Darien

Chapter 2

Rose opened her door and threw her iPod on the coffee table. She took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and practically threw the contents down her throat. She couldn’t understand what had her feeling this thirsty or her mind that unsettled. She didn’t have to probe too far in her mind. Her first thought drifted to the stranger along the path. For close to two weeks she had passed him every morning when she went jogging. She loved to jog in the early hours before the sun came up; it always seemed to relax her and give her positive energy and boy did she need positive energy. She was to go and see a client she had visited the day before. The couple had bought a new house and they needed her expertise in interior decorating, but the couple were at odds with what they considered decorating.

Rose fancied modern art, so she showed them a few pieces and included some abstract pieces of sculpture, but while the wife loved them, the husband thought them ugly. He would rather paintings of forests and trees and other things old fashioned. Rose wasn’t quite sure there was anything she could do for them. Sure, she was being paid for every day that she turned up, but her job meant more to her than her salary. She loved decorating and seeing colors come alive in rooms that were once dull and drab. Personally, she preferred minimal decor, so she embraced modern styles, architecture and decorating. Even now her living room consisted of a beige circular couch, which fell in the middle of an olive green room. On the wall facing it, she had her television set wedged therein, and two rows of shelves opposite that had abstract art and a painting from Picasso’s works. She blended colors well and no room had a single color. The wall that acted as the backdrop for the television was painted in a rust color and the roof was a shade of pale yellow. To think of it would conjure images of a circus, but to be in the space only did wonders for the imagination and attitude.

Even her bedroom had an accent wall, and opposite that was a wide queen sized Victorian bed. A footstool was at the base of it and a rectangular mirror hung from the wall to her right. No one would guess at how comfortable the inside of her home was until they were admitted and she loved being here. Her favorite pastime was sitting on the sofa, watching movies and sipping chamomile tea. She was an introvert at heart, so she was mostly home when she wasn’t working.

She finished her water now and tossed the bottle into the bin. She walked up the stairs to her bedroom and removed her wet clothes. Even as she stood in the shower, and the water beat against her body cooling her down, her mind lingered on the face that she felt she had come to know. He was really hard not to notice and if he were jogging too, she would think nothing of it. But he was always sitting on a bench or leaning against a tree doing nothing. Several times she would glance back at him and would catch him looking at her. She had felt uneasy, but then he had only looked at her, until yesterday when she had stopped to confront him. There was something about the way his eyes dug into her. She could feel him taking over her body and as she stood there, she tried unsuccessfully to quell her beating heart, but it refused to be subdued.  He had given her a sly smile and it rocked her being. Then when he had admitted that he was indeed watching her, she had become numb. How could a stranger who was possibly stalking her have that effect upon her? He had made it easy for her to notice his absence, for he was there every morning. He had infused himself into her life and her thoughts and she now chastised herself for having stopped to speak with him in the first place.

She allowed the cool water to run over her face and down her body, and even as she did so, she imagined the stranger’s hands cupping her bre*sts while his tongue danced upon her, even as he melted into her.  She moaned and then caught herself and stopped. She felt embarrassed that she would be thinking about him in this manner and hastily left the shower before she could be plagued any further. She got dressed and rushed out of the house so that she could make her early appointment. She had several bookings today, so she had to make an early start.

By lunchtime she was so tired she could hardly stand. She found a local bistro and bought herself a chicken and vegetable wrap and some mashed potatoes. She rarely drank juice so she only had the glass of water served with the meal. Her strength returned to her in small bursts and soon she felt strong enough to continue. Her next appointment was to be the bothersome couple from the day before and she felt some of her energy ooze from her at the thought of it.

She managed to drag herself through the day, having two follow ups. Thankfully, she was able to make a simple solution the odd couple could agree with.  She soaked herself in her bath for longer than she had intended. So relaxed was she that she fell asleep and only awakened when her phone started ringing.  It stopped before she could get to it, but she didn’t bother to see who it was. She walked to her room, totally devoid of clothing and hastened to close her bedroom window. She stood there for a second looking out, almost sure she had seen movement, but her eyes were probably deceiving her. Who could be watching her from the tree?

She lifted the covers from the bed and crawled underneath it. No sooner had she done that than she fell asleep, dreaming of the stranger who haunted her existence now. What a fool she had been to invite him into her mind. She hadn’t given him this much thought until she had stopped to question him. Now he lived in her mind and she didn’t know how he could have such an effect in so little time.

When Rose awakened the following morning and set out on her morning jog, she was as anxious as a new student on the first day of school. She ran all the way along her regular route and even chose another path on her return trip, but her stranger was nowhere to be found this morning. Amazingly, that threw off her day, even though she didn’t know what she would have said or done had she seen him. The entire day her mind rested on him, and she began to wonder if something had happened to him.

She had a late appointment that took her well past eight in the night. She had no intentions of cooking tonight so she stopped at the Chinese restaurant down the street and picked up some special Chow Mein.  She was walking back to the house when she saw him leaning against a Porsche parked on the curb. He was just standing there as if oblivious to her presence. She halted in her steps and then resumed walking. She was about to walk past him when he reached out and took her by the hands.