held her breath. She had tried and failed to find a copy of Kamata High’s yearbooks online.
“Sure,” he said. “All four years. Why?”
Her mind went blank. “I’d love to…see pictures of you when you were younger, of course.” She smote her forehead twice with the heel of her hand. Why did she say that? He’d never buy that.
“How ‘bout I show ‘em to you on our date tomorrow. That is, if you still want to go?”
She smiled. “Silly! Of course I want to go! As friends though. To catch up. We could meet at a restaurant. Do you like Chinese food?” She yawned again. And then a third time. Man, she was wiped.
She heard Jeremy yawn too. “I love it. But of course, I’ll pick you up. What’s your address?”
“It’s really out of the way—”
“That’s okay. I’d go to the ends of the earth to be with you.”
She swallowed hard. This was starting to seem like a really bad idea. “But—”
He giggled. “I guess you really aren’t in such a ‘serious’ relationship after all.”
She scowled, glancing over at her ovulation kit on the counter. She needed to read the directions on that thing. It had been expensive enough… “Yes, I am—”
“Save it for our date tomorrow. Where do I pick you up?” She was quiet and he said, “Come on, you can trust me.”
“This isn’t a date. And…I live on Shiloh Hill.”
“What’s your street address? Shiloh Hill’s a long road.”
“No, we just met. My address is second da—um, for later,” she said, trying, and failing to sound light-hearted.
“Come on. We’ve known each other for years.”
That was the second time he’d said that. “No, I worked with you years ago. Briefly. I didn’t know you then and I don’t know you now.”
“You’re right. It’s good to be cautious until you get to know someone. So, get to know me!”
He was so persistent…she’d been told she possessed that same quality herself. “That’s why we’re meeting tomorrow night. Right?”
He s
ighed. “Oh, all right, Little-Miss-Paranoid. Have it your way. Let’s meet at the Chinese restaurant in the Kamata Square at seven o’clock. I believe it’s called The Jade Dragon. Okay?”
“Remember to bring your yearbooks,” she said, and he laughed. Why was he laughing? She wasn’t kidding. She’d see them tomorrow, no matter what.
Sean would be so gorgeous decked out in his fake tuxedo for his senior portrait. He’d look so innocent and young…She couldn’t wait to get a look at his baby face.
“Ruby? You still there?”
“Yeah.” She ran her tongue over her front teeth. Yummy. “I’m exhausted and I need to finish washing my face.” She yawned again. “Excuse me. See you tomorrow.”
“Okay. Say hi to Hilary to me.”
She wiped the phone off on a hand towel before she hung up. Say hi to Hilary for me? He didn’t even know Hilary.
She checked the front door to make sure it was locked, then went into her bedroom, opened her night table drawer, and touched the handgun stored there. Just seeing it made her feel safer. She took the gun with her into the bathroom to finish washing her face.
CHAPTER 4
Ruby woke up at just past noon. She sat up blearily, mouth gummy, head pounding, unable to recall what day it was and so thirsty she drained the water bottle she kept beside her bed.
She was an early bird, usually up with the sun, and she had so much to do today! Why had she wasted her morning sleeping? Was she getting sick? She realized she was naked and frowned. Hadn’t she worn pajamas to bed? Sometimes she did and sometimes she didn’t. Her thoughts were jumbled in her head as she sat smacking her cracked lips and trying to sort herself out. She saw the nightgown she thought she’d worn last night crumpled on the floor.
She began to shiver. She pushed the covers off, grabbed some warm clothes and got dressed without showering. She recorded her temperature so she could start tracking her ovulation, took some painkillers, drank two more glasses of water which still didn’t quench her raging thirst, and fixed a pot of coffee. She needed it today.
Drawn To You: A Psychological thriller Page 3