Antecedent

by Susan Stumpf

"Hello, Miss Polanski," the older cop from last night said, smiling.

  "Hi," I said nervously, wondering what he was doing here. I was glad I'd thrown the half of the bat Brian had found in the bushes into the fire just a little bit ago.

  "I see you got your window fixed already?"

  "Yes, the installers just left actually."

  What did he want? I know he didn't just come by to see if my window was fixed. I ran through a list of horrible scenarios in my head of things he could have found out or discovered about last night.

  "Well, I guess this is kind of useless then." He handed me a business card of a window installer. "My brother just got new windows and they did a great job on his house, so I thought I'd get the info for you."

  "Oh, thank you, Officer?.?"

  "Mathews, but you can call me Phil."

  "Ok, thanks, Phil."

  I started to close the door but he started talking again.

  "There was another reason for me stopping by."

  Oh boy, here it is, I'm going to jail. They found a body, they found the guy in the dumpster and found my DNA. One of my neighbors saw something; somebody saw Brian standing in my yard holding the bloody bat and reported it.

  "I was wondering if you'd like to go to dinner some time?" He finished.

  My mouth dropped open. Not that the guy wasn't cute, it just wasn't what I expected. Ordinarily I may have said yes. The thought of having a boyfriend was nice, but a cop hanging around with my new job and all the crazy things that had been going on lately didn't sound like a good idea and I'm sure Bo would strongly object.

  "I appreciate the offer but I actually just got out of a long, horrible relationship, and I really want to be single for awhile."

  Lame excuse I know, but I wasn't sure what else to say. I'm sorry, but I've got too many vampires hanging around to have a cop boyfriend.

  "Ok well if you get tired of being single give me a call," he said. "My number is on the back of that card."

  "I'll keep that in mind," I smiled sweetly so he wouldn't feel too rejected. I shut the door and went to lie back down on the couch. What an insane twenty-four hours it had been! I was emotionally exhausted.

  I must have been physically exhausted as well because although it was only around dinner time I fell asleep on the couch. Bacon must have been tired too because he didn't growl or bark so it scared me half to death when Bo touched my leg. I sat straight up on the couch and let out a half scream.

  "Jeez Em, relax, it's just me," he said.

  "Relax, RELAX? Two vampires broke into my house and tried to KILL me! You knew they were following us here and you still left me alone. They could have killed me before you came back!" I screamed at him. "I can't relax!"

  I guess all the recent stress finally caught up with me because I started crying.

  "I wouldn't let anything happen to you," he said putting his arm around me. "A good day man is too hard to find."

  I scoffed and smacked his chest a couple times, pushing him away.

  "You're an insensitive jerk, Bohuslav Pavlok, and I really hate you right now."

  He laughed. "You and I couldn't take on two vamps just the two of us. I needed to go get help. If I'd have stayed, we'd both be dead."

  "What if they killed me before you got back?" I asked, sniffling.

  "Honestly, I thought they would case the place a little longer, waiting to see if Wu was hanging around. I thought Wu and I would be able to catch them by surprise outside while they were watching the place."

  "But now they know where I live and could come back whenever they want," I cried.

  "I know, and I'm sorry. I really didn't think one would get away."

  He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to me.

  "Why oh why did I hire a woman," he said to himself.

  "Hey!" I protested.

  That reminded me; the woman at the animal shelter had asked about a guy, the "day man" before me. I couldn't remember his name.

  "What happened to the guy before me?" I asked.

  "Jason, he died," Bo answered.

  "?of old age?" I asked.

  "No," was all he said.

  Was he not going to elaborate? Does that mean something really bad happened to him?

  "Ah, you ate him didn't you?!"

  "No! He died in a freak accident while he was on vacation. It had nothing to do with me."

  "Oh," I wiped my face and handed his handkerchief back to him.

  "Bo?" I asked after we sat there in silence for a few minutes.

  "Yeah?"

  "Do you think the seed hunters will come back?"

  "I don't know," he said. "I hope not. I hope they think one seed isn't worth the trouble of having to fight off another vamp and a bat-wielding crazy woman."

  "Any chance he died from me stabbing him?" I asked hopefully.

  "No, the wooden stake thing is a myth."

  "Why are there so many myths tied in with vampire legend?" I wondered aloud.

  "People fear what they don't understand, it's human nature," he answered. "I think the thought of a creature that can only be killed by fire or sunlight was just too frightening for people to handle so they made up other ways to destroy us just to make themselves feel better. Yes, we may be hard to kill, but we're by no means invincible."

  Talking with Bo made me feel a little better but I was still very much on edge. When a dog barking outside nearly made me jump out of my skin, Bo suggested that we go back to his place where I could relax since I was a "basket case", as he called me.

  I admit, I spent every night for the next few weeks at Bo's. I was so scared to stay at my place by myself at night. When I did finally stay I made Bo promise to stay as long as he could. Things finally calmed down, and I became occupied with Christmas preparations.

  I talked the guys into letting me put up a tree in the shop and decorating it with all antique ornaments for sale. I also talked them into having a company Christmas party. In the last several years I'd grown to hate holidays because I was usually alone for them. I spent last Christmas with Charlie and his sisters. He called it a disaster. His family fought the whole time, but I thought it was nice just to be in a house full of people for the holidays. They didn't know how lucky they were to have a family to fight with. I had no one for so long. I was happy to have my new strange little family to spend it with.

  The tree with antique ornaments was a complete success, and Li and Wu agreed to do it every year. The Christmas party was also great. We had it on the main floor of the shop. I guess Bo didn't like the idea of having it downstairs with all of us in his personal space. Bo invited Esther who came all dressed up like it was a red carpet affair. I guess she didn't get out to too many parties and this was a very big deal to her. I also thought she wanted to impress Bo. I was still convinced she had a school girl type crush on him and probably always had. I felt bad, I didn't know she was coming and I hadn't gotten her a gift. I got Bo a newly released game that I knew he would love. For Wu, I had scored an autographed copy of a Beach Boys album-I'm talking LP- which he went crazy for. Li was a tough one, but I knew he would appreciate a gift card to Teavana.

  It was wonderful sitting around our antique Christmas tree exchanging gifts. Bo got Esther a beautiful necklace, and she blushed when he put it on her. He gave me a beautiful gold bracelet with caramel-colored stones. He said it was Baltic amber from his home country, and I was touched at such a sentimental gift. Wu's gift for me brought a bout of laughter and a retelling of our epic battle. He got me a new baseball bat with the words "Vamp whacker" etched on it. Li enrolled me in cooking classes, which I had mixed feelings about. I'd love to know how to cook, but I was afraid I would be terrible at it. I didn't want the evening to end. We sat for most of the night laughing and telling stories. I was hoping it wouldn't be another year before we could do it again.

  The start of the New Year is when things really started unraveling. I remember the day clearly. I'd woken up in the early afterno
on, it'd been a late night working so I didn't figure I'd be called upon to do much. I'd just planned to catch up on some of my eBay work. I read the paper as I ate lunch. I was completely shocked to see Charlie and Bianca's wedding announcement.

  "No freakin' way!" I stared at the paper in amazement. He was going to marry that tramp after only dating a few months? We had dated for like a year and he cringed anytime anyone said the word marriage. Why was he going to marry her? What did she have that I didn't have? Maybe she was pregnant, yeah, that must be it. I didn't want Charlie back at all. Especially after learning he'd cheated on me with Bianca. He was her mess now, but how come a jerk like that was getting married and I was single?

  I decided to treat myself to a day out to feel better. I went upstairs, showered, shaved, plucked and polished myself. I did a face mask, hair mask, mani and pedi. I put on my favorite little black dress with my favorite heels and went out shopping. I always liked shopping but never really had the extra money to go. Now after working for Bo a few months, I was caught up on all my bills and had paid my credit card almost completely off. So, I was going to go all out this evening. I bought a tall pair of boots and some new perfume and went to get some clothes as well. I tried on some really cute jeans but the sizing must be a little off because my usual size eight didn't fit. I tried on a few other things and got the same result. I guess that problem with my metabolism and my eating habits were finally catching up with me.

  I gave up on shopping; this was just going to be a bad day all around. So now I was single and getting fat. How depressing! I needed comfort food. I stopped at a restaurant on my way home to get dinner and the waitress greeted me a little too cheerily for my mood.

  "How many in your party?" Miss Perky Pants asked.

  "Just me," I said.

  "Oh."

  Little Miss Prozac thought I'd be more comfortable at the bar so they could save the tables for those who weren't forever alone. Ok so, she didn't say that, but she may as well have. This day was just horrible and was gradually getting worse. I had a few drinks with my dinner. I also ordered a molten chocolate cake and ate the whole thing. If I'm going to be fat and single, I might as well be fat, single, and happy.

  I probably had enough to drink that I shouldn't be driving, but I wasn't far from home and could probably get there before the last couple drinks really kicked in. Once I walked in the front door I kicked my heels across the living room and went to the kitchen for another drink. I downed a couple more and thought this day couldn't get any worse so I might as well take a bath and go to bed. I stomped out of the kitchen and saw Bo sitting in my living room chair. He was in his usual black slacks and a black satin button down with the top couple buttons undone. He was holding one of my shoes, twirling it in between his hands. He looked up at me and did this super sexy one eyebrow lifted thing then stood up to walk over to me. Were all my drinks just finally kicking in or did he look especially gorgeous tonight? Maybe it was the drinks or just that the day had been so horrible and it was nice to see him.

  "You look amazing," he said looking me up and down, then walking in a circle around me to get the 360 view. "Mmmh," he breathed.

  Even though I knew I shouldn't- in fact everything in me knew it was a horrible idea-when he came to stand back in front of me, I leaned in and kissed him. Not just a regular kiss, but a slow hungry 'something is about to go down' kind of kiss.