Page 30 of The Cadence
He was hardly calm at the moment I called him back, after the police car pulled away. “Why didn’t you tell me you were home?” he demanded, and it was loud. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, and you need to stop the hissy fit!” I told him. “I’m sorry that I didn’t text you or hear your calls. Any of them.”
“I was sure that something had happened.”
“I know, but there’s nothing wrong and you didn’t need to get the authorities involved. It’s a waste of their resources.”
I heard him sigh. “They probably think I’m crazy.”
“They were more excited to be here and talk about you. I explained that you were worried about me being alone, and they said they understood. They also said you can call whenever and they’re always happy to come over. It’s late but it’s still so lighthere,” I said. “I was out painting and I didn’t even notice the time. I’m sorry that I made you so worried.”
“I’m sorry that I had a hissy fit.” I heard more voices in the background. “I have to go. We’re supposed to be discussing our objectives for the season. One of mine could be to calm the hell down.”
“Also, to have a little faith that I’m capable of taking care of myself,” I suggested. “I’m not useless. I actually appreciate your concern but we don’t need to involve the authorities and make our issues public.”
It was too late. Maybe the report of this incident had gone out on a police radio broadcast or been on an emergency incident website, because the next thing after I hung up with Will was a text from Kirsten.“Why was there a welfare check at Bodine’s house?” she asked me.
I peered through the windows of the guest cottage. “Are you out in the street again?” I asked her, but she said no, that the news was all over Woodsmen forums. I hadn’t really been aware of those, but when I checked, I found that I was all over them, too. There I was at Fan Day in my Bodine football jersey, smiling at Will, and there I was at the grocery store! A customer had taken a picture of me? I fumed for a while and then repeated to Kirsten that everything was fine and she had to leave me alone now.
Will was famous due to his amazing athletic skills and his unfortunate family legacy, and I’d accepted that as a given. But me? I scrolled, looking at what people had to say about Calla Easterly. It wasn’t anything terrible, like no one mentioned anyof the grist that my grandma would have cared about (prison, neglect, et cetera).
But there was definitely some criticism.
“All his money can’t buy a stylist!” a comment read under an image of me that was, I could admit, pretty unfortunate. I’d had my hair piled into a knot on the top of my head like a red tornado. But it was because I’d taken a break from the register to help stock the shelves, and the store was air conditioned but I’d gotten hot anyway. And a few more people questioned why I was even working there, why I didn’t have a “better” job or why I wasn’t just mooching off Will. “We all know what he makes!” that woman had said, nodding sagely, and her video had received a lot of likes.
I got more and more annoyed the more I read. It was ridiculous that they bothered to write about me, and at first I started crafting responses. “No, I don’t dress up for work and why would you care what I wear anyway? Leave me alone!” I typed angrily. “I have a job because I’m no leach, and Will’s finances are none of y’all’s business! Leave him alone too!”
I looked at the words, corrected some misspellings, and then deleted everything. It was just more grist, after all. I didn’t need to provide that for them…and suddenly, I understood why Will got upset when he heard stories about his family, true or not, and why he hadn’t wanted me to talk about sleeping in my car. Because it was nobody’s business, that was why!
“I just want to say sorry. Again,” I wrote to him. “I’m sorry that I didn’t answer you and made you worried enough to callthe police and I’m also sorry that I opened my mouth about our personal history. I won’t do that anymore.” He was in his meeting, and I didn’t expect an answer.
But we did talk more when he got home from that island the next day. There were a few things to go over.
“The woman who helped Jory Morin with his house is coming to talk about decorating this place,” Will mentioned as he emptied his bag into his laundry baskets. As I’d suspected, there was an entire room devoted to dirty clothes here. “We can both talk to her about what we like and what we think the house needs.”
“Ok,” I said. I thought that I wouldn’t have a lot to add to the conversation, but I was happy to help out.
“Also, I’m thinking of putting in security cameras.”
“To keep an eye on me?” I asked. I trailed after him into the hallway.
“To keep an eye on everything when I’m away. I spend a lot of time in other cities and I need to have my mind on my job. I understand that you’re capable—”
“No, I understand, too.” I thought about Kirsten creeping up and down this street, watching.
He zipped up his empty suitcase and carefully stored it in a cabinet under the stairs. “I had a stalker,” he mentioned.
“What?” Will started walking toward the kitchen and I followed again. “A stalker?” I repeated, and again felt guilty.
“It started in college,” he said. “There was a woman who kept posting about me, just normal stuff at first but it got strange,slightly sexual and like…like she thought that we had some kind of relationship. Then she started showing up places, too, and I knew because she would call hello to me, as if we knew each other. She’d be in front of my apartment building and outside of the lecture halls when I had class. At first, I just thought she was a fan with too much time on her hands, but then it started to get even weirder.” He sat on one of the new bar stools but stopped talking.
“You can’t leave it like that! What happened?” I slid into the seat next to him.
“She got more intrusive,” he answered, and shook his head when I poked his arm. “Ok, ok. Somehow, she let herself into my apartment.”
“You mean that she broke in?”
“She did, and then she got arrested. It didn’t slow her down much and I got a restraining order. She was arrested a few more times, though, and it went on until about three years ago.”
