by Roxie Odell
She regretted cutting him off, because it felt mean and childish, but she didn’t want to fight. Didn’t want to worry about some woman. Didn’t want… her heart broken again.
“Shit!” she muttered, knowing better. “I bet he’s on his way here this very second.” She tried to comb her memory back to those few horrible seconds when she got a good look at the face of the woman Thomas brought home the night before she went on her bender. As she thought about that night and the woman who had helped her with her tire that morning, she felt her blood pressure rising, as if her head might explode like a watermelon full of firecrackers. As hard as she tried, she just couldn’t force herself to remember enough detail to put the two together, and she slumped into a chair in her living room, feeling defeated and confused all over again. If it was her, why the hell is that wretched woman still in his life, and why didn’t he have the balls to tell me that?
She sighed heavily and picked up her phone again; the gadget was still warm from being held in her hot little hand during their heated exchange. “I’m here, and you owe me an explanation,” she texted.
She threw the phone down on the sofa, not even sure what she wanted. She was so disturbed now that she had no idea what, if anything, would make her feel better. As it turned out, all those pangs of suspicion and insecurity when he left so abruptly were proof of her very powerful woman’s intuition.
Just as she predicted, he pulled into her drive a few moments later, and she stepped out to meet him.
“I think I have a stalker,” Thomas started as soon as he placed a foot on the ground. “In fact, I now know I do.”
“If that’s the case, you could have told me,” replied Cheri. “You should have.”
“I need to go to the police,” he said.
“You haven’t done that yet?” she demanded.
“I have, for me, but I’m talking about you now.”
“What?”
“We need to file a complaint on your behalf, Cheri. Clearly, she’s got her sights set on you now.”
Cheri stood on her porch, staring at him and questioning why she would let him get away with not being upfront with her. She was torn by the very sight of him, weak for him yet strongly opposed to the way he’d treated her, always keeping secrets. It wasn’t so much that he was that good-looking, which no one could deny. She was just plain in love with him, and that made her anger feel like betrayal, something that left a bitter taste in her mouth that only his sweet kisses could temporarily remedy. It really was a vicious cycle when it came to Thomas Graham, and she was beginning to tire of feeling so dizzy over it.
“I didn’t think she’d mess with you, but I guess she followed me here,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Cheri.”
“Tell me, Thomas, if she didn’t flatten my tire, would I have ever known about her?” Cheri demanded as he neared her, at his eye level with the help of her top porch step.
“I know it sounds like the same old story, but, dammit! I feel like we just can’t get a break.”
“We’ll talk about this later. I just want to get out of here now. Just let me grab my purse and lock up,” she said tensely. Then, just as she said it, she recalled her front door being unlocked when she returned from lunch with him. She also knew she wasn’t responsible for the great chicken-salting catastrophe. “You’re right, Thomas. She’s been messing with me, big time,” Cheri said, quaking with emotion and fear, purse and phone in hand.
“What? What do you mean?” he said with a gasp.
“I think she’s been in my house!” Cheri barely managed.
Thomas whisked her into his truck and whipped out of the driveway, without even checking for oncoming traffic.
“What’s her name?” Cheri asked, darting her eyes around to see if she recognized the woman’s vehicle among any of the parked cars.
“Patty Moore, or at least that was what she told me.” He punched the steering wheel. “Dammit! I never thought…”
“Tell me what happened, the next morning after… you know.”
Thomas clenched his jaw as he tried to decipher what to tell her. “I took her back to her car once we sobered up, and I had no plans to ever see her or contact her again. Unfortunately, she knows where I live.”
“Okay,” said Cheri, holding her hand up. “I hope you have some proof that she’s stalking you. All I’ve got are pretend flat tires.”
D.C. was such a small city that the ride was not a long one. Still, the remainder of it was silent. Cheri knew he was sorry and that he would willingly take back that night back if he could, just as she would take back all she had done to lose her job. In a way, her two-month tirade humbled her and made it easier for her to forgive him, but it was still really hard.
They parked in the front of the station, and an officer at a window greeted them when they entered the small building. “May I help you, Mr. Graham?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m here to talk about my ongoing stalking case,” Thomas said quietly, as if he was ashamed. “I need to add something to the file or whatever it’s officially called.”
“Have a seat, and I’ll get an officer to talk to you,” he said.
“An ongoing stalking case, huh? And the desk clerk knows your name?” Cheri asked, officially pissed. “What exactly has this bitch been doing, and how many times have you been here because of her?”
Thomas hesitated to answer.
“Tell me, Thomas. I’m in on this now, like it or not. I’ll find out anyway, one way or another.” She shook her head. “Or I can easily get a copy of the report.”
Thomas sighed, sounding defeated, and answered, “Patty’s been vandalizing my house. When she first showed up I made it clear that I wasn’t interested, but she won’t take no for an answer. I had to file a restraining order,” he said, unable to even look at her.
Cheri was seized with anger tinged with jealousy. She hated that another woman shared any kind of connection with him, and he had outright lied to her about not seeing the woman again. “Sounds like you’ve been busy then,” muttered Cheri.
“Actually, I had a lot of free time on my hands,” he snapped. “When not keeping an eye on stuff.”
She wasn’t sure if that was a dig at her being unavailable due to her drinking or if it was because of the pressure he was under, but she decided to shelve her clever remarks and rants until after they talked to the cops. She only hoped she wouldn’t find the devil in the details because, at the moment, she felt like she was sitting right next to him.
“Thomas,” said an officer, extending his hand.
“Hey, Tony,” Thomas said, standing for the handshake. “This is my girlfriend, Cheri Holt.”
Girlfriend or girl friend? Last time I checked, you don’t lie to either, she wondered, but she kept the comments to herself.
The cop, a good-looking guy who seemed to be more of a friend to Thomas than simply a police officer who knew him, shook her hand as well. “What can I help you folks with today?” the officer asked.
“Patricia Moore has been to Cheri’s house,” said Thomas. “Actually, we think she may have been inside it.”
Cheri felt her face tighten at the mention of the woman’s name.
“You think, or are you sure?” Tony asked her directly. “What makes you suspect this?”
Thomas answered for her, “Cheri had a flat this morning, just a little while after I left her place and saw no sign of one. Clearly, someone let the air out of it, because the mechanic didn’t find a leak. She also had to stop at a service station for an air pump yesterday.”
“You didn’t drive on the flat and get hurt or in an accident, did you, ma’am?” the officer asked.
“No,” Thomas cut in again. “She told me a woman just happened be in a parked car outside her house with a compressor, a redhead.”
“Okay,” Tony said. “C’mon back here with me. I’ll show you some pictures to see if you can officially identify her. Also, I’ll need a direct statement from you to add to the case file,” Ton
y said to Cheri, silently admonishing Thomas with a scowl. “That means you’re gonna have to let her speak for herself, which I’m sure she’s well capable of doing,” he lectured.
“Got it,” said Thomas. “I just wish I could go back in time and fix this. I can’t handle this.”
The cop put his hand on Thomas’s chest. “Take a deep breath. It’ll take some work, but we’ll get her,” he promised.
“Does she have a history?” asked Cheri as they were led into a conference room.
“There’s one other complaint against her for a similar violation, but that’s all I can tell you,” the officer said. He then left the room and returned shortly with several photographs.
Cheri stared at one photo with morbid fascination, a mugshot of a woman with various colors of hair. “That’s her,” she remarked.
“See? A positive ID. Can you go get her now?” said Thomas impatiently.
The cop held up his hand. “Not so fast, Blazing Saddles,” he said tensely. “I don’t have anything to concretely link Patricia Moore to the flat tires. We all know she did it, but without substantial evidence and probable cause, we don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of… uh, sorry,” he said, stopping abruptly and looking at Cheri. “Of heck, I meant to say.”
Cheri laughed, taking an instant liking to the handsome police officer. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve gotten used to hell recently.”
Tony gave a half-hearted laugh. “Anyway, without any proof, we—”
Frustrated and finding no humor whatsoever in the situation or their banter, Thomas interrupted, “I know the drill here, Tony, but we have to do something. Who knows what this psycho is capable of?”
“I have the tire in my trunk that might have her prints on it,” Cheri offered, “and, like Thomas said, we think she’s been in my house. Maybe you can dust there, to put her, um, at the scene, I think they say on all the cop shows.”
“That we can do,” said Tony with a smile. He then glanced over at Thomas. “You’ve got a real level-headed one here,” he said. “Maybe you should take the hint.”
“Yeah, well, she’s my counterbalance, and it’s a good thing. If it was left up to me, I’m afraid I would’ve already gone nuts on this woman. Oh, and it goes without saying that that’s off the record.”
“Didn’t hear a thing,” said Tony dismissively, “and between me and you, I wouldn’t blame you.”
“I didn’t hear that either, Mr. Protect and Serve,” Thomas snarked.
“Well, look, what we can do now is ask for extra patrols around both your houses. If the Department won’t do it, I’ll make it my personal job. We’ll get someone over to process your property, since you believe she’s been in it.”
Thomas’s face brightened as if he’d suddenly experienced an epiphany, a horrific realization. “Oh shit,” he said.
“What is it?” Cheri asked.
“She tampered with the food,” he blurted.
“Food poisoning? Seriously?” Tony asked, scribbling notes in the case file and looking suspiciously up at Thomas.
“Not necessarily, but I think she dumped a bunch of salt in our food at Cheri’s place.”
“I don’t think we can get her on a Morton’s charge,” Tony said.
“Not funny, Tony,” Thomas said. “That was just lightweight, her way of letting us know how easily she can get to us. I’m afraid she’ll do much worse if we don’t put a stop to this.”
“Let her,” said Tony. “If we can catch her in the act or come up with solid evidence, I’ll put the cuffs on her myself,” he said.
“But what do we do in the meantime? What if someone gets hurt? I feel like we can’t go to my place, and I don’t want Cheri to be at her place with this woman acting as bold as she is,” said Thomas.
Cheri had been very quiet for a while, but she felt the need to interject at that point. “I think we should stage a major fight,” she said. “At least that way she’ll get off my back. When Tony and his people come to dust my house, I’ll blow my lid, make a big scene about you seeing other women, and tell you to go away.”
Thomas looked genuinely wounded. “But I don’t want us to be apart, especially not now,” he said. “I almost died during those weeks and months when you were lost to me.”
“So, we’ll see each other on the down low,” she said confidently. “We’ll find a way, and it might be kinda fun. It won’t last forever, but if we can trick her at least we’ll know she’s only targeting your place. That will make it easy to catch her.”
Tony looked like he was trying not to smile. “Hopefully, we won’t have to go that far. Maybe we’ll find solid evidence that she’s been in your house.”
“Check my salt container,” suggested Cheri. “It was brand new, and I just bought it at the market that day. I know she and I are the only two people who handled it. Unless she wiped everything down, you might find something there.”
“All jokes aside, if she was screwing with your food, we might be able to bust her on an attempted something-or-other, and that will earn her some jail time, maybe teach her a lesson,” said Tony.
“What about violating the restraining order?” said Thomas. “And shouldn’t we file one for Cheri?”
“Unfortunately, Cheri doesn’t have grounds yet, so the court probably won’t allow it,” replied the cop. “As for violation on yours, we’d have to prove that Moore was within 100 feet of you while you were with Cheri. Let’s move. The sooner we get on this, the sooner we’ll bust this woman.”
Cheri gave Tony her address and contact information before he concluded their meeting, and they all shook hands and went their separate ways.
When she and Thomas were alone again, she could not resist pressing into him. He was obviously plagued with guilt, but she found him absolutely beautiful, even in his distress.
“I’m so sorry,” he said heavily. “Dumb ass me, doing dumb ass things. I know that doesn’t fix anything, but I am really, really sorry.”
She ran her hands through his hair and pulled him close to her. “Thomas, I can’t sit here and tell you I’m cool with any of this. I guess part of me isn’t mad at you, but this is all very hard to process. I want to put all this crap behind us, so we can focus on us. We just have to move forward and get through this and hope nothing else happens,” she said.
“I didn’t ask for this. I mean, I know I caused it when I got loaded and dragged that insane woman into our lives, but—”
“We talked about her,” she said. “You and I had what I thought was a grownup conversation about her, but you failed to mention she was stalking you.”
“I know. I don’t know why,” he said, shaking his head. “I know that’s a lame excuse, and you deserve to know the truth. It’s just…always something. I didn’t think we were going to be so close so soon, I guess. I dreamt we would, but that wasn’t the reality I imagined. I thought it would take time, and I’d hoped she’d be entirely in the past by then, where she belongs.”
“I want us, Thomas Graham,” said Cheri. “I want a future with you, a real shot, but I don’t want to be a fool in the process. When I’m with you, it’s total magic, and I don’t want to live without that. I’m not sure I can, but we’ve got a lot of fixing to do.”
He looked her square in the eye. “I feel the same, and want that magic for a lifetime. I know I’ve been unsure of that for a very long time, because relationships and commitment scares me. Now, I just wanna work through the bullshit, get rid of this woman and all our demons, whatever they may be, and move on to us. I’m ready for it to just be us for the rest of our lives,” he said.
He took her hand and led her back out to the truck. There was no kissing, no passion; it was just him, laying it on the line for her. Cheri had a lot of thinking to do, because it felt like Thomas had just confessed another secret, admitting to how serious his feelings were about her. She wasn’t sure if he’d told her before, but she’d never really heard it, and now she was willing to listen. She ha
d plenty to mull over in her head as they drove to her house to wait for the police. The one thing she knew was that she wasn’t ready to give up on the magic they shared, and it was a good feeling to know he wasn’t either.
Chapter 10
When they arrived at Cheri’s house, the police were already there. There were several unmarked cars and police cruisers in the front of her house, but they were kind enough to leave enough room for Thomas to park his big, hulking truck.
“Hi, folks,” Tony said, leaning in the window.
“Hey, Tony,” Thomas answered, and Cheri gave him a friendly little wave from across the seat.
“When I give the nod,” the officer said to Cheri, “go ahead with your Oscar-worthy performance. I didn’t think it was something worth considering, but I have a feeling we might be needing it. Make it harsh and loud.” He winked. “I don’t wanna scare you here, but I think I saw our would-be perp a minute ago. She pulled away, but I suspect she just relocated to a remote spot so she can watch us from afar. That red mop of hers is pretty noticeable.”
Cheri’s heart beat rapidly in her chest. “All right,” she said, ready to find the stalker and demand that she leave them alone.
“Can you let us in the house?” asked Tony.
Cheri nodded and climbed out of the truck. There was never a graceful way to do that, since she was so petite and it was such an enormous vehicle. As soon as she landed back on Planet Earth from that awful height, she charged to the front door with her key at the ready and quickly unlocked it.
Tony turned to both Cheri and Thomas. “Now,” he said in a very low but commanding voice.
“I don’t need this shit!” shouted Cheri.
Thomas gripped her upper arm and glared at her, so intensely that he almost seemed serious. In fact, she looked at him with confusion until he winked. That let her know it was all an act, but she also knew there would be some painful truth in the words they were both about to say. “Grow up,” he said sarcastically. “This is a serious situation, and we’ve got to stand together. Letting this shit break us up is exactly what she wants!”