“I’m not sure,” I responded nervously as Addison chewed her lower lip, eying me. “Can’t you just try to cover up the bruising with makeup?”
Gritting her teeth, she gingerly tapped the bruising around my cut. “Yeow!” I howled, batting her hands away. “Why did you do that?”
“To show you that I won’t be able to get anywhere near that cut with a makeup sponge,” she chided. “Where are your scissors?”
“Kitchen junk drawer.” As she went in search of them, I surveyed the mess that was scattered across my dresser, nightstand and floor. Makeup. Clothes. Bags. Hair tools. Shoes. What a good friend I had in Addison Dawes.
Addie returned and took a small handful of my hair in her fist. Picking up her straightener, she began to iron out the curls until she held a thick, straight curtain of dark hair. Slowly, cautiously, she snipped. After a few moments, she swept the straightened hair to the side pinning it into place, stepped back and surveyed her work. “Not bad,” she muttered, passing me a handheld mirror. I gasped. She’d managed to completely cover the gash and surrounding bruise under an adorable patch of bangs. “Now for makeup,” she said, taking the mirror and setting it behind her.
By the time Addison had finished, I appeared more put together than I probably had in weeks. She’d paired my outfit with a pair of gray leather boots that had been sitting untouched in my closet for over a year. Additionally, she’d chosen a pair of silver hoop earrings and a matching bracelet from my jewelry box. Even my makeup looked flawless, despite the abrupt end to it right around the bruising. Together, we packed up all of her belongings and carried them down to her car before she dropped me off at the warehouse. “Call me if you need a ride,” she said, kissing me lightly on the cheek. “Actually, just call me when you get home, no matter what.”
I waved goodbye to her at the door and let myself inside to wait. Someone had removed the black curtain and I found myself hugging my body as I walked through the studio, my footsteps echoing off the walls. I was so engrossed that I didn’t hear anyone walk in.
“Wow,” Rory said, appreciatively adding a low whistle. “You look fantastic.” He gave me a twirl motion with his finger and I obligingly spun in a slow circle. “Hot date?” he asked.
“Who should be meeting me here at any moment,” I responded.
Just then, the main door opened and Mika stepped in. Rory raised his eyebrows at me, wiggled them in a suggestive fashion, grinning as he walked back towards the admin wing. “Let me know if you need a ride later,” he called over his shoulder.
I chucked and walked towards Mika. “Hi,” I said shyly, unsure of what to do.
He flashed me his crooked smile and I about died on the spot. “Hi,” he responded. “Marian, you look…wow.”
“Thanks,” I replied shyly suddenly aware of nothing other than the pounding of my heart.
He reached out for my hand and held it even as he opened the door. Once on the street, we began walking towards the main hub of downtown. “I’d drive us, but it’s probably just as easy to walk now that the sidewalks have been cleared of snow. Plus, it makes for a longer conversation.”
“Unless the conversation is uncomfortable, in which case, we’ll both have wished you’d driven,” I teased back, surprised at how natural the flirting felt.
He laughed. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” he said, squeezing my hand gently. “Well, look, I didn’t make a reservation. I decided that we could just go with what we felt like and if it’s a long wait, we just have that much longer to get to know one another.”
“Sounds great,” I smiled. My stomach growled in disagreement, but I ignored it.
We decided on a restaurant situated on the riverfront, lucking into a window table when our names were called. Mika and I lingered over wine and appetizers, laughing heartily and playing off of the other in conversation. It was like a meal between long lost friends. I felt as if I’d known him forever.
After dinner, and better still, cheesecake for dessert, we walked along the riverfront for a short time before finally bowing to the cold and snow. Hurrying our way back down to the warehouse, we gripped hands tightly, pulling one another along against the wind.
The office was empty, lights turned off. I unlocked the doors and Mika and I ducked inside, laughing. “I had a great time,” he told me after our giggles had subsided.
“I did too,” I replied honestly.
“Again, then, Marian. Soon,” he said.
I could only nod. Would he kiss me? I wasn’t sure. I found myself getting lost in his bright blue eyes and leaned back against the door for support, ignoring the chill that crept through my sweater. I noticed that while he had retrieved his keys from his pocket, he was only fiddling with them and didn’t seem in much of a hurry to get out the door. I swallowed. It had been a considerable amount of time since a man looked at me in the way Mika was looking at me now. While I didn’t want to give him the wrong impression, I also wanted whatever he was prepared to offer in that moment. And what was wrong with that? I owed this to myself. Especially considering everything I’d been through in the last 24 hours. Besides, I was showered and had actually bothered to shave my legs this afternoon — a feat I hadn’t attempted since summer, from what it looked like. Plus Mika could just as soon dump me after our first date as our 50th.
Mika seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because he was moving closer. Our eyes remained locked as he drew near. My palms began to sweat. My breath probably wasn’t the greatest. I hadn’t kissed anyone in about three years either. This had potential disaster written all over it. Additionally, my hair was starting to wilt. I brushed it out of my eyes and licked my lips in anticipation. He stopped. “Marian!” he cried in surprise, leaping the last few feet to my side. He gently starting combing my straightened bangs off of my forehead and I instantly realized what I’d done.
“Oh no,” I moaned, combing everything back into place with my fingertips. “It’s fine, it’s fine, just leave it.”
“Marian, what happened?”
“I just had a little…accident. It’s no big deal.”
“You look like you smashed your head on the concrete.” We stared at one another long and hard. “You’re telling me you actually smashed your head on the concrete?”
“Something like that.”
“Go on.”
“It’s nothing. It’s just that my car exploded yesterday and it’s possible that someone is trying to kill me, but it’s probably not a big deal and it’s really nothing you should worry about.” I paused. “But maybe we shouldn’t eat the baked goods from any further photo shoots until everything settles down a bit,” I added.
He seemed to take all of this in stride, but something seemed to dawn on him as he watched me. “Your car exploded?” he asked. “How were you going to get home tonight?”
“I guess I was having such a great time that I forgot about that. I can just call Addie.”
“Absolutely not. I’m happy to give you a ride home.”
“Oh, you don’t have to-”
“Marian? Shut up and get in the truck.”
As it turned out, Mika owned a Jeep that was the same deep blue as his eyes. I briefly wondered if that had been intentional. I liked a Jeep on a man. Good, rugged vehicle. Even better was that it housed a black leather interior with seat warmers. When Mika pulled to a stop in front of my building, I paused before exiting, wondering if there was any hope of rekindling the magic that we’d cast back at the studio. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. “I’d like to kiss you,” he said, leaning forward and touching his palm to my cheek. “If that would be okay.”
Addie had told me earlier that day that Mika looked like the kind of man who knew what he was doing. “Really attractive men are usually atrocious in the bedroom,” she’d said as she straightened my hair. “They think it’s enough to just look good.” I believed her because she’d been with her fair share of incredibly attractive men. “But there’s something
about that one. Something that makes me think he can blow your mind.”
Up until this moment, I wasn’t totally sure what I was expecting. Nothing like what would follow. He wrapped his free hand in the hair at the base of my skull and gently held me there as he moved in to kiss my chin, my jaw and even my neck. I allowed my eyes to flutter closed as he trailed soft licks and kisses down my collarbone. Without warning, he pressed his lips softly to mine and loosened his hand in my hair, allowing me to sink into him. Our tongues touched and the kiss grew deeper. My entire body immediately morphed into jelly and I thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t received this kiss while standing.
When it was over, I was frozen in place with my eyes still closed. After a few seconds, I blinked them open. Mika was smiling back at me. Grinning, I reached for the door handle and managed to get it open on my third attempt. Rattled, I tried stepping out of the Jeep only to realize that I was still buckled in. Laughing nervously, I unstrapped the harness and all but fell out of the car, catching myself on the door. “Careful, it’s pretty slippery out here,” I told him, slamming the door closed behind me and walking as quickly as possible to the lobby of my building.
Once inside, I turned to wave and it wasn’t until I got to the elevator that the full weight of what had just happened sunk in. Somewhere around the fourth floor, I completely lost it. Somewhere around the eighth floor, I was back in moderate control. By the time the elevator doors zinged open on my floor, I was a picture of calm. Floating to my door, I inserted my key into the lock and turned it. Nothing happened. The door was already unlocked.
I paused, trying to think back to earlier in the day when Addison and I left, our hands full of items she was taking home with her. Had I remembered to lock the door behind me? Frantically, I began tracing my steps back through the evening. I had, in fact, remembered to lock both the knob and the deadbolt, I recalled, because I’d made Addison take all of my bags as I searched for my keys to do so.
My heart was pounding in my chest as I slowly removed the key from the lock. Taking a step backwards, I tried to take a deep, calming breath. I wasn’t sure what to do. I could go downstairs, but I didn’t have a car. I could just go inside, but I ran the risk of interrupting whatever was happening. Chances were it wasn’t just a random break-in as there were no signs of forced entry. Making my way slowly towards the stairwell, I started to dig around for my phone. I could call 911. Granted, I was already on thin ice as it was. Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Chances were that whoever got sent out to check my place at this hour wasn’t going to be anyone I’d interacted with before. Maybe they wouldn’t recognize me.
About halfway down the first staircase, I pressed the emergency call button on my phone. “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” asked a bored voice.
“Someone broke into my apartment,” I hissed, looking up to make sure that I wasn’t being followed.
“Okay, ma’am, are you currently in your apartment?”
“No, I’m heading down to the lobby.”
“What’s your address?” I rattled it off and she repeated it back to me. Once I confirmed, she promised that units were on their way, before asking, “Was your door open? Or how did you know that someone had broken in?”
“The door was unlocked.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line and the clicking of her keyboard stopped. “I’m sorry?” she asked.
“The door was unlocked,” I repeated. “I distinctly recall locking it when I left this evening. When I put in my key to unlock it when I got back, it was already unlocked.”
“Were there any signs of forced entry?” she asked, and the typing picked up again.
“No,” I sighed. “Look. I know this sounds crazy, but I think someone is trying to kill me. First the cupcakes, then the car and now they’re just going to handle it themselves.” When there was no response, I sighed again. “You’re sure someone is on the way?”
“Yes, ma’am. Please just stay on the line with me until they arrive.”
“That’s fine,” I told her. “I’m in the lobby, now. I’ll just wait.”
“Ma’am, I’m happy to-”
“Thanks,” I said, cutting her off and clicking off the call. Hugging myself, I leaned against one of the whitewashed walls in the lobby and caught my reflection in a mirror that resembled a sunburst. I looked pretty good, save for the weariness that was evident in my eyes. Blowing my loose bangs out of my eyes, I turned towards the main doors of the lobby and waited. Hopefully someone from the police department arrived before whoever was upstairs made it down here. Wasn’t there a statistic that chances were whoever was trying to kill you was someone you knew?
Over the next ten minutes, the elevator dinged itself open a total of seven times, which is about the number of coronaries I experienced. Would I recognize the person who stepped off?
I continually checked my watch, paced the lobby and looked outside, hoping that the emergency operator hadn’t changed her mind and called off the squad because I’d hung up on her. She wasn’t allowed to do that, was she? If you are under the impression that ten minutes doesn’t feel like a lifetime, I’m sorry to say that you’re incorrect.
When a squad car finally parked in front of my building, I pulled tightly at my jacket and ran outside. The lights on the car weren’t flashing, but whoever it was had been clipping along at a pretty good speed and was forced to come to an abrupt stop. The driver side door opened as I waited in front of my building, hopping from one foot to the other, trying desperately to stay warm.
“Hey Marian!” said the man who stepped out of the vehicle.
Wonderful. Now I was going to look like a spastic idiot in front of someone that knew exactly who I was. Wait a second. Was that- “Barry?” I asked, squinting through the cold windy darkness.
“That’s my name!”
“What are you doing over here? This neighborhood isn’t anywhere near your beat.”
“I recognized your address when the call came over the radio. Seeing as how you’ve had all kinds of problems lately, I assumed you had made the call. Thought I’d pop over and see if I could be of any help.”
“I think someone is in my apartment,” I said, trailing him inside and over to the elevator. “I locked my door when I left today and when I got home, it was unlocked.” Barry fixed me with a look as we rode up to my floor. “I know I sound crazy, but it’s true!” I promised, throwing my hands in the air. I was tired of sounding crazy.
“Did you ever get that gun?” he asked, turning down the radio speaker that was attached to his uniform.
“Yes.”
“Well where is it?”
“In my sock drawer.”
Barry snorted. “Fat lot of good it does you in there.”
When we stopped on my floor, Barry made a “stay behind me” motion as he crept towards the door. His hand slowly wrapped around his gun, which he pulled quietly from its holster. Very slowly, he twisted the doorknob, pushing the door wide open and raised his gun towards my living room. It was completely black save for the moonlight that shown in through the windows. “Light switch?” he whispered, not bothering to lower his weapon. I thought it an odd question, considering the panel was in clear view just ahead, but maybe he wasn’t paying attention to that. “Left side,” I answered.
Still holding tightly to his gun with his right hand, Barry stepped in and flipped on the lights. “Wait here,” he told me as he continued inside the apartment. Hugging myself tightly, I waited just outside, straining to hear for any loud thuds or shouts, but none came. “Coast is clear,” he told me finally, coming around the corner and holstering his gun. “But you’re right about one thing. Someone was definitely in here. It looks like they were interrupted, though.” He checked my locks carefully, searching for signs of forced entry.
Pushing past him, I ran my eyes over the living room, which was completely torn to bits. Pillows and blankets were everywhere, my couch cushions were overturned and all of the d
rawers to my entertainment center stood open, like a slack-jawed idiot, befuddled that it had been violated so harshly. The rug that was under the couch had been thrown back as if someone had been looking for trick floorboards. My bedroom was much of the same. The bed was a mess, my dresser ransacked with clothes thrown all over the place. My nightstand however, remained untouched. Hurrying over, I pulled open the second drawer, where my gun was still safely stashed inside a large pair of fluffy pink socks. Breathing a sigh of relief, I tucked it, sock and all, into my purse and quietly closed the drawer.
When I stepped back into the living room, Barry was calling for backup. Stepping over to Fred’s tank, I dropped in a small pinch of food. He went after the flakes with vigor. “I’ll give you more if you can tell me who was in here,” I promised, tapping lightly on his bowl. He ignored my offer and continued to eat the food that came without strings attached. Sighing, I turned back to Barry. “So what do I do now?” I asked.
“First we wait. Then, honestly? I’d recommend you find a place to crash for a few days.”
What a crock. I was being chased out of my own home. Despite the problems, it was still my haven. I hated the idea of living elsewhere, if only until the robber was caught. Who knew how long that would take? Besides, there was a chance it was all a big coincidence, right? That the robber and the killer were not one in the same? “I’ll be in the hall,” I muttered. Outside my apartment, I hastily dialed the first number that came to mind. Addison.
“Ohmigawwwwd,” she squealed, picking up on the first ring. “I’ve been waiting for you to call. How was the date?”
“I’m home.”
She gasped. “Is he there with you? I can’t believe you already brought him upstairs! That is totally a page torn straight from my personal book of life. How is he? Is he as good as I thought he’d be? Better? Like, way better?”
“Addie, I need a ride.”
“Well, get off the phone and go get one! Why are you still talking to me?”
“No, Addison. He’s not at my place. He dropped me off. But someone broke into my apartment.”
Allison Janda - Marian Moyer 01 - Sex, Murder & Killer Cupcakes Page 10