Page 60 of Where You Are
What happened…
“Anthony, what are you…” I look him up and down, trying to find the words for what I want to ask him because there’s so much, and I’m trying to put it into words at the same time that I’m taking in the change I see in him. It’s been over ten years since my sophomore year in college when I dated the grad student with the Italian good looks. He looks completely out of place, wearing a suit that looks to have set him back two thousand dollars in the middle of this mom and pop joint.
“Doing here?” he finishes for me as he busies himself undoing the button on his sport coat. The way he’s looking around at the place has me surprised he didn’t wipe the seat off with a hanky before sitting. “I’m catching up with an old friend,” he gestures a hand at me.
“What, you justhappenedto be in Detroit, and your place of choice was this old diner that I justhappenedto be at?” I ask incredulously with my eyebrows raised.
“I didn’t say I was here by chance,” he says cryptically, sitting back with that ever-present smug look on his face.
“You were looking for me?” This is just so fucked up, and I want answers so I can get through whatever it is he has up his sleeve, get it over with and move on.
“Your time away was good to you. You look beautiful.” He waves a hand at me again. If I were meeting him for the first time, that line would charm me, but he just admitted to tracking me down after years of absence. He has to be up to something.
“Why were you looking for me, Anthony?” I try again with a firmer tone and an impatient glare that I hope sends the message that I won’t let him take this off the track.
He takes a deep breath in and slowly lets it out as he clasps his hands together on the table. “I’m working towards something.” He says it like this is his big revelation and should leave no lingering questions whatsoever.
“Working on something for what? And what the hell does it have to do with me?” The irritation in my voice is rising. “And can we please address that this is pretty creepy of you, showing up like this in my home town after years of not speaking, and following me to this specific place?”
“It’s not as creepy as you think. You’ve been popping up a lot on social media this summer and this seems to be a frequent favorite spot of yours.” He leans back and relaxes an arm over the back of the booth, looking around like that notion made him decide to take the place in for the first time since arriving, while I take a minute to absorb what he means.
Sarah. I know she’s tagged me in a few posts since I’ve been back.
“Can you just get to the point?” I ask, sitting back and crossing my arms. “This whole thing with you showing up here is messed up on so many levels, and I’d like it to end as soon as possible. Why did you come here? What are you ‘working towards’,” I use finger quotes before re-crossing my arms, “and what does it have to do with me?”
“It’s a big move for my career,” he says on a heavy sigh as he blinks and looks off to the side. “That’s all I can tell you. And while I can’t tell you how, you have a great potential to get in the way of that.”
I drop my jaw and pull my eyebrows together as I try to conceive this very idea.
“Okay, how? I’ve had nothing to do with you in over ten years, let alone your career.”
“You’re right. In fact you were doing me a huge favor the last couple years especially, the way you dropped off the grid like that,” he snickers. “You couldn’t be found anywhere, not even on Google, you vanished so well.” He shakes his head in wonder at me.
“So you’ve spent the last two years stalking me?” I ask in horrified disbelief.
“Not stalking… just keeping tabs. To stalk you I’d have to be able to find you, which I couldn’t, and it was fucking perfect.” He shakes his head again, this time wistfully as I try to process this crack pot of information he’s giving me.
“So… what do you want exactly? For me to disappear again?” I ask sarcastically but to my surprise, he levels me with a hard stare before answering.
“Exactly.”
His low but clear answer stuns me, but I try not to let it show.
“Again,why?”
“Because I’m this close,” he holds up his thumb and forefinger, “to nailing down this next venture, bringing my career to an all-time high. You being out of the picture was making it so damn easy, but then you had to reappear on the face of the earth again. I need you to… vanish again.” His face falls just enough for me to know that I hold some kind of power here. Whatever it is he’s trying to accomplish, could have a lot to do with whether I cooperate or not. But leave again? No. I’m not doing that for anybody.
While my travels were more than I ever could have wanted, it still came at the cost of being away from my home and the ones I love for a long time. I’m finally home with them, and I’m not leaving them again for anyone, let alone this lowlife clown.
Sucking up every ounce of courage I have, I slowly lean forward, leveling Anthony with a look of unwavering sincerity.
“No.” I draw the word out low and slow, not moving my eyes from his no matter how much I want to, while deliberately forming a perfect ‘o’ with my lips. I can’t show weakness or intimidation, although I find myself getting a little discouraged when his expression doesn’t slip in the slightest.
“Then I’ll have to convince you.” His voice is eerily calm and sends a shiver down my spine, making me sick to my stomach. Without looking away, he reaches inside his fancy sport coat and pulls out his cell phone. I watch as he taps the screen a couple of times, looks around to make sure no one is paying attention to us, and holds it out to me.
I don’t want to take it from him but my hands seem to be operating on their own brain wave as they reach out to receive it. I hold it in front of me, looking down at the screen which displays some kind of video footage in a black and white, night vision type setting.
I see Anthony and me having sex… and not the vanilla kind. I’m pretty sure my heart stops beating for a moment, and I feel all the warmth leave my insides. There are no handcuffs or anything, but it’s pretty hard fucking.