Love and Obsession
Chapter 8
The next morning, Joey, Elise, and Matthew awoke earlier than everyone else and drove down to the Police Station to file a report on the stalking and attempted kidnapping.
"Do you know who tried to kidnap your son or who is stalking your home?" A middle-aged Officer asked as he typed something into his computer. Elise didn't know for sure who's been stalking the house, but she told him everything she had told Joey the night before about the incident at school and described a light blond haired woman in her late teens.
The Officer looked up the description of this person and discovered that there were several possible matches. He turned the computer around and showed Matthew a photo line-up. "Matthew, is the woman you saw in any of these pictures?"
"Yes." Matthew answered as he pointed to one of the photos. The Officer finished questioning Joey and Elise and completed the report, printing a copy and handing it to Elise.
"Thank you. I'll call you when something happens. Here's my card. Please call me if you have any more trouble."
"Thanks Officer. I will." Elise replied.
The trio left the station and returned home around eleven AM, just in time to see Jesse cooking brunch.
"Hey, where were you?" Jesse asked.
"Police station. Some whack job has been stalking Elise's home and may have tried to take Matt from school yesterday."
"That's horrible! Why would someone do something like that, besides just being a sicko?"
"I don't know, but until this mess is straightened out, Elise and Matt are staying here. I already cleared it with Danny."
"Gotcha. If there's anything I can do to help them, I'm here."
"Thanks Jess."
"No problem, Pal." The family gathered at the breakfast table and started to fill their plates with waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, and various kinds of fruit. After they ate, Stephanie heard a car horn beep from outside.
"Where are you going?" Danny asked her.
"That's Josh. We're going out for a few hours. See you later!"
"Okay, Steph. Have a good time."
"Thanks Dad. I will." Stephanie grabbed her purse from the breakfast bar and walked out to see Josh parked right out front in his father's silver 1998 Mercedes-Benz SL-Class two-door Roadster convertible with a 6.0L engine.
Stephanie and Josh pulled into the parking lot of JC Penney and walked into the store in search of outfits to wear to the Homecoming dance, which was three weeks from now. Jesse and Rebecca had offered to look after Sadie, giving the young parents a rare few hours to themselves.
Stephanie found her dress fairly quick. It was a royal blue dress with halter-style straps and had tiny rhinestones on top. She had the perfect shoes at home to wear with it and she was satisfied. Then, she and Josh went to the Men's section to find a suit. He chose a black tuxedo vest with a white satin dress shirt and black pants. He too had shoes at home, and they paid for their outfits.
"You looked gorgeous in that dress, Steph." Josh complemented. "Blue is a great color on you."
"You looked great yourself, Handsome." They walked out of the store with his arm wrapped around her waist and put their bags in the trunk. He leaned toward her and pressed his lips lovingly on her neck and kissed her.
"I love you." He told her.
"I love you too, Josh." She kissed him on the lips and they drove across the parking lot to Friendly's for sandwiches and ice cream sundaes. Stephanie ordered a classic turkey club, fries, a Coke, and a royal banana split and Josh ordered a BLT, fries, an iced tea, and a Jim Dandy which was five scoops of ice cream with strawberry, marshmallow, and chocolate topping, a banana, sprinkles, and walnuts.
Meanwhile, DJ and Steve were at a wine tasting at Château Perle, a winery and vineyard located one hour from their apartment. They sampled several wines to decide which ones to order for their wedding and it didn't take long for them to make their choice.
"I like these. What do you think?" DJ asked as she took a sip of Sauvignon Blanc, followed by a sip of Pinot Noir. Steve agreed. He was never a wine person, nor did he really like alcohol in general. He preferred to drink soda, but he had to admit that these two wines were excellent.
"I think they're perfect."
They bought three cases of white wine and two cases of red, then they went to a photography studio to hire a photographer, a florist shop for someone to make the floral arrangements, and Café Belle for a caterer, then back to their apartment to make their guest list.
"So, how many people are we planning to invite?" Steve inquired.
"About fifty or sixty."
"Okay."
"Let's see, so far we have my dad, Vicky, Joey and his girlfriend and her son, Uncle Jesse, Aunt Becky, the twins, Leah, Stephanie, Josh, Sadie, Michelle, my grandparents, and Kimmy, plus your family, Duane, and our friends from high school and college, so we're up to what, fifty-five?" DJ said as she wrote out the list.
"Yeah."
"Great!"
That night, Vicky waited in her living room for Danny to pick her up for the 49ers game. It was five minutes until six and Danny would be there in five minutes. Those five minutes felt like five hours, but Danny arrived at the exact time he told her.
"Hey!" Vicky greeted with a smile, giving her boyfriend a hug.
"Hey, Vicky. Ready to go?" He asked her.
"Yeah, just let me get my purse from the closet."
"Don't bother. I'll buy everything. You don't need to worry about it."
"Alright." They got into his Ford Taurus and they drove to 3Com Park at Candlestick Point, or Candlestick Park.
They passed the ticket booths, Danny treated his girlfriend and himself to refreshments, and they found their seats, which to Vicky's amazement, were in the front row. They watched excitedly as the 49ers played against the Arizona Cardinals.
"Touchdown!" the announcer shouted over the speakers as the 49ers scored the first points.
"Yes!" Danny and Vicky cheered, high-fiving each other. The 49ers attempted a two-point conversion and the couple looked on anxiously as the players ran a play from the Cardinals' goal line. Cheers rang out and the crowd went wild as it was announced that the play was successful. One crazy fan almost knocked Danny's drink and sent it spilling onto his lap, but he managed to avert the disaster.
The game went on for three and a half hours and with a score of twenty-four to ten, the 49ers won! Danny glanced at his watch, which read '10:30' and he and Vicky left the stadium and went through Taco Bell's Drive-thru for a late night dinner before he dropped her off at home.
"Would you like to come in?" she invited, unlocking the door and setting her purse down.
"I don't know. It's late and the girls and Jesse and Joey will probably get worried. I should go home."
"Oh, maybe another time then?"
"Yeah, sure."
"I had a great time tonight, Danny. Thank you for the game and for dinner."
"No problem. I'm glad you had a great time, because I had a great time too. They hugged and kissed goodnight and Danny left to go home, arriving there just before eleven-thirty.
Everyone was asleep by the time he got there. He was so tired from having such an exciting night that he just crashed on the couch and fell asleep himself.
Hope you like it!