Chapter Six: Heart of the Night

We never got to go for coffee, he was never free. However, there was one consolation; he was calling me on a regular basis now. The phone calls were never long or particularly earth-shattering; it was simply a lot of me not admitting how tough work was and a lot of him not telling me anything at all about his work. But we were talking and that was good.

I didn't want to dump this on him, but work was awful. Korvin Silversmith appeared to have singled me out for something and was doing his best to disrupt every class I taught him. But it wasn't just me, he was abusive to others. One afternoon, Ness stepped in front of me to defend me against yet another volley of abuse, and he turned on her with such vitriol that I thought he'd hit her. He didn't, but instead delivered an odd parting salvo.

"Trust you to defend her, you freak!" He spat at Ness.

"Don't speak to her like that." I levelled back.

"She should be grateful I speak to her at all. She's an animal." He stalked away.

"You're hardly a shining example of humanity yourself." I said.

"I'm more than she is." He called back.

"I really don't know what's gotten into him." I said, but there was no reply from Ness. I looked at her, she had gone pale. "Ness? Are you alright? He's most likely angry about having to come to this school, it's becoming a familiar tale. I'll speak to Mr Greene about him again." She still didn't respond. "Ness?" She finally registered that I was speaking to her.

"I'm fine." She said and hurried out into the hallway.

When I left my room a few minutes later, she was huddled in the corner talking to someone on her phone. As I walked on, Dan Taylor stumbled out of Bex's empty room, looking even more dishevelled and drunk.

"What is it with you?" I snapped. "Do I have to call your mother?" He stood up straight and was instantly alert, tucking his shirt back into his pants.

"No, I'm completely fine, nothing to worry about." His face carried an inane grin.

"What've you been doing in there?" I walked into Bex's room. Her store-cupboard door was open and it was its typical disorganised state. "Have you taken anything?" I glared at him.

He shook his head. "No." He looked perfectly normal and alert now, He smoothed down his hair and as he did so I noticed the unusual silver plaited ring on the fourth finger of his left hand. There was a girl involved somewhere. I knew the signs. I smiled.

"What?" He said, acting innocent, but I could see that he knew that I'd guessed what he'd been up to.

I laughed. "It's what the back seats of cars are for. They don't write songs about making out in teacher's storerooms." He blushed. "Go on." I said and he walked quickly away.

But apart from the amusing incident of catching Dan, my job was becoming a slog and any time that Daniel called was precious. He lifted me right out of it, to a better place. Life had its good points and he was one. That there'd been no further communication from whoever had sent me those two notes was another and in addition to that, I had a trip to Seattle to look forward to.

Mike and I drove over to Bremerton on the Friday night, checking into separate rooms of a motel and found somewhere cheap for dinner. I'd invited Mom to Port Angeles for Christmas and I was going to Seattle armed with a list to make sure that everything was done before she arrived. In the morning we caught an early ferry and made our way into the city, finding the ice rink that Mike had mentioned. It would be good to start the day with some fun!

I laced up my skates; I hadn't done this for years and there was every chance that I was going to go smack on my ass, although at least I could walk in them, which was more than Mike could. We were giggling like teenagers before we'd even got out on the ice. But once out there something clicked and years spent rollerblading meant that I instinctively knew what to do, even if I wasn't confident of being able to do it. I left Mike clinging to the side as I tentatively made my way out into the clockwise circulating crowd. My heart was in my mouth as I inched my way around the circuit, occasionally being startled by small children whizzing past at incredible speeds. But I managed an incident-free circuit and returned to where Mike was clinging to the handrail for dear life. I smacked into the side behind him and grabbed on.

"You've got the hang of it." He said. "I can't remember how you do this."

"Did you ever rollerblade as a kid?" I asked him.

"Yes."

"Well think of it like that. Do exactly what you'd do on rollerblades."

"OK, but if I fall flat on my ass, I'm blaming you." I laughed, but Mike took my suggestion and even more hesitantly than I had, made his way around the rink. I caught up to him and together, eyes fixed on the ice immediately in front of us we made our way around. There was nothing stylish about it, but we were upright and moving. Ahead of me on the curve I saw a woman gliding effortlessly around the ice. I tried to copy her, to straighten up and look ahead, rather than at the ice. Then some three year old speed demon whizzed by, frightened the life out of the pair of us and down we both tumbled, with me coming to rest rather embarrassingly on top of Mike. I was fine but Mike had hurt his wrist. It didn't look anything more than having fallen on it a little too heavily, but he was nursing it and we moved to the side so he could check it out. He pushed his sleeve up and gently circulated it.

"I don't think there's any damage done, just muscular." He said.

"Do you think you should get it strapped? There's a medic over there." I pointed to the corner where someone was already having attention for a similar injury.

"Might be a good idea. You keep on going; I'll see you in a bit."

Mike made his way over to the med station and I carried on round; keeping an eye out for the elegant woman again so I could copy her. I was gaining in confidence and tried to look ahead, scanning the crowd walking by. It was a bad move. There, in the throngs of pre-Christmas shoppers, was Scott; his arm around another girl. He looked happy and the girl he was with was very pretty and not some bimbo that I'd imagined he'd hook up with. I I really didn't want him to see me, so I tried to move back to the centre where the confident, faster skaters were. Inevitably I collided with someone, rebounding off them and collapsing into a heap on the ice. I tasted blood in my mouth. I ran my tongue over my lip and felt the sore bit where one of my teeth had broken the skin.

I turned away from where Scott was, to guard against my shame of being discovered, but a gloved hand was stretched out to me.

"Shall I help you up?" I looked up to see the smiling face of the woman I'd collided with. It was the elegant skater I'd been admiring. I couldn't help noticing her eyes; they were the most incredible light brown or gold even. She was about my age and clouds of tawny hair cascaded over her shoulders. "Oh, you've cut your lip! Hang on, my husband's a Doctor, he's coming now." She helped me up off the ice and over to us came a tall, young blonde haired man. I didn't think it was possible to find a man who could equal Daniel in beauty, but here was one. He too had the same odd-coloured eyes. He produced a clean handkerchief and inspected my lip.

"Hold that over it for a few minutes, it'll stop. Let's get you to the side." The woman and her husband guided me over to the safety of the rink side. I stared at Scott's retreating figure; he was oblivious that I was here. Seeing him again was a shock; but after all, I was in Seattle and he did live here. I kept one eye on the direction he'd gone in, much as I did if I found a spider in my apartment. I wanted to know where it was all the time, in case it decided to come back.

"I'm sorry for crashing into you." I said to the woman. "I saw you earlier, you're a great skater."

"Thank you, I don't get enough opportunity to do it. These places are fun aren't they?" Her smile was amazing and the cheerful decorations in the precinct were nothing compared to the joy and spirit of Christmas that was radiating out of her.

I agreed, still keeping one eye on the retreating spider.

"You don't look happy." She said.

"Ah…" I sighed. "I'm fine, I just saw my ex. That's why I crashed into you. More fool me for thinking I could look ahead."

"Don't worry, it happens all the time."

"Let's have a look at this." The Doctor removed the handkerchief from my lip. "That's pretty much stopped. But you keep it, just in case you need it again." He handed me back his handkerchief

"Thanks. Can I return it to you?"

"There's no need. Will you be OK now?"

I said I would, thanked them and off they skated into the crowd. Mike re-appeared half a minute later with his wrist strapped.

"Just a precaution." He said, indicating to it. What did you do to your lip?"

"I bit it when I crashed into someone."

"Perhaps we should get off the ice before anything worse happens?" One last time around?" We skated with more confidence now and decided to stay a little longer, doing easy circuits now that we were more secure on our feet. I should've learned about not looking into the crowd, but I did and found myself on the ice for the second time with a bleeding lip, when I caught sight of Daniel.

This was more of a shock than Scott had been and I sat frozen to the ground, oblivious to the ice water seeping through my pants. He was walking by with another blond-haired man and they were talking animatedly. Daniel was carrying a clutch of bags, including one from the most exclusive jewellery store in the city. I prayed he wouldn't see me and my prayers were answered, he didn't turn and look. But as they passed, I saw something that meant every wonderful thought I'd ever entertained about having a future with Daniel, was null and void. The man had his hand on the middle of Daniel's back. Daniel must be gay.

"Come on, up you get." Said Mike, holding his good hand out and hauling me back to my feet. "You're all wet, we'd better find somewhere to dry off and warm up." Mike looked at me when I didn't reply. "Are you OK?"

I nodded that I was, but inside I was silently crying. Daniel had only ever been interested in me as a friend, he had a partner and I was completely the wrong sex to be interesting to him.

Mike and I left the ice and I spent time in the ladies washroom trying to dry my pants under the hot air dryer. I was desperately sad and I didn't know how I'd find the enthusiasm to get through the rest of the day, especially at the hands of the relentlessly cheery Mike. But I had to, our ferry wasn't leaving until six and so, having gotten as dry as I could, we headed off to shop.

I constantly scoured the crowds looking for another sighting of Daniel and his guy, but I didn't see them. Daniel's man had been a similar height to him and equally blonde, although with thick wavy hair much like a lion's mane. That was as much as I could remember, other than the sight of them walking through the crowd enjoying each other's company. That was burned on my retina.

It wasn't until we came to the exclusive jewellery store that I knew Daniel had been in, that I became slightly more animated. I speculated what he might have bought in here: A watch for his lover, a necklace for his mother, something for himself? One thing was for sure, if Daniel could afford to shop here, then he was loaded. I'd promised myself, in times gone by when I'd visited the store with Scott, that one day, when I had the money, I'd treat myself to something really special from here. Today felt like that day. I didn't have the money, but there was no better cure for a broken heart, or even a bruised one, than some retail therapy.

From the selection of pendants I picked out a tiny amethyst one. However, I stared with longing at a huge beautiful black sapphire and diamond pendant that had the evocative title 'The Heart of a Star'. Around the large black central stone were diamonds, arranged in a swirl, much like a catherine wheel might throw out sparks as it span. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. The assistant caught me looking and gleefully told me the price – half a million dollars. Dream on Stephanie! The amethyst I purchased made me wince enough, when the assistant charged my credit card with three hundred dollars. What an expensive way to cheer myself up! Still, it was very beautiful and I had a badly bruised heart.

I worked through my list and at lunchtime we found a little place to eat. By then Mike's sunny personality was warming me up and I was starting to enjoy the day. Scott was ancient history, Daniel was a tragedy; but hey, I still had the world's most gorgeous male friend and as a bonus, Mike was turning out to be potential boyfriend material.

"And this is for you." He said at the end of the meal, placing a small black bag on the table. "I know it's early, but Happy Christmas."

"Mike, you shouldn't have." I opened the gift to reveal a simple, elegant gold chain. I was truly touched. "Thank you!" I leaned across and kissed him on the cheek. It was something I could wear every day and so very 'me'. Where part of me longed for the amazing black sapphire and for Daniel, this was my reality. I was practical and sensible and the type of woman who never bought anything, unless it went with at least three other things in her closet. He couldn't have chosen anything more perfect. "I didn't get you anything." I chided him.

"It really doesn't matter."

"It's lovely."

"I'm glad you like it."

As I dried my hands in the washroom later, it amused me that this trip to Seattle had turned out to be a snapshot of my love life. On one hand there was Daniel and the beautiful jewellery. I longed for both of them, but they were out of my league. The jewels, because I couldn't afford them and Daniel, because I was the wrong sex for him. On the other hand there was Mike. He was attentive, caring, generous, and funny. Like the jewellery he'd bought me, he was also very practical. I may long for the Heart of the Star, but my reality was the plain gold chain. Should I give things with Mike a go? What was it that Bex had said about snapping up a good man while you had the chance…?

Mike pulled up outside my apartment building. It was late and had been a long day, but a good day. We'd talked on the way home and we'd kissed on the car ferry back to Bremerton – hardly romantic, I know. But there again, why should breathless romance be anymore satisfying than a relationship with someone you've know for a year, and have quietly come to realise is a great guy and attractive too, if he didn't try too hard with his hair. We kissed goodnight but I didn't invite him up, I needed some sleep - I'd walked all over Seattle today. But he invited me out to lunch tomorrow and I'd said yes to that.

But sleep would have to wait; my apartment was a scene of devastation. This was no intruder; this was simply the actions of a bored cat. Lyra had pulled over the Christmas tree, just as she'd done two years ago. As I righted it she rubbed around my legs as if nothing was wrong. I scolded her and she looked at me with that smug almost-smile she had. I laughed, scooped her up and cuddled her; she had me wrapped around her little finger.

"So I have a new boyfriend." I told her. "His name's Mike and he's a teacher at my school. You will be nice to him won't you? None of that silly hissing you were doing at Daniel." To be fair, Daniel had told me that cats didn't like him. Lyra looked at me with her usual 'whatever, just keep the food coming,' way that she had. I put her down and started to scoop up the fallen baubles from under the tree. My hand stopped in mid-reach for a blue one that had fallen into the pile of fake boxes I'd put under the tree. In the middle of them was a large white bag from the exclusive jewellery store that I'd bought my pendant from earlier today. I looked back over to the sofa, where my small white bag was leaning up against it. The folded white gift tag hung on the outside of the bag. I reached forward and carefully opened it.

There, written in beautiful calligraphy was a message to make my heart stop.

Stephanie,

You can have the heart of the star.

Merry Christmas.

"No, this can't be?" I said to myself. I picked up the glossy white bag and looked inside, pulling from it a large black velvet box. My heart was in my mouth as I slowly lifted the lid to reveal what I feared. There, on the black velvet inside was the piece I'd been coveting, 'The Heart of a Star'. "Oh my God!" I said, dropping the box in shock. The lid snapped shut again like a clam. I stared at it like the impossibility it was, my breathing ragged and racking up to panic levels. How did anybody know I wanted this piece? How did they get in here to deliver it? Had Daniel done this? After all, I'd seen him with an identical bag. "No, don't be stupid." I said out loud. How could he have know that the piece of jewellery made me think of him? He'd been in the store before I'd even seen it. Whatever had happened here, there was one inescapable fact: Someone had been in here and that gave me a legitimate reason to call Daniel. I scrambled over to my purse, found my cell phone and was about to call him, when I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly eleven on a Saturday night. If he was with his guy he'd hardly appreciate being called at this hour. I texted him instead, asking him to call when he was free. I put the box back in the bag and put it on the coffee table. Exhibit C in the collection of notes and now a gift I was getting. At least this wasn't warning me off him. On the contrary, if someone was reading my mind, then they'd told me in no uncertain terms that I could have Daniel. But their information was out of date; I knew that that wasn't possible.

It wasn't two minutes later that my phone rang; the display said it was Daniel.

"Hi, are things OK?" He said.

"Not really, no."

"Another note?"

"A gift."

"A gift? Do you want me to come over?"

"I don't want to take you away from any … thing. It's late."

"Time isn't an issue if someone's getting to you." He said brusquely. "Do you want me to come over?" He repeated.

"Yes." I said quietly.

"Ok, I'll see you in a little while."

A half hour later I opened the door to him and again my heart pined at his beauty. Whoever this man was, he was a lucky guy to have Daniel.

"Somebody's been in here again?" He guessed and I nodded. He looked at me seriously and again the panic was back. I placed my hand on my midriff and bent over to try and calm myself. He placed his hand on my shoulder and rubbed gently up and down my upper arm. "So, what'd they give you?"

"Jewellery."

"Jewellery?" I pointed to the bag on the coffee table. "From that place? Woah. You know, in any other circumstance, it would be nice to receive something from there, yes?"

"Yes."

"Have you looked at it?" I nodded. "And? Do you like it?"

"I couldn't love anything more!" I whined. I placed my hand on my forehead and the enormity of what this was suddenly hit. A great rasping sob escaped me.

"Hey, hey, come here." Daniel gently guided me over to the sofa and sat down beside me rubbing his hand lightly over my upper back as I tried not to cry and totally failed. "OK, so someone's mysteriously buying you jewellery."

"It's not just that. It's what it is!" I told him the thing I feared the most. "Somebody is reading my thoughts!"

"I don't think…"

I cut him off. "I know it's impossible, but how would someone know to buy me the exact piece of jewellery I wanted and write a gift card that expressed precisely what that piece meant to me? Explain that?"

"May I look?" I nodded. He picked the bag up from the table and brought it back over, sitting down again next to me. He read the card. "You can have the heart of a star. Interesting. Why would you want the heart of a star? They're cold, dead things."

I scoffed. "It's not meant literally. Besides, it's…" I couldn't explain it without revealing how I truly felt about him. "Oh it's irrelevant." I sighed.

He opened the box to reveal the beautiful black sapphire in all its exquisite glory. "This is irrelevant?" He smirked, trying to break the tension. "An expensive irrelevance."

"I know. I bought the smallest thing in the store for myself today. That was stupid thing to do." I added, muttering.

"Hey, jewellery's never a stupid thing to buy. I was in there today too. I picked out a new watch." He showed me it, I registered the make. Yep, this guy was loaded. "So you were in Seattle today?"

"Yes."

"We could've hooked up. My brother's not convinced that I have any friends."

"Your… brother?" That brought me up short. Oh brother, why didn't I think of that, instead of going straight for the 'he's gay' explanation?

"Actually, he's not strictly my brother, it's a little… complicated. So why were you in Seattle?"

"Christmas shopping with a friend. That, and ice skating."

"You went ice-skating? We walked by that." He chuckled. "There were lots of people falling over."

"I was one of them," I pointed to the healing cut on my lip. "Twice." Daniel bent down to inspect it, bringing with him an intense wave of his cologne and setting off desires deep inside of me that made me want him so much! For a fleeting moment I thought that he might kiss me, but he pulled away.

"That looks sore."

'It does, kiss it better!' I yelled inside the privacy of my head and then realised that my head might not be that private after all. I was suddenly on edge again.

"What's the matter?" He said, noticing that I'd tensed up. Back came my hand to my midriff as I felt the panic rise. I concentrated on calming myself, breathing deeply in through my nose and exhaling slowly though my mouth. "This is getting to you, isn't it?" I nodded. "I'm sorry, but I can't explain it. Notes warning you away from me I can understand, but gifts of beautiful jewellery are something else. It is beautiful and if it's want you wanted, then regardless of where or who it came from, you should wear it. It'll look stunning on you." He said softly.

"I can't go to work in half a million dollars worth of jewellery!"

"Why not? Does it matter what it cost if you love it? Do you love it?"

"Yes!" I brushed away tears from my eyes again. "I adore it; it's the kind of thing I dream of." He didn't know I was talking about him too.

"And now you have it, so what's the problem? Well, apart from not knowing who gave it to you. Perhaps there's someone who adores you?"

I looked at him sceptically. "I'm Stephanie Chambers, a High School Teacher originally from Medford, Oregon. Why would anybody adore me?"

He pursed his lips and a little smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth. "I don't know, I'm scratching my head over that one too. I mean, you're nothing special, right?"

A corresponding smirk appeared on my face. "Right."

"Perhaps it's the Biology teacher?"

Oh God, the Biology teacher. "No," I said sadly. "He already bought me jewellery."

A furrow appeared on Daniel's brow. "He… bought you jewellery? I didn't think you were dating." His voice tailed off and I picked up something in his tone that I didn't want to hear; sadness. I did have a chance with him and I'd just made a monumental fuck up. I put my elbow on my knee and ran my middle finger up my nose, digging it into my forehead between my brows. Crap. Crap, crap, crap!

"I said yes to him today." I replied quietly. "I thought…" I couldn't admit to thinking Daniel was gay. "I thought you weren't interested in me."

He said nothing for almost a minute.

"You already know that things aren't straightforward; but believe me, I'm interested in you."

"Did you buy me the jewellery?" I wanted to know for sure.

"No. I didn't buy you that. I bought you this." From his pocket he produced a small, black velvet box, identical to the one that held the amethyst that I'd picked out for myself. He opened it and handed it to me. It was a simple, very elegant teardrop-shaped black stone pendant. "It's a black sapphire. Ironically, it's from the same collection as that." He pointed to the Heart of the Star.

There weren't words, but somehow I managed to squeak out "It's beautiful, thank you."

"You're welcome." He said, equally softly. "Lousy timing though."

"I didn't know… I didn't think...!" The tears started to flow and he placed his hand on my back again.

"I don't want to come between you and this guy. Things in my life are very, very complicated and maybe it's best, from what you've already experienced, to stay away from me. There are very good reasons why you should. But, I'm not going to lie to you Stephanie, I like you, I like you a lot and I wish I'd said something sooner." Tears ran down my face. "Be my friend for now and in time, perhaps when things aren't quite so difficult and you're not with someone, we can perhaps be closer."

"That can't be now?" I could easily ditch Mike.

"I still don't know who's warning you off me." I turned to look at him, his eyes were tense. "I can't tell you why, but it's very serious. It means there's been a… security breach somewhere along the line." He spoke softly but gravely. "I don't want to put you in danger and me being with you puts you in that danger. So as much as it pains me to say it, you're better off with the Biology teacher. Can you understand my point of view?" I nodded. I didn't want to, but I understood all too well. "Friendship is all I can offer right now and even that will be a case of as and when, because of how things are. Thursday nights are about the only thing I can guarantee, so don't miss any of those, OK?" He smiled and I tried to smile through my tears. "The pendant has a title too. It's called 'The Heart of the Night'. I thought it was appropriate, seeing as you like star gazing. But also, it represents what my life is. My life is the night right now, dark and…"

"Beautiful." I finished, cutting off whatever he was going to say. "I love the night. My other gift today was a plain gold necklace. Very practical, very sensible, very me and very Mike. That's his name by the way."

"Mike. That's my competition?"

"Yes." I smiled. "This," I said, touching the black sapphire teardrop, "Is also very me, but my inner me; the bit that nobody sees, my spirit, if you like. I love the dark, the moonlight, the starlight, the scent of moonflowers and night jasmine. You've bought me a visible sign of my spirit and you couldn't have chosen anything more perfect."

He smiled and looked up at the clock on the wall.

"It's gone midnight, I should go." He stood up and I did too. We walked to the door.

"Are you working tonight?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Saturday night? That's bad."

"It's Sunday morning now."

"Oh yes."

"You should get some sleep. Doing anything nice later?"

I pulled a face. "Lunch with Mike." I admitted, sadly.

"Enjoy it. Say, how do you fancy seeing a movie sometime? Is that something friends could do?"

I beamed a smile. "Yes! I'd really like that. But no blood and gore, I don't do that stuff."

He laughed. "OK, no gory movies. That's no problem, I don't like those either. Anything else you don't like?"

"Zombies."

"OK, no zombies. Vampires?"

"Vampires I can cope with."

"But that's blood?"

"Yeah, but the films usually involve gorgeous men. I can sit through two hours of that no problem." I laughed and Daniel smiled. "Actually, it amused me a couple of weeks ago. One of my students is obsessed by vampires and I saw her at The Shed downtown – do you know that place?"

"Yes."

"Her band were playing. Turns out she knows Will Randall. Did you know he's a freelance journalist?"

"No."

"Anyway, they were talking and it struck me the other night when it was on TV, that Will looks exactly like the guy in the vampire show that she's a big fan of. No wonder she was flirting madly with him."

"You watch vampire shows?"

"Oh, no, it was just on in the background, I was grading. That's all I do. I grade papers, prepare lessons and feed the cat."

"And go to astronomy on Thursdays?"

"And that."

"I'll see you there." He opened the door. "Unless you get any more correspondence, in which case call me, immediately; day or night it doesn't matter. I need to know." He was serious again. "Goodnight."

And off he went into the night with my heart.