by L A Walton
While
Someone Watches
L A Walton
Copyright © 2015 L A Walton
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 151463760X
ISBN-13: 978-1514637609
DEDICATION
I’d like to dedicate this book to the very special people in my life. I couldn’t do it without all of the love and support of my loving mother Estelle Walton and daughter Hannah Z. I also dedicate this book to my daily motivator who not only provides me with an overflow of inspiration, but has refused to let me ever give up. I dedicate this finally to the rest of my cheer section who have never left my side and have helped me to see the true value of friendship. Thank you. I love you all.
LAW
CHAPTER 1
"Hello my name is Marie Sa-"
"I'm sorry to interrupt you Marie but we don't use full names here on our Love Guru Shows. We actually try to use catchy nicknames like Restless with Relationships or Scary Style." Laci Cummings was talking into the microphone in front of her.
"Oh...I'm sorry. Then I want to be called Missing Marie."
"Missing Marie? This sounds serious.”
"I do...I do have a serious question," Marie's voice was soft and barely audible.
"Well I'm here to help you Missing Marie. Ask when you're ready."
"I have a boyfriend. We've been dating for almost a year. He's handsome, has a good job, and he's really smart."
"Wow. He sounds like a keeper so far. Why am I sensing a 'but' is on the way?" Laci asked.
"He's wonderful...but he's also a little...controlling. He gets mad whenever I wear heels or skirts, he never lets me spend time with my family, and we had a huge fight yesterday about me having a Facebook account."
"Why did you have an argument over Facebook?"
"He didn't want me to have one and told me I had to deactivate my account. He said I was using it to flirt with other men."
"Are you?"
"No!"
"So what did you do?"
"I told him I would close my Facebook account."
Laci took a breath before speaking, "You closed your Facebook just because he told you to?".
"No, I told him I would close my Facebook but I didn't. I know relationships are about compromising but I feel like I'm the one that's constantly giving in to his jealousy. Am I wrong?"
"Well Missing Marie, I want to know if you feel safe with him."
"What do you mean?"
"Has he ever hurt you? Do you feel that he's capable of hurting you if you didn't listen to him? Do you feel safe with him? Is that maybe why you called yourself Missing Marie?"
"I...I don't know. Maybe."
"That's your answer," Laci whispered. "You should listen to your gut Marie. If he's acting this way, it normally won't get better unless he seeks help for his controlling behaviors."
"He hates therapists. He calls them whack jobs."
Laci laughed, "Well if he's not willing to see a whack job, what do you plan to do Marie?"
"I'm not sure if I can keep giving in to his demands. I think I'm going to have to break up with him. No...I will break up with him. There's nothing to think about. Right? We're done. When he comes over, I'll tell him we're through. I can do this."
"That's very brave of you Ms. Marie but I would suggest not breaking up in a private place if he is controlling. It may be safer for you to break up in a public place where there are a lot of people around."
"No! I have to do it tonight before I chicken out. Thanks Laci."
"Marie listen to me. Hello?" Laci looked over to her producer, George. He signaled that the caller had left the chat room.
"Well...it seems Missing Marie found courage to stand up to someone who might do her harm, but I really hope you stay safe and make wise choices tonight Marie. Our show is almost done, so as usual, I wanted to read you a letter from one of our listeners. This is from Stitching Hurt.
'Dear Laci,
I chatted with you last year because I was in an abusive relationship. My guy was smart, handsome, and rich but he was also controlling and then he became abusive. Thanks to you, I was able to escape from him. Now I'm in a better relationship and I'm about to get married. I owe it all to you. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart I thank you. I truly believe that if I had stayed with him, I would be dead right now. Come to my wedding! Please come to my wedding!
-Stitching Hurt
I'm happy for you Stitching Hurt, and I would love to come to your wedding. Missing Marie wherever you are...please be safe tonight. That's it folks. From us here at Love Guru, we're wishing you sweet dreams East Coast. Remember if you ask us, we will help you find the answer."
"If you ask us, we will help you find the answer."
"Witch," he muttered under his breath as he clicked the button to switch off his XM Radio. He recognized the voice of the woman who called herself Missing Marie. That was his Marie. Marie Sanchez. "She wants to break up with me? I don't think so."
He knew Marie listened to Love Guru on a daily basis. His last girlfriend listened to Laci Cummings as well. Monday through Friday this idiot that women called the “Woman Whisperer” and “Love Guru” when it came to everything from fashion to relationships and would give out advice on all topics via the XM talk show and ran a very successful magazine called Modern Self that she has recently sold so she could just write advice columns and give advice with her own XM talk show. As far as he was concerned, she didn't have a clue about relationships.
He drove up to the yellow two story house and let himself in with the key Marie had given him a few months prior.
"Hey you're here early," she said once she saw him. He noticed that she didn't come and kiss him as she normally did. Come to think of it, she hadn't been doing that for a couple of weeks now.
"Anything exciting happen today?" he asked as he took off his jacket.
"No. Nothing too exciting. After dinner, I think there's something we need to talk about."
"Is it important?"
She was nervous. He could tell because she kept pulling on her left ear. "A little," she whispered.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."
"Nothing. I forgot I left my phone upstairs. I'll be right back." She started to walk up the stairs when he began following her. She looked over her shoulder, "You don't have to follow me. I'll be right down."
He smiled, "I know babe, and I want to follow you."
She tugged her left ear again, "Umm...okay."
He followed her into her bedroom. He could see his picture on her bedside table. He didn't understand why she would want to break up with him if she had really loved him. It had to be Laci Cumming's fault. It had to be.
"Listen, maybe we shouldn't wait until after dinner. This is important."
He stood in front of her and placed his hands on both of her shoulders, "Babe, whatever it is...we can work it out. You look scared. What's going on?"
She shrugged her shoulders, "I just feel like lately you've been very demanding."
"Demanding? How so?"
"Don't get mad...but like how you're always telling me not to wear dresses or makeup. How I can't go out with my friends or sisters. You didn't even want me to have a Facebook account!"
"I see. So you think your boyfriend not wanting you to dress like a skank, hang out with skanks, or talk on the Internet like a skank is bad."
"What are you talking about? When have I ever dressed like a skank?"
"Marie why don't you just say what you want to say?"
"I want to break up!"
There was a moment of silence after she yelled it. He stared at her and she felt uncomfortable. They were standing in her bedroom and she needed to escape. She felt trapped with him...
like he was a ticking time bomb.
"Don't worry. I'm not mad."
She was surprised by his words, "What?"
He looked up at her and smiled, "I'm not mad. I'm actually kind of relieved."
"You're relieved? I don't understand."
"Marie...I've been wanting to call it quits for a few weeks now but I didn't know how to tell you. I thought if I started acting like a jerk you would dump me but you didn't. Then I felt guilty because you must've really loved me to put up with me."
"What? Wait...what?" Marie was running her hands in through her hair in confusion. "I'm not understanding. You wanted me to dump you?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
He was mentally laughing. She wanted to dump him but as soon as she found out he wanted to be dumped, she was upset.
"Does it matter why? We both want the same thing." He turned to leave the bedroom when she grabbed his arm.
"Wait a minute. We didn't want the same thing. I only wanted to dump you because you were being possessive. If that was an act, I have a right to know why you didn't want to date me."
"So if I'm not being possessive or demanding, you would want to continue dating me?" he asked.
She looked confused at everything that was happening and then nodded, "Yes. Yes I would."
He sighed heavily, "Fine. Let's try to make this work then."
"Fine," she said a little too forcefully. "Let's go have dinner then."
She walked ahead of him and headed to the stairs.
"Marie?"
She looked over her shoulder at him, "Yeah?"
"So if I hadn't been acting...you would've really broken up with me?"
She smiled and scrunched her nose, "Of course. You were acting like a goat. Thank God you were just pretending."
He nodded and placed his hands on her shoulders and began massaging them as they walked, "Yeah, thank Goodness."
He kissed her on the forehead and whispered, "I love you."
She was still confused, "So why did you want to break up with me? If you love me...why the big act?"
"Marie you're so beautiful but so slow sometimes."
"What?"
"I never wanted to break up with you."
"Then why were you acting like an obsessive jerk?"
He leaned in and kissed her cheek before whispering in her ear, "Because I am an obsessive jerk...and I wasn't acting."
Before she could respond, he shoved her down the stairs. It happened so quickly that she didn't have time to grab onto anything. She just stumbled down the steps. He heard a bone cracking. He stood there at the top of the stairs, her body contorted at the bottom. Her neck was at a weird angle...clearly broken.
He slowly walked down the stairs and took a long step over her body. "Tsk tsk Marie. You shouldn't be so clumsy." He pulled her cell phone out of her hand and deleted her call to Love Guru.
He took out his cell phone and dialed 911. In a voice filled with panic he responded to the operator, "Oh God, my girlfriend jut fell down the stairs. Please help her. Oh God please help her now."
He looked over to Marie's now dead body and smiled. She wasn't his first victim and she wouldn't be
his last.
CHAPTER 2
Laci Cummings was checking her e-mail when her phone rang.
"This is Laci, talk to me."
"Laci ...where the heck are you?"
"At home. Where else would I be? I’m all work and no play." She recognized the voice. It was her producer George.
"You were supposed to be at the station this morning. Remember we had an important meeting?"
Laci turned her head to look at the calendar on her wall. The day was circled in red. "Aw crap. I forgot. Okay give me fifteen minutes and I'll be there."
"I'll give you ten and your golden tush better be sitting in one of these pleather chairs ASAP! I don’t get paid as much as you do doll!"
"Thirty minutes. I got it! Thanks George. You're a peach." Before he could repeat that she only had ten minutes, she hung up the phone and grabbed her big black purse. She fished out her car keys and ran outside to her white Mercedes.
After stopping by Starbucks and picking up a mocha latte, she made her way through the radio station's lobby. The building was actually a large media hub that housed a local news station, the magazine, as well as a recording studio. As she passed the security guard, Laci raised her hand, "Hey Eric!"
"Hola Dr. Cummings!" he waved back.
She was humming the tune to a Taylor Swift song that somehow got stuck in her head back at Starbucks when the elevator opened. She got inside and pressed the button for the fifth floor. The door was about to close when someone suddenly stuck their hand in between the doors.
An athletic build of a man that looked like he stepped out of the Gangster Squad movie, complete with suspenders and hat, brown hair with matching brown eyes smiled at her, "So sorry but I'm already late."
Laci laughed, "Join the club."
He looked at the buttons on the elevator, "What a coincidence. We're heading to the same floor."
Laci smiled, "Do you work there? I've never seen you before." Especially with a look like that, thinking to herself.
He stuck out his hand, "Andrew. Dr. Andrew Brett."
Laci shook his hand as the elevator opened again, "Well here we are."
They both walked to the station manager's office. Laci thought it was strange that he was heading in the same direction as her. When she knocked on his door, Simpson, the station manager looked up and smiled. "So the two of you already met. Fantastic."
George stood up with a confused look on his face. "You two already know each other?"
"Yeah for all of five seconds. We just met on the elevator."
Simpson's expression fell, "Oh well then, George has something important to tell you."
"She doesn't know?" Andrew asked.
"Know what?"
Andrew looked at Simpson and George who were conveniently looking at their shoes and phone. He sighed, "I'm going to be your new partner on Love Guru."
"What the heck? You couldn't warn me?" Laci was livid. She didn't even get to finish drinking her latte which made her even more upset. She eyed both men to see if she threw it at them which one she would hit.
"We want to reach a male demographic that we haven't been able to hit just yet," George explained.
"A male demographic? Men don't listen to relationship advice radio shows," Laci began pacing in Simpson's office.
"Exactly!" Simpson also stood up, "Andrew is hip and cool. Men can look up to him and take his advice especially now since he’s the
new editor of Modern Self….I probably could have picked another time to mention that."
“WHAT?! They chose a MAN to run the magazine?!” Laci looked over at Andrew. “No offense, I’m sure you are a pretty decent guy.”
Andrew, who was finding this all quite amusing, tipped his hat, and gave her a wink, “Why thank you Laci, I very much appreciate the compliment.”
Laci rolled her eyes, "First of all Simpson...no one and I do mean no one says 'hip and cool' anymore. Second, are you trying to replace me?"
"No!" they both said in unison.
"We want you two to work together," Simpson explained. "He used to have a radio show in Boston that did really well but he quit to focus on his personal clients and his self-help books. He's been living here in Atlanta, and when we found out he took the job as the new editor of Modern Self, we lured him to be on the show. I didn't tell you about it because I knew you'd be ticked. We weren't even sure he would agree but he did."
"So now what happens?" Laci asked.
"Now you do the show together. If it flops, things go back to the way they were...but I'm hoping that this works out well Laci." Simpson shot her a death stare as if she would purposely sabotage the new guy.
"Fine. I'll do the show with him but if he doesn't work out we go back to how things were."
"That's all we're asking," Simpson sm
iled.
Laci gave him the stink eye before exiting his office. She looked at Andrew who was leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Follow me Mr. Male Demographic," Laci motioned for him to follow.
"I'm sorry what did you say?"
"I said to follow me. I'll show you around."
Laci spent the morning introducing Andrew to the different staff members. When they were done, she gave him a rundown of how her show worked. "I usually give advice and answer questions. At the end of the show I like to read a random letter from a listener."
"Do you pick the letter?"
"No, I let George choose whatever. It doesn't really matter to me."
"Sounds easy enough," Andrew said as he was trying to keep up with her. "So what are we going to do to liven up the show?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well I was brought here for a reason. We need to reach men and reading letters isn't going to do it."
Laci counted to five in her head before responding, "Okay...what do you suggest?"
"Hmmm...I don't know something like a he said she said segment."
"He said she said?"
"Yeah like we each give opposing points of view on a topic and then let the listeners call in and pick sides." He smiled at Laci and she couldn't help but smile back.
"Sounds good. We'll try it. You pick the topic though."
"Why me?"
"Why not?"
He smiled at her cheekiness. "Okay, I'll pick the topic. I'm choosing harassment."
"Harassment?" Laci asked.
"Yeah. When a cute guy hits on a woman it's flirting but when an ugly guy hits on a woman it's harassment."
Laci laughed, "How are you going to argue that? Like any woman would ever consider you ugly."
Andrew smiled, "Why Dr. Cummings, are you calling me handsome?" He tilted his head just enough to peer from under his hat.
"I think I need the number to HR. What does that tell you?"
He laughed as she walked off holding up her cold latte in goodbye.