Ever, Sarah (21 page)

“Call me.”

“I’ll call. See you in a little while. What could go wrong?” I asked as the elevator doors slowly closed. I had a big grin on my face and Brad’s expression as the doors were closing was hysterical. I laughed out loud while feeling that familiar tingle in my belly. The kind you have when you are excited. It could have been due to the movement of the elevator…but I decided it most definitely because I was excited.

I walked through the revolving doors, like everyone else, and stepped outside into the crisp spring air. It was a strange hour, everyone running to get somewhere they weren’t. And then there were people like me, who just walked around looking at everything, taking in the sights, the sounds, and smells.

I put the cell phone Brad gave me in my jacket pocket and walked over towards the long bench that curved along the outline of the large fountain outside the massive aluminum building and took a seat. I closed my eyes for a few moments just listening to the water spurt and fall behind me. That soothing rhythm, along with the honking of horns, various shouts from vendors, as wells as passersby, combined with other city noises was strangely comforting to me. Maybe Brad was right. In fact, I’m sure he was, especially when he told me I loved this city…and there
was
an electricity in the air.

“May I sit?”

A man’s voice asked softly.

I opened my eyes and looked up and down the length of the curving bench and thought it was very strange that he chose to sit next to me. There were plenty of other areas on the bench that had more sitting room. In fact, as I looked up and down, I realized there were plenty of areas that were downright empty. There appeared to be about ten or so people in a space that could easily accommodate thirty.

I shrugged my shoulders and shimmied over and he took a seat. I moved over a little more hoping he would get the hint that I wasn’t looking for company or a social encounter.

I
was
enjoying the people watching. What I
wasn’t
enjoying was the intermittent staring from the stanger, the man sitting next to me.

I started to get up to move down the curve a bit when he stood.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

“No, you’re fine. I’m just waiting for someone.” It was a bold faced lie, but I was feeling awkward, and I didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s just that I wanted to see if you remembered me.”

I turned to look at him, searching his face, looking for something that I might recognize.

He was a very handsome man with brown hair and warm brown eyes. He seemed a bit nervous, edgy, almost like he was afraid. I looked at him for several seconds, then shook my head.

“You know me?”

“Yes, Sarah. I know you very well.”

The tone in his voice was even and confident, but there was an underlying current of tension that I could sense. He smiled widely and I found myself wondering what was so amusing.

“You know
me
well? How? Are you a friend of Brad’s?”

“God no.” He said that with such disgust my stomach lurched.

“Why do you say it like that?”

“Sarah, look at me. Really look at me and tell me you don’t remember.”

I forced myself to look directly into his face once again, even though I was totally uncomfortable. Something about the pleading in his tone sounded familiar. I just couldn’t place it.

I stared directly into his eyes.

Nothing.

“I’m sorry. I had an accident, so if we know each other and I don’t remember, don’t take it personally.”

“Accident… accident my ass.” His tone was downright venomous. 

“You know something about the accident?” Suddenly I was very interested in what this stranger had to say. He obviously had a strong opinion about what had happened to me and I needed to find out exactly what it was.

“We are great friends.” He shook his head. He looked upset and very sad, almost like he was about to cry. “I can’t tell you how devastated I am about what happened to you.”

“That makes two of us.” I don’t know why I said that. I think it was a nervous compunction. Like I was trying to sound confident and self-assured.

“Please don’t make light of this situation.” Sad again.

“Great friends…how?” I really wanted to excuse myself and run inside, but I had to give myself the benefit of the doubt. If I did indeed know this man, then it was most likely because we were friends.

Besides, I was caught like a fish on the line.

“We were lovers.”

WOW.

Didn’t expect that.

Was not at all what I thought was coming. I was getting ready for some dishy gossip about how we’ve known each other since college, or he was my best friends ex-boyfriend… something totally benign...I never saw that ball flying out of left field.

“We were
what
?”

Surprise. Hell yes!

“We were…are in love.”

I started laughing. I don’t know if it was just a nervous reaction, but I was laughing like a total loon, uncontrollably. I sound like a schoolgirl giggling. It took me several seconds and a dirty look or two from the stranger beside me before I could stop. I shook my head and turned to face him.

“Listen. I don’t know who the hell you are and I find it rather offensive that you’re speaking to me so personally like this. I
am
engaged to be married.” I said with all the conviction I could muster. I was a bit put off by how he was speaking to me and what he was saying, however, I didn’t get up and walk away.  No, I stayed to listen to what this ‘stranger’ had to say.

“Yeah, to a maniacal power hungry, controlling son of a bitch that would stop at nothing…nothing.” His voice trailed off as he lowered his gaze to his feet, slowly shaking his head.

“Excuse me. I have no way of knowing if what you’re saying is the truth. You have to understand this is all very weird and shocking to hear. This…this sounds like some sort of soap opera. I don’t know why you are telling me this, but I can’t stay here and listen to you talk about Brad like this. Please excuse me.”

I was feeling rather uneasy and wanted nothing more than to run upstairs to the sixty-second floor right into Brad’s arms and be fussed over by total strangers that love me. I stood up to walk away, my fingers clutching the cell phone in my pocket tightly.

I felt fear. Actual fear.

“Please don’t follow me.” I said using my most defiant tone. “Or I’ll call…I’ll call the police.”

“Sarah please. Don’t leave. Call the police if it makes you feel more comfortable. But please… please don’t leave. I’ve been waiting such a long time to talk with you. I thought I’d never see you again.”

I stopped and turned around. He stood next to the bench, tears flooding his eyes.

“I promise I won’t harm you. I just need you to listen to what I have to say. Please Sarah.”

“I don’t like what you are saying.”

“I understand that and I’m sorry, but you need to know the truth about what happened to you.”

My stomach knotted with tension and I wanted to do nothing more than run away. But there was something in his tone, something desperate, and that tone made me stop short. I needed to find out what he knew. I had to admit, there was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind. What if what he was saying were true?

“I will listen to you, but I’d appreciate if you would please refrain from telling me anything intimate that may or may not have happened between us. It makes me very uncomfortable.”

“But…” He wiped at his eyes and he took a deep breath. He looked defeated. “I understand. I’ll do as you ask.”

“What is it you have to say? Tell me your story.” I was trying to maintain a certain calmness as I stood before him with my arms crossed tightly over my chest.

“Please sit. I’ll move over and give you some space.” He motioned towards the bench next to where he stood, then sat down. I looked around, relieved to see there were still many people sitting and walking about. I was sure that if I cried out for help, someone would definitely come to my aid.

“A little more, please.” I motioned for him to move over more and when he did I sat. “Okay, I’m ready to hear your story.”

“Story?” He looked hurt. His eyes welled up again and for a minute he looked like someone killed his favorite pet. “I’ll tell you a story. Do you want to hear a story?”

The way he annunciated the word story sent a chill right down the length of me.

“Only if it has something to do with me and my life?”

“It most definitely does.” He was arrogant, but his self-assuredness pulled me in.

“Yes, tell me a
story
.” I sat back and tried to mentally prepare myself for what felt like some serious dishing, with an extra helping of freaking creepy.

Chapter Sixteen

“It started on a Tuesday. Yeah, it was a Tuesday when I first saw you.” He said more to himself than me. “One year, two months and three days ago to be exact.”

Wow, he was one for details.

“I saw you walking. I think you were going back to your office upstairs. You looked so sad and lonely, but you were so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. I was leaving the building, I had an appointment I needed to keep, but something about you made me stop. I stared until you disappeared into an elevator.”

“Wait, you work here?” I interrupted and jumped from the seat.

“Yes.”

He waited for me to sit back before continuing.

“As I said, I was leaving the building for an appointment, but the next day, when I was on my way out to grab some lunch, I spotted you sitting over there.” He pointed to the end of the curved bench, outlining the fountain. “You looked like you had been crying. I was reluctant to approach you, but when I saw how devastated you looked, I walked over to you. I asked if there were anything I could do. I remember all I wanted to do was make you smile, I told you a woman as beautiful as you should never look so sad. You smiled, but for the most part ignored me.” I looked at him briefly, then back towards the revolving doors, “I expected that. I didn’t think you were going to just open up to me…a perfect stranger. So I left you to your thoughts. When I saw you the next day, I walked up to you and said hello. You smiled. I think I lost my heart right then.”

I had this strange feeling deep down inside my gut. Something about what he said seemed familiar to me. He had my attention, and I still had the revolving doors visible from the corner of my eyes, but I was hell bent on hearing the rest of his ‘story’.

“Please continue.”

He smiled briefly, like he knew he had me.

“Well, we began to greet one another whenever we saw each other. Then it turned into small talk; usually benign conversations, the weather, our jobs. Then it started to get more personal. You obviously needed someone to talk to, and I had fallen for you hook, line and sinker.”

“My dad used to say that a lot.”

Flash
.

Memory.

I don’t know how or why, but this guy was making sense to me.

“You loved him very much.” When he saw my reaction it seemed to spur him on. “Well, we started to meet for lunch once a week, then twice. Our conversations got a bit more personal. You confided in me that you were very unhappy. You were living with your fiancé.

You told me at first he swept you off your feet. You were so in love, you didn’t know up from down. And then, after you agreed to marry him, he became very controlling. He would tell you what you could and should wear.”

I suddenly remembered this morning, the shoes…Brad kind of telling me what shoes to wear. He was right, but still…I got a weird vibe. “He would dictate your work schedule, who you took on as clients, who you were allowed to socialize with. You were feeling smothered, stifled.” He stopped and looked directly at me, like he was waiting for affirmation. “Those are your words, not mine.”

He looked away for a moment, as if in thought, then turned around and continued. “You confided in me that you were thinking about ending the engagement, but were afraid of what he would do to you. You told me he presented a different persona to the world, but at home, you tried to stay as far from him as possible.”

“You began to count on me. You were so lonely and I was…”

“I told you I didn’t want to hear that we…”

“I understand, but there isn’t an easy way to say this.”

He waited for my response.

I barely nodded. Not wanting to hear this, yet unable to walk away.

“Our relationship blossomed,” he began talking again, “and one thing led to another. We would meet in your office…”

“Wait, are you telling me that I was having sex with you?”

“It was otherworldly. You were soft and sweet…and insatiable.” He smirked and my stomach rolled.

I felt nauseous.

Dirty.

He continued, but then quickly lost the smile when he saw the disgusted look on my face.