Chapter 8: Another Stalker?

As Emily entered her apartment, she rushed to the window to see if the limo was still there. Just like last night, it was already gone. Now instead of feeling a tiny twinge of regret, all she felt was relief. Her roommate Delsie was watching TV and looked a bit surprised at Emily’s running around the place. “Hey, is everything okay?” she called out. “I think so...” Emily said. She had been in survival mode all day, and this latest encounter made her go into fight or flight mode. She tried to calm her breathing. Things were far from okay, but at least they were manageable for now. Also, she didn’t want to get into too many details with Delsie, who could be catty at times. “You’re being a little mysterious there,” Delsie said playfully. “Did you meet someone new? You must have got in pretty late last night.” Emily looked inside the fridge to see if she had anything for a comforting dinner. On second thought, she was tired and found a ready-made freezer meal instead. She didn’t know how to answer Delsie’s question. She sat down at the kitchen table while waiting for her food to cook after she threw it in the oven. “You could say I met someone, but I don’t think it’s going to work out.” “You go through them so quickly,” Delsie said, “Are men something like pairs of socks to you?” “Yeah,” Emily agreed, “I don’t see a reason to keep them around too long.” It was easier to just go along with the joke even though sometimes she wondered if Delsie was laughing at her and not with her. After eating her meal of pre-packaged curry, Emily went into her room. She needed to start looking for a new job right away, or else she wouldn’t be able to afford living here. The apartment, located a few blocks away from the beach in a beautiful neighborhood, was expensive enough, even splitting the rent with Delsie. Emily did a quick job search on her laptop, but something else kept nagging at her. Byron had been very quick to leave, and he did look genuinely sorry. Of course, it could have been a trick. Josh was good at pretending to be respectful and polite when he wanted to. That was probably how he conned his way into her workplace. But Byron seemed different. On impulse, she searched for his name again. This time she read the articles in detail, trying to understand his personality. There was nothing reassuring here. Just like in her previous search, there were many stories about Byron being a cutthroat businessman, completely destroying anyone who got in his way. After being fired from her job, Emily did not find that trait particularly charming as she thought of how many people lost their careers because of him. At least there was nothing here about him stalking women. Now she was online-stalking him, she thought with a slight smile. Her boss was right, she really shouldn’t be doing this. It was getting ridiculous. There were a few pictures of Byron with Nova Summers, a local movie actress, but more recent news stories said they had broken up. Emily squinted at the photos, trying to get a closer assessment of Byron’s glamorous ex-girlfriend. Nova Summers was tall, black-haired, and lean. The only similarity she shared with Emily was she also had dark hair, but Emily was average in height and more curvy than skinny. It couldn’t be possible that Byron was interested in her after dating this perfection of womanhood who was also poised to become the next great Hollywood star. She looked at her face in the mirror. It wasn’t a bad face, kind of charming, with a mischievous sparkle in the eyes. There was no need to compare herself with some movie actress. She could always find an attractive man, someone more normal. Telling Byron she didn’t want to see him was the only reasonable thing to do. He clearly had a lot of issues. At the same time, she found herself staring at photos of him. His eyes had a confident and sometimes menacing glare, but in other pictures a hint of loneliness and sadness could be seen overshaded by those long lashes. Emily wondered what he had been doing all alone on the bridge that night. Maybe he did have some dealings with the criminal underworld, but then another thought occurred to her. Could he have been thinking of jumping into the ocean? No, she was being overly dramatic. A man so successful and good-looking wouldn’t want to kill himself. He could always just go to some tropical island or buy a new sports car or get a pet giraffe to cheer himself up. Or pay people to follow him around and say nice things to him... Her phone rang, startling her out of the reverie. It was her best friend Pam. “I heard about what happened today,” Pam said, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there! I told Thomas he was a jerk for firing you.” “You didn’t have to do that,” Emily said. She could totally picture Pam doing it and not getting into any trouble because that was just her personality. “I wanted to quit too in solidarity, but I kind of need this gig.” “You definitely don’t have to quit!” Emily replied, “but thanks for the thought. We can’t both be unemployed.” “You’ll be finding new jobs by the dozens in no time. I’m only worried about that Josh character being in the picture again.” Emily sighed. “Tell me about it.” “We need a plan,” Pam said. “Let’s meet up for lunch tomorrow?” Emily couldn’t wait. It was so comforting to talk to her best friend, and she had quite a story to tell.