He smiled at me, and as our eyes met, I swear I felt a bolt of energy passing between us.
“I'm glad I came over to say hi as well. Very glad.”
He went over and picked up Jane carefully, making sure he didn't wake her, and then, cradling the sleeping child softly in his arms, he walked to the front door where I let him out.
He turned around and looked at me one more time from the porch.
“Thanks again, Vivienne. I'll see you soon.”
“See you soon, Everett. Have a good night. And welcome to the neighborhood!”
“Good night,” he said with a smile, and with that, he walked on across the street, his footsteps light and careful so that he wouldn't wake Jane up.
Well, this was nice, I thought. I had a new friend in the neighborhood, who just happened to be a single, attractive guy. It wasn't as if I wanted anything to happen, but on the other hand, Kerry was right. I couldn’t avoid men forever. I mean, I had old wounds – wounds that were very, very deep – but I was getting over them, slowly but surely. After all, I couldn't live in a state of fear forever, could I?
As I closed the door, I heard my phone's message tone ring. I half-wondered if it was Everett, and as I took my phone out, I couldn't deny that my heart was starting to beat a little faster. However, when I looked at the screen, I saw that it was Kerry.
“Hey, Viv,” the message said. “Could you go back on Skype really quick? I've got something important to tell you.”
“Alright,” I typed out in a reply. “Give me two minutes.”
I went back into my study and booted up my laptop, wondering what it was that so important that she had to tell me now.
“Hey, girl,” Kerry said as she answered the call. From the expression on her face, I could tell that something was wrong.
“What's going on, Ker?” I asked. “What's so urgent that we need to talk about it right now?”
“Carl just came back from work,” she said. “And he needs to talk to you. Is that alright?”
Now I had an idea of what this was going to be about, and dread stirred its awful brew in the pit of my stomach.
“Uh, yeah, sure. Put him on,” I agreed.
She stood up from her computer, and I heard the sound of shuffling in the background as she and her husband switched places at the desk. He sat down and put the headset on and then looked into the webcam.
“Hi, Viv, how's everything?” Carl asked me.
“It's all good here, Carl. How are you?”
“I'm fine, I'm fine. Work is a bit crazy right now at the firm, but it's challenging in a good way. Look, let me cut straight to the chase.”
“Alright, go on.”
“It's about Simon,” he started.
My heart instantly started to pound inside my chest, and I could feel cold fear moving through my veins.
“No no no,” I murmured.
“He's gone,” Carl stated.
My head tilted.
“What do you mean he's gone?” I asked, my tone saturated with anxiety and worry. “Like dead? Or like he skipped the country?” I was trying my best not to appear as freaked out as I felt and as much as I hated to admit it, part of me was kind of hoping for the dead part.
“He's left San Francisco. I got my police buddies to check up on him earlier today, as I do a couple of times a month, and they can't find him. His house is empty; seems like he moved out. The landlord said he had only told her about moving out a few days ago, and she had warned him that he would lose his deposit because of the short notice and his lease not being up, but she said he didn't seem to care. My cop buddies questioned a few of his friends, and none of them seem to know anything about his whereabouts. In fact, they said it had been a while since they'd seen him. One friend of his mentioned that Simon had been making a lot of long out-of-town trips. He'd disappear for days without saying where he was going.”
“And nobody knows where he went, Carl?”