by Rainey Daye
“Do you mean that?” Alex breathed.
“I mean that. I’m crazy about you two.”
“And we’re crazy about you, Mags,” Jess said, breaking into what was fast becoming an uncomfortable conversation for him. Maggie acknowledged that happy-go-lucky Jess did not often want to examine his own feelings, so she simply offered him a smile and decided that she had to take Alex’s deeper emotions to heart and have a serious conversation with him in the very near future.
* * * *
As soon as they got home, Maggie excused herself to go upstairs to begin returning her belongings to the master bedroom. Alex and Jess took the opportunity to go into the office to discuss the Troy situation.
“He’s bound to come back soon,” Jess pointed out.
“Do you think he’s told his folks that he took the semester off to stalk his ex?”
“Well, when you put it that way, I’d have to say ‘no,’” Jess said with a grin.
“Unless his folks are as whacked as he is and told him to get her back at any cost.”
“If his parents were that whacked, then I think Lois and Bill would know. It’s hard to hide that kind of thing in a small town, you know.”
“What do you think drove him over the edge like this?” Alex wanted to know.
“Are you kidding? He lost Maggie, for cripes’ sake. Naturally he wants her back,” Jess exclaimed.
“Yeah, but he was with her for three, maybe four years. Don’t you think he would know her well enough to realize that stalking her is not the way to winning her back?” Alex pointed out.
“Maybe he had a psychotic break,” Jess said doubtfully.
“If he had a psychotic break, then I’m scared shitless for Mags,” Alex said tightly.
“Okay, if not a break, then maybe he didn’t buy our cover stories when we visited her and came here to save her from a life of debauchery and sin,” Jess offered as an alternative.
“So you think that’s why he’s watching the house? To gather evidence to support his hypothesis?”
“Uh, I guess so,” Jess said lamely.
“I can see that you recognize the flaws in that theory,” Alex pointed out. “If he’s looking into our debauched lifestyle, then why only watch from across the street? Why not peek in the windows? Why not have a camera with a telephoto lens around his neck? You haven’t noticed him with a camera, have you? Well, neither have I,” Alex said after Jess shook his head no.
“Okay, I concede that Troy’s actions make no sense to us but probably make perfect sense to him and that once we figure out what he’s up to, it will make perfect sense to us, too. But what I really want to know is, if Troy is so gung ho about getting Maggie back, why is he fucking the brunette?”
“That makes no sense to me either. Unless he’s starting to get off on spying on us so he went out to find a fuck buddy.”
Jess sat silently, considering the angles. Finally he said, “We really should have given our cell numbers to that druggie at the motel and asked him to give us a call when Troy returns.”
“Shit!” Alex exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “I should have thought of that. Hold the fort with Mags, and I’ll go do that right now.”
“What? Now? Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. If Troy drove the Conners to the airport, then they probably told him how long they were staying. So there’s no reason for him to get back before today as there shouldn’t be anything for him to spy on with them around. So best guess is he’ll either get back today or sometime tomorrow. I’m betting on tomorrow. So if I go tonight, I can pass a few bills to our buddy with a promise of more to come whenever he provides us with useful info.”
“You know Maggie is probably in the mood for a threesome since it’s been so long. What do I tell her about where you are?”
Alex thought furiously. Finally he said, “Hopefully she’ll be too busy moving her stuff back in to jump our bones right away and I can get back here before she comes looking for us. But if she decides she can’t wait, just tell her I ran out to get some honey to make tonight more memorable. Oh, and grab the honey out of the pantry and hide it in here. I’ll grab it when I get back and bring it upstairs with me,” he finished with a grin.
“Honey? Kinky,” Jess said with an answering grin. “I like it. Tonight should be fun.”
* * * *
The next morning, the three lovers shared a long shower as they washed the honey residue off their bodies. Afterward, Jess stripped the sticky sheets off the bed and carried them downstairs to the laundry room while Alex made the bed and Maggie blow-dried her hair in the bathroom.
It wasn’t until that afternoon that Maggie separated from them to run to the campus library to get a book for her term paper, giving Alex and Jess a chance to meet in the north quad so that Alex could tell Jess that Troy hadn’t returned to the motel as of last night and that the druggie guy had agreed to become their snitch.
“So do you think Troy is gone for good or just late in getting back here?” Jess wanted to know.
“Not sure. If his folks don’t know about his extracurricular activities, then I would say that he’ll be back real soon to continue his spying.”
“I wonder if he’s expected home for Christmas break or if he’s offered some kind of excuse to his parents so he can continue harassing us,” Jess mused.
“Technically, he’s not harassing us,” Alex pointed out.
Jess shot him an exasperated look. “Are you sure you don’t want to change your major to law? I think you’ll make a kick-ass, stuffed-shirt lawyer.”
“I’m not a stuffed shirt,” Alex grumped.
“Well, since the honey was your idea, and that was frankly a stroke of genius on your part, I would have to agree that you’re not a stuffed shirt,” Jess conceded with an eyebrow-waggling grin.
“Behave,” Alex admonished him.
“I take it back. You are a stuffed shirt after all,” Jess said, and Alex burst into laughter.
They meandered over to an empty bench and took a seat. “So what’s the game plan?”
Alex didn’t need any clarification. “I think we can breathe easy until our snitch gives us a call. And then we keep an eye out for Troy around campus. See if he’s actually following Maggie around here.”
“So one of us should always be at her side, hmmm?”
“Actually, I think it might tip Troy off if we alter our behavior. Granted, he may not be following Maggie around campus, but our guy did tell me that Troy’s gone all day, so unless he’s been breaking into our house and leaving no sign of his presence there, my vote goes to him wandering around campus watching her. Why else have her schedule if he’s not going to use it?”
“And how else did he get her schedule unless he’s followed her around?” Jess pointed out.
“Exactly. Unless inspiration struck him and he’s decided to try something else when he gets back, I say we stick to our original plan of turning the hunter into the hunted. He doesn’t know we’re on to him, so we simply keep our eyes peeled for him and observe him instead.”
“Wanna keep watching him at night, too?” Jess wanted to know.
“I don’t see why we should stop.”
“It’s kind of boring watching him from Danny’s car,” Jess whined.
“Yeah, well, what do you suggest? We already agreed that we shouldn’t get a private detective involved, even if we could afford one.”
“What about the cops?” Jess suggested, voicing the one possibility they hadn’t discussed yet. “All we have to do is make an anonymous call that we saw someone climbing a tree in front of the Gaynard’s house late at night. And since we now know where he’s staying, it’ll give us tension-free evenings.”
“Uh, hello? Where have you been? We’re not calling the cops because we know exactly where to find him. Whether it’s up a tree or at his motel, or at his girlfriend’s tenement, we know where to look. If he gets scared off by the cops, he’ll simply find another vantage point
to spy on us from and maybe move to another motel. Do you really want to go through the hassle of tracking him down again?”
“What if they don’t chase him off but catch him instead? That would solve a lot of our problems.”
“I don’t see him doing jail time for stalking. A restraining order, maybe, but I don’t think that would stop him from simply finding another place to watch us from.”
“Fuck. If we only knew what that prick wanted. This is a piss-poor way of trying to win Maggie back,” Jess fumed.
“I agree. It would help if we knew what he ultimately hopes to accomplish. I can’t help but wonder if he’s so far gone he’s lost sight of his goal.”
They sat there in silence then, scowling at nothing while they each considered motives, moves, and possible outcomes. Suddenly “Mary Jane” by Rick James started blaring from Alex’s pocket, and Jess raised his eyebrows in surprise. Alex forestalled him by holding up one hand as he fished out his phone.
“Yeah? Uh-huh. Okay, okay, when? Okay, thanks, man. I’ll start a tab. Okay. Bye.” Alex hung up the phone, looking unhappy.
“What the hell was that?” Jess demanded.
“That was our snitch. Troy just rolled in.”
“Great.” Jess sighed. “So much for hoping for some type of reprieve.”
“Yeah. Our greasy friend is now on payroll. Told him one of us would stop by once a week to pay the tab,” Alex sighed, wincing at the hit his wallet was going to take. “Oh, heads up, man. When your phone starts playing ‘One Toke Over the Line,’ that’s our snitch giving you a call. You’re starting a tab, too.”
“Huh? And why that song?”
Alex shrugged. “Thought it appropriate that we use those ringtones for him since he’s always toking on a joint. So I programmed both our phones last night after he gave me his number so we know who’s calling before we pick up and can put our game faces on if Maggie’s around.”
“Ah. Gotcha. Makes sense,” Jess said. “But tell me something?”
“What?”
“How long did it take you to research different songs on the Internet last night and send the ringtone to our cells?”
Alex simply flipped him off with a snort.
* * * *
As they were about to leave the house the next morning, Alex’s phone started playing “Mary Jane,” and he hung back for a moment to answer it.
As he climbed into the backseat of Jess’s car, Jess tilted his head up and made eye contact with him through the rearview mirror. Jess was rewarded with a quick nod, and Maggie was none the wiser. Once on campus, they parted company with Alex at the entrance to Newman Hall, and he and Maggie continued toward class, Jess keeping a wary eye out for Troy to see if he truly did follow Maggie around campus.
They found a couple of empty seats by the other members of their study group, and as Jess was deftly deflecting one of Molly’s usual sexual innuendoes, he glanced out the window and saw Troy walk by. His stomach clenched, and it was all he could do to keep from rushing out of the room and beating the crap out of the psycho stalker. He took a deep breath before turning away from the window, only to see Maggie staring out it, white as a ghost.
Oh, crap! He thought, and then Maggie met his eyes and he momentarily froze at what he saw there. He barely restrained himself from grabbing her arm and propelling her from the room so they could talk. For all he knew, they would mow Troy down as they were leaving, and he thought Alex would object to Troy having his cover blown.
“Not here. Not now,” Jess murmured urgently in her ear as he took his seat next to her.
Maggie looked at him, startled.
“Wait until we get home,” Jess spoke out of the corner of his mouth as he leaned over and pulled his textbook out of his backpack.
He saw Maggie glance once around the room before she gave a small nod of acknowledgement and opened her own textbook as the prof began his lecture.
Jess spent the entire class cursing soundly in his head and working out and discarding various scenarios. Maggie was going to insist on full disclosure. But she was going to be royally pissed off if they told her the extent of their knowledge.
Then again, what was the extent of hers? She hadn’t looked dumbfounded, flabbergasted, or even confused when she obviously spied Troy strolling past the window. Instead she had looked…Well, she looked frightened. Why frightened? That was the thought that frightened Jess the most.
Damn it! He really needed Alex to bounce things off of. Jess wasn’t nearly as introverted as Alex. They balanced each other perfectly, complementing each other’s strengths and shoring up their weaknesses. And one of Jess’s weaknesses was deep thoughts. Not that he couldn’t have them. More that he shied away from them. Alex was so much better at figuring the angles in any given situation than Jess was. And that was why Jess needed Alex right now. He was sure that Alex would be able to analyze all the scenarios whereas Jess would get hung up on one or two and ignore the rest, usually to his own determent. And right now, he was thinking that he had royally screwed up with his terse comments to Maggie. Alex would have kept his head and not acknowledged her reaction to seeing Troy. No, Alex would have blithely slapped on an innocent face and pretended that he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. Or he would have expressed concern that she might be having another episode like she had had prior to the holiday break.
Holy shit! Was that what had caused her to hyperventilate in the first place? Had she seen Troy then? Fuck, fuck, fuck! Jess had screwed up royally, and he had no idea what to say to her. He didn’t want to be forced to lie to her, but if he tried to stonewall her until he and Alex got her home and he had a chance to give Alex a heads-up, she might get so angry that she stormed off in a pique, and Troy would have a clear shot at her. For all he knew, the only reason Troy hadn’t approached Maggie yet was because either he or Alex were always around. If not close by, then they were hovering in the near distance. He or Alex shared every class with Maggie except one this semester, just so they could spend more quality time together. And now he was damn glad that they had gone overboard with the whole togetherness thing, having signed up for their classes within days of Maggie returning from her six-week visit home and the three of them still recovering from that enforced separation. So they had overcompensated when they had chosen their courses for this term. And right now, having positive proof that Troy did indeed come to the campus to watch her, Jess was damn glad for that fact. He had a feeling that it was their almost constant presence that was keeping Troy from announcing himself to her, perhaps even from kidnapping her!
But Maggie had seen him. And from her reaction, she had seen him before this. What did that mean? Damn it! When would class be over so he could whisk them both home, lock Maggie in their room where she’d be safe, and talk things over with Alex before they sat down with her?
His thoughts were running circles in his mind. He was pretty sure he had reached the same conclusions more than once already, and still he came back to the same one. Maggie knew Troy was here and watching her. It explained why she had acted surprised when her mom told them Troy had driven her and Bill to the airport, because Maggie thought Troy was still here in town. So how long had she known, and what exactly did she know? Had she spoken to him? Had he already approached her only to get shot down? Was kidnapping next on Troy’s list?
Jess groaned as his thoughts started to gouge deep furrows in his brain matter. Maggie shot him a look of alarm, and he offered her a wan smile in return, which she obviously wasn’t buying judging by her frown. He closed his eyes and mentally recited every curse word he had ever heard and a few that he made up. When he opened his eyes and saw her still eyeing him funny, he closed his eyes again and tried the words in various combinations. But when he looked at her again, her own eyes had narrowed upon him.
At that moment, the professor announced that he wanted them to break into pairs to practice what he had just been expounding on with some role playing. Jess hesitated, since normally he would pair off
with Maggie and right now he didn’t want to be alone with her until he had a better grip on the situation. So when Molly licked her lips and said, “Come on, Jess. Partner with me,” Jess smiled amiably and said sure.
He was aware of Maggie’s eyes drilling holes in the back of his head as he allowed Molly to lead him toward a couple of empty chairs in the back of the room while the rest of the class shifted their own chairs as they split into their pairs. He glanced at the clock above the door and noted that Alex’s class wouldn’t start for another five minutes, so taking a chance, he told Molly he had to run to the restroom first before they got down to business, and ducked out into the hallway.
Looking left and right to make sure Troy wasn’t hovering nearby, he pulled out his cell and punched the speed dial for Alex.
“What’s wrong?” was Alex’s question, alarm evident in his voice caused by the uncharacteristic nature of Jess’s phone call.
“Troy walked by our classroom window. Maggie saw him. She didn’t seem surprised.”
“What?”
“I know. She seemed frightened, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. And I may have screwed up,” he confessed.
“Jesus, Jesse. Don’t tell me you ran after him?”
“No! Sheesh. I’m not that stupid. Though I wanted to, believe me. I wanted nothing more than to pummel that piece of shit into the ground—”
“Jesse!” Alex snapped. “Stay on topic. How did you screw up?”
“I told Maggie, ‘not here or now, we’ll talk at home’ and she gave me a funny look and has been looking at me funny ever since. She’s not stupid, so my guess is she’s already figured out that we also know about Troy, and I have no fucking clue what to say to her when class lets out. And you know how she’s going to try to pin me down and get some answers. And I don’t know what the fuck to tell her—”
“Jesse! You’re rambling again. Get a grip. Shit. Okay,” Alex continued in a different tone of voice, having obviously done some quick thinking. “I’ll be waiting for you after class. I don’t like breaking our pattern like this, but we don’t have a choice. I’ll figure out what to do while you’re in class.”