In response, he started kissing me again.
Finally, I heard Tanya’s heels on the pavement. She climbed inside the car, huffing as she settled into the seat.
“Did you set the alarm?”
“Yup.”
“You hit enter and the star key?”
“Yes, Alexis. I already told you I set it.”
“I just want to be sure; it’s easy to forget.”
She whirled around in her seat. “If you weren’t so busy making out and flaunting your adorable boyfriend in my face, you would have come with me and set your own damn alarm instead of making me do all that when I’m starving.”
“Calm down.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Hey,” Jerry said. “Come on…we’re going for a nice dinner.”
I kissed his cheek and leaned against him while Tanya glared out the front window and sulked all the way to Twelve Tables.
Dinner should have been awesome, and the food was, and Jerry was, but Tanya was still put out and sour. Her snarky comments made it hard to relax into the meal, and my mind drifted back toward home, settling into the shadows beside my house, watching that man watch us.
Jerry took my hand under the table and laced his fingers through mine. A moment later, he released me as he went to pick up his knife.
“You seem like you don’t want to be here,” Tanya said.
I could have said the same for her but wasn’t going to start another spat. “No. Just thinking about that guy, wondering what he really wants.”
She gave me a smile meant to remind me that she was the more desirable of the two of us, which was quite sickening in that context. Still, I let it slide over me. I was used to her making sure everyone viewed her as hot. It was almost a little sad that she thought it was so important to be thought of as better looking than her sister.
“It’s just weird,” I said. “He doesn’t seem violent—“
“Trust me; you have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Well, I just don’t get it.”
“It’s not complicated,” Tanya said. “And now, I already regret leaving the house. He could be outside the restaurant, watching us right this minute. I should never have let you talk me into this.”
“Since he doesn’t do anything but watch, it’s not that big of a deal,” Jerry said.
“That could change in a heartbeat.” Tanya stabbed her ravioli and lifted the entire piece to her mouth, swallowing it like a gull letting a large fish slide down its esophagus.
When our desserts were almost gone, we called another Uber. As we emerged, all of us were looking in every direction, afraid to hope for the best, but there was no sign of anyone outside the restaurant watching or walking away.
At home, we went inside and climbed the stairs to the main floor single file, like a chain gang being led back to their cells for sleep.
While Jerry made tea, I went upstairs. As I stepped onto the landing, I paused and pulled off one high-heeled shoe, then the other. The thick carpet felt heavenly on my feet as I walked toward the bedroom door, stopping suddenly and forgetting the comfort beneath my feet.
My bedroom door was closed. I never left it closed unless I was inside, of course. I was so cold; I couldn’t move. My mind raced back to leaving the house, to my routine for engaging the security system. And the minute that thought passed through, I remembered Tanya’s dash back to the house for her ID.
I hurried down the stairs to the living room. Tanya was looking out the front window; her face pressed up against the glass. Nothing like announcing to the guy that he’d gotten under your skin, although I supposed I wasn’t one to talk. “Did you set the alarm?”
“What?” She kept her face against the glass as if that might help her see more clearly. She was leaving makeup smudges all over.
“When you went back for your ID, before dinner, did you enter the code again when you left?”
She shrugged.
“Tanya!”
She turned, looking both scared and irritated at the same time. “I think he’s out there, and I just can’t see him,” she whispered.
“I think he’s been in the house because you forgot to set the alarm.”
“I didn’t forget.”
“My bedroom door is closed. I never close it.” My voice shook. “Come up there with me so I can look.”
She stared at me, her face drained of color behind her makeup, her eyes bulging. “Are you kidding? If you think…get Jerry.”
She went into the kitchen, grabbed Jerry by the upper arm, literally dragging him to the foot of the stairs. We climbed slowly, and when we reached the landing, Tanya shoved Jerry forward as if he were the sacrificial lamb. “Wait.” She grabbed at his shirt but missed. “What if he’s in there?”
As if he hadn’t heard the fear in her voice, or maybe hadn’t heard her speak at all, Jerry strode to the bedroom door and opened it. He went inside, and I heard him moving around, opening the closet door, then pushing open the bathroom door.
The lights were on, and from where I stood, I could see the comforter and blanket had been ripped off the bed.
He called out to us—“No one here.”
I went into the bedroom. The dresser drawers were partially opened, a nightgown strap hung out of one of them. The things on the dresser had been moved around, a bottle of perfume knocked over, and the nightstand drawers also stood open. It wasn’t trashed, just…searched, was the first word I thought of. On the opposite side of the bed, Tanya’s suitcase was sitting on the floor, the top open, the contents lying in a heap of fabric and shoes.
“Why is your suitcase in my room?”
She shoved past me and ran to it, throwing clothes onto the floor. She shoved her hand into the pocket inside the lid, sweeping it around. “My passport’s gone!” She yanked her arm out and turned to
