"Okay, I'll see you later, then?"
"You will," I replied.
He kissed me goodbye and walked across the street to his house, and as he reached his front door, he turned around and gave me a parting smile and a wave. I waved back and closed and locked the door behind me. It felt strange being back in here; so much had changed in such a short span of time.
I needed to talk to someone, so obviously, my go-to was Kerry. I went to my study, turned on my laptop, and logged on to Skype. Kerry was already showing as online, so I gave her a call. She was on her cell phone.
"Hey, girl, how's everything?" she asked as she answered.
"Well... things are... interesting," I replied.
"Hmm, interesting huh? That can be good, or it can be bad. So, which is it?"
"A bit of both."
"Why don't you start with the bad? Get that out of the way, and then we can move onto the good."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. Well, remember last time we talked, and I had to cut our conversation short because the cops called me about a break-in at my daycare?"
"Yep. What was it all about, did you find out?" she asked.
"I did. And guess who was behind it?"
"It can't be him... It can't be."
"It was him."
She looked totally shocked. "How... how do you know it was him?"
"Who else would have written a message saying 'I've found you, Alicia' on the bathroom mirror?"
"Oh my god... so it really is him. Well, listen, I'll tell Carl right away that Simon is somewhere in Irvine. You've explained everything to the cops about him, right?"
"I have, and they're looking for him. But that's not the worst of it."
"What? It gets worse?"
"Oh yeah. He knows where I live. My neighbor has seen him snooping around my place three times in the past two days."
"That's horrible! Were you at home when he was doing this?"
"Thankfully not. I've been staying at Everett's house, across the road."
She smiled, relieved to hear some good news.
"Well, well, well," she said with a suggestive grin, "I'm guessing you two aren't just having tea and chatting about the weather, huh?"
I grinned.
"I told you there were some good things, too."
"So... tell me everything! All the juicy details! Don't leave anything out, you hear? I'll know if you're holding out on me."
I laughed and began to tell her about how things were progressing with Everett and myself. We talked for another half hour or so and then said our goodbyes. I went down to the kitchen to make myself some coffee, and as I was doing this, my phone rang. I checked and saw that it was Angie.
"Hey, Angie," I said. "How's everything?"
"Oh, it's alright. I was just wondering if you felt like maybe going out to get some lunch today?"