Jamie blinked the sleep from his eyes as he rolled over and reached for Eddie, but she wasn't there. It took him a moment to realize the sound coming from the bathroom, but the second he did, he was at the door, as his girlfriend slinked the shower curtain back and disappeared into the cloud of steam. He smiled as he joined her.
The remnants from the night before needed to be washed off as he remembered the delectable way they shared their dessert in her bed just hours ago. Before she could speak, he pulled her into his embrace as he admired the water droplets that glistened on her eyelashes, and he devoured her lips in a hungry kiss.
Their tongues danced under the spray and their arousal heightened simultaneously, and then Jamie pulled away.
"Happy Anniversary," he said to her as the spray pelted them both. His voice was searing with desire and she pulled him back to her.
Clean and satisfied once again, they dressed for a late breakfast. Eddie still didn't have much food in her apartment, and they were running low on fuel. They didn't have anything else planned, other than lounging in her bed all day, but they would need meals for sustenance in between rounds later.
They decided on the diner down the street and agreed it would be a good idea to stop for a few groceries on their way back. The less time they had to spend outside of the apartment, the better. They had over a week to make up for and planned to do just that for the rest of the weekend.
Jake had watched out his window late into the night before his body and mind finally failed him, and he slipped into a restless sleep in his chair. He woke up early to resume watch and hoped he hadn't missed anything.
After a couple of hours with no activity from her building, he decided on food as well. He realized he hadn't eaten since the plane and remembered seeing one of those street vendors on the corner still in sight of his targets, and left his room.
Moments into the hotdog he found nauseating, he still hadn't figured out why anyone would move here, he watched Jamie and Eddie emerge from her building. He stood still for a moment, anticipating their route and wondering if he should duck behind the cart, when they were walking away from him again, holding hands again.
He rolled his eyes in disgust and tossed his repulsive meal in the trash can as he began to follow them. The streets weren't crowded yet, but there was enough activity that he could walk far enough behind them to remain unnoticed.
They didn't get far before Jamie was opening the door to a diner, guiding Eddie inside first, his hand leaving hers only to graze the small of her back as she walked inside.
Jake weaved through a few parked cars to find a place on the street across from the diner, as he watched the waitress seat them in a window booth. This is perfect, he thought.
"You are so beautiful, what the hell are you doing with this guy," Jake murmured aloud as he looked on, and the couple passing by snickered at the conversation he appeared to be having with himself.
Sitting across from each other, Jamie and Eddie reminisce about their previous night and sizzling shower that morning, and Eddie giggles when Jamie playfully tells her to eat fast. They haven't even ordered yet and he can't get her back to the apartment soon enough.
Eddie is browsing her menu while Jamie talks when she glances to her left at the commotion of children playing just outside the diner, and she sees his face.
Jake Singer standing across the street, his hands in his pockets, staring directly at her through the window. Chills run down her spine, but her eyes are glued to him. Jake knows she sees him, it is too late to move now, he thinks, and he likes the unease he has clearly caused her.
She doesn't blink, she can't pry her eyes from his, and he offers her a sinister smile. Her heart rate increases and she is wondering, is this real? This can't be real?
"Eddie…Eddie"…
Jamie notices something has her attention, and whatever it is, bothers her, and it worries him. After multiple attempts to break her gaze, she finally realizes he is calling her name and looks back at him.
"You ok," he asks her, concerned.
She forced out the breath caught in her throat.
"Yeah, sorry, I just…"
She looks out the window again, but he is gone. Kicking herself for letting this happen again, she apologizes to Jamie.
"Sorry, I just thought I saw someone," she smiles. She is trying desperately to disguise the fear in her voice.
"You look like you saw a ghost," he says, genuinely worried about her.
"Definitely not a ghost," she mumbles under breath.
"Let's just order, ok?"
She tried not to think about it anymore, but it wasn't working. She knew whoever she saw across the street couldn't have been Jake. He was in prison. And if he wasn't, she would have been notified. There was no way he was here in New York.
Her mind was playing tricks on her again, that had to be it, and she wasn't going to succumb to them this time. She had the perfect man sitting across from her, who loved and cherished her, and she felt the same about him.
Whatever this was, would pass. It had to. She knew the day would come when she would have to deal with Jake's release, but that day wasn't today and she wasn't going to let this ruin her weekend with Jamie.
When Eddie looked away from him, Jake quickly ducked behind a parked car. He was right, tormenting her and her boyfriend was fun. She needed to pay for what she put him through first, then he would get her back.
In his delusional mind, that was how it would happen. He wasn't going to let her move on without him. She was his, and only his. Jamie was a pawn in his mind game with her right now, and soon enough, he would be out of his way, but for now, tormenting her and her pesky boyfriend did make him feel good.
Jake left before they did, he had to find out exactly which apartment was hers. The address he had from the package didn't have her apartment number, just the mailbox number, and he needed to know exactly where she slept at night.
He managed to get inside her building when he waited for a small group to enter and fell in step behind them. Heading straight for the mailboxes, he hoped he would at least be able to determine which floor she was on.
It wasn't hard for him to figure out that the mailbox numbers, though different from the apartment numbers, correlated with the floor at least, and he would lay in wait there.
Jake waited anxiously for another hour when he finally heard that distinctly familiar laughter coming towards him. He hadn't been able to appreciate that sound for years, and he missed it. He wanted to reach out and grab her right then.
Instead, he sunk back into the alcove he was hiding in, as he heard her voice getting dangerously close. As quickly as it approached, it dissipated as she and Jamie made their way passed the alcove and stopped in front of her apartment. Jake peeked around the wall just in time to see them disappear into apartment 342.
With a now fully stocked kitchen, Jamie and Eddie had no reason to leave for the rest of the weekend. A random summer thunderstorm and the comfort of Jamie's arms made it easy for Eddie to forget everything from the diner.
She pulled back the curtains and drew up the blinds of her living room window for a better view of the storm outside. She loved the sound of the rain pounding on the glass and the clapping of the thunder. Something about it was strangely relaxing.
Jake's feet hit the floor in an instant as he lunged forward from his perch at the window. This just keeps getting better, he thought. He now realized he had a direct view into her apartment, and he watched her gaze out her window. She was mesmerized by the rain, he could tell, and he never thought she looked more beautiful.
His excitement was growing until he saw problem number one approach her from behind and slide his hands around her waist. Her reaction to that man's touch was even more unsettling to him as she melted into Jamie's embrace and he rested his chin on her shoulder.
For the first time since Jake checked into that room across from her building, he slung the curtains closed. He couldn't take another second of this tonight, and he drank himself into a whiskey induced slumber.
Jake woke up Monday morning groggy and cursed with a splitting headache. He hadn't drank since before Eddie had gotten him locked away for two years, and he was feeling the effects hard.
He managed to crawl from his bed and stumble to the window, peeling open the curtain slightly. He was met with the blinding summer sun that had returned that morning, and he instantly regretted his decision. He was about to shut them when he caught a glimpse of her leaving the building.
Eddie was dressed in a black suit, he couldn't tell much more detail from his distance, but he knew she was going to work. Jamie was with her which meant the apartment would be empty for the next eight hours at least, and he had to get inside. He took a shower, attempted to wash away the evidence of the night before and then left for the building across the street.
It wasn't hard to pick her lock. Jake learned a lot listening to stories from actual criminals over the last two years, and he was inside within seconds. He shut the door behind him and stood there for a moment, inhaling a deep breath as he looked around.
This was the closest he had gotten to her in the last two and a half years, and it sent shockwaves through his body. He walked slowly through her apartment before he approached her bedroom. Standing in the doorway, his eyes wandered. He didn't see any evidence of Jamie which meant he didn't live there with her.
Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as he thought. At least they had lived together before she lost her mind and had him sent to prison. He walked over to her bed, leaned down and reached for her pillow. Lifting it, he buried his face where she laid her head every night. He inhaled a deep whiff of her scent and it was almost orgasmic for him.
He couldn't wait to have her to himself again, but he was going to play this game a little longer. He stayed in her apartment for several hours that day, laying in her bed and on her couch, dreaming of her beside him. He didn't leave anything out of place when he left. He wanted no evidence he was there just yet.
When Eddie got home that evening, she was saddened at how empty her apartment felt now after having Jamie's company all weekend. She knew it was ridiculous how much she missed him, but she couldn't help it.
As she walked further into her apartment, an eerie feeling washed through her body, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand. She looked around, nothing seemed out of place, in fact, everything was just as she and Jamie had left it that morning. Still, she couldn't shake that feeling in the pit of her stomach. Had someone been inside her apartment? It wasn't possible, was it?
She tried to brush it off and went to her room to change, really wishing Jamie was there right now. The moment she crossed the threshold of her bedroom those little hairs on the back of her neck shot up again as she caught a whiff of men's cologne that she knew wasn't Jamie's.
"Oh my God," she whispered to herself as one hand went to her stomach at the onset of her realization.
She hadn't smelled that smell in over two years, but she knew it distinctly well. Her heart was racing, and she was trying to suppress the panic that was quickly approaching. Every inch of her skin was riddled with tiny bumps, and chills ran down her spine. Her sanity really was slipping away and she wasn't sure how much control she had left. First, she saw him, now she smelled him. What the hell was happening? And why?
She wants to call Jamie right now. She knows hearing his voice will calm her, but she can't call him. She can't explain herself to him, she really needs to figure this out on her own, and he is working the late shift anyway.
She takes a few deep breaths and manages to suppress the panic that is encroaching. Shaking her hands rapidly in one last attempt to calm her nerves the rest of the way, she calls her mom, if nothing more than for a familiar, comforting voice.
She doesn't want to admit to her mother what she is experiencing, she knows it is all in her head, she just has to figure out why, and how to make it go away for good. A few minutes on the phone, though, and her mother can tell something is wrong.
"You ok hon," her mother asks.
"Everything okay with you and Jamie?" She is truly concerned.
"Yeah, mom. Everything's great with Jamie," she assures.
Lena can sense the discomfort in her daughter's voice, and she knows something is wrong.
"Then what is it, Eddie?"
Eddie knows by her mother's tone it is time to confess. She lets out a deep sigh before she speaks and drops to her couch.
"You are going to think I'm crazy," she says as she curls her legs underneath her.
Eddie tells her about the night at Jamie's and how she saw Jake's face and heard his voice as Jamie came near her. Then she tells her about the other day at the diner and how she swore he was standing outside and how she smelled his cologne in her apartment when she came home today.
Lena listens quietly on the other end of the line while Eddie breaks down.
"Why is this happening, mom? I don't understand. Am I insane?" Her voice cracks when she speaks.
"No honey, you're not. You experienced trauma, Eddie. It takes time to heal," she assures her daughter.
"It's been two years, mom."
Eddie is trying to hold her voice steady, but her mother can tell she is talking through tears.
"I've been so happy with Jamie. I love him so much. Why now?"
Eddie begs her mother for answers, but Lena doesn't have them. She offers words of encouragement as she tries to hide her own worry she now feels for her daughter.
"Have you talked to Jamie about this," she asks.
"I can't talk to him about it, he doesn't know about Jake, you know that mom," she sighs.
"I really think you should tell him hon. He will understand. The boy loves you," her mother says.
She knows her mother is right, but she can't tell him now. Not after she kept it a secret for a year. She can't lose him over this. Over Jake. She won't let that happen.
"Mom," she speaks softly, not sure she wants to ask the next question. "Do you think he could be out of prison?"
"No way. You would have been notified," her mother assures her.
Eddie knows she is right.
As soon as Lena answers her daughter, she remembers the stack of mail on the counter that she hasn't sent to her yet, and tries to disguise the gasp that she lets escape.
"What's wrong," Eddie asks.
"We haven't sent your mail in a few weeks…surely not."
"Well, go check," Eddie demands as she waits impatiently for her mother to inspect the mail on her counter.
Lena carefully reads through every piece of mail in the package and finds nothing. She assures her daughter again that Jake is still behind bars and she is safe. Neither of them knows the truth about the letter Eddie's grandmother had destroyed.
Eddie felt some relief after the confirmation from her mother and decided she had to be right. Jake was still in prison, and she was letting her past haunt her again, for no reason. She still had an unsettling feeling alone in her apartment and wished Jamie wasn't working until midnight. She needed him now more than ever.
She double-checked the lock on her front door, making sure it was secure, and even though she was on the third floor, she made sure her windows were locked, the blinds closed and the curtains drawn before she retreated to her bedroom for the night. She skipped dinner. She was too mentally fatigued to think about food. She just wanted to sleep.
Sleep didn't come easy, though, or at all. She could still smell it. She replayed the events from the other night at Jamie's and the other day at the diner, and she couldn't get them out of her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, he was there again.
She lunged out of her bed, ripped the sheets and pillow off and ran to the bathroom. She threw the linens in the tub and turned on the shower to the hottest she could get. She watched the steam escape as the stream of water soaked her bedding when her phone rang and her heart skipped a beat.
It was Jamie and she tried to steady her breathing before she answered. She wasn't very successful and he could tell something was wrong.
"You ok," he asked immediately.
"Yeah, just a long day at work," she said as she turned the water off. "You just caught me getting out of the shower."
She lied as she pinched the bridge of her nose. This was getting out of hand, she thought to herself. She figured he could hear the water running though, and it could explain why she seemed winded.
Their conversation was as short as Jamie's break. He just wanted to tell her he loved her before she went to bed. As soon as their call ended, she landed her back against the bathroom wall, and her legs buckled underneath her as she slid down to the floor, her phone falling beside her. She pulled her knees into her chest and cried.