Twenty-Seven
Cassandra closed her living room door behind her, dropped her handbag by the dark-gray sofa and slowly made her way into the kitchen. In there she retrieved a glass vase from one of the cupboards, filled it with water and placed the colorful bouquet of flowers she had brought home with her inside it.
No, the flowers hadn’t come from a secret admirer, nor had they been sent to her by Mr. J. Cassandra had bought that bouquet herself; truth be told, even after twenty-one years, her husband still surprised her every now and then with unannounced little gifts — sometimes flowers, sometimes chocolates, sometimes an invitation to a romantic dinner, or tickets to an opera, or a ballet, or even a Lakers game, since Cassandra was a big LA Lakers fan. No matter the occasion, though, the card attached to the bouquet, or whatever gift he had brought home with him, would always say the exact same thing: You make me the happiest man on earth. With all my love, today and always. J.
The memory brought a sparkling smile to Cassandra’s lips, mainly because she considered herself to be a very lucky woman. Despite the years, Mr. J was still a very handsome man, tall and square-jawed, with a shaved head and dark eyes that were so full of expression, he could make himself understood with a simple look. Physically, unlike so many of her friends’ husbands, Mr. J had never let himself go. His frame still showed signs of all the physical training he did when younger, with strong shoulders, a flat stomach, and lean, muscular arms. Cassandra had never failed to notice the playful looks that other women, including most of her friends, would give Mr. J every time they were out, but she had never seen her husband reciprocate any of it. He was always polite towards other women, but never flirtatious.
Once, and only once, after she had rejected his advances in bed years ago, Mr. J had calmly asked her if there was someone else. If she had fallen for another man. If she had stopped loving him.
‘Please don’t be silly, honey,’ she had replied. ‘Of course I haven’t fallen for anyone else. Of course I haven’t stopped loving you. I’m just not in a good mood tonight, OK?’
That had been true then, and it was still true today. Cassandra had never fallen for anyone else, and she had never stopped loving Mr. J, of that she was absolutely sure. How could she? He was a good, kind and loving husband and a terrific father to Patrick. He had always treated her with dignity and respect. He listened to what she had to say and he truly valued her opinion on every aspect of their family life. Yes, a lot had changed over the years, especially after her son had hit his teens. That had been when Cassandra had felt the lowest in her life. She had lost her mother just a year before that and, for some reason, once her little boy started looking more like a young man, she found herself struggling with depression, a condition she had always kept a secret from absolutely everyone. A condition that had distanced her not only from her husband, but from all of her friends as well. Cassandra wasn’t sure if it had been coincidence or not, but just as Patrick entered his senior year in high school, she finally began to get a grip on her depression and was slowly but surely crawling out of that dark hole. With every passing day, she was becoming more and more like her old self.
Cassandra checked the wall clock in the kitchen — 7:24 p.m. She had thought about going out for dinner, maybe a nice Italian, or even the new Mediterranean place that had just opened a couple of blocks from her house, but she discarded the idea on the drive back home. She didn’t feel like sitting in a restaurant by herself, and though she could invite one of her friends to go with her, tonight she was in a more ‘homey’ mood.
She walked back into her living room, placed the vase with the flowers at the center of her dining table and returned to the kitchen.
‘OK, let’s see what we have, shall we?’ she said out loud, pulling open the fridge door. ‘Umm.’ Cassandra screwed up her face as her gaze moved from shelf to shelf. Her fridge was packed full, but nothing in there seemed to excite her too much.
‘You know what?’ she began a conversation with herself. ‘I’ve had a tough week, and it’s Saturday night, the international night of “no-home cooking”. If I’m not going out, how about if I get it delivered?’ She closed the fridge door and thought about it for all of two seconds. ‘Yup, that sounds like a plan to me.’
Cassandra walked over to the kitchen counter and opened the last drawer on the left. From inside it, she retrieved a handful of to-go menus.
‘Pizza? Nope. Mexican? Umm... nope.’
As she discarded them, she returned them to the drawer.
‘Italian?... Possibly.’
She put that one to the side.
‘Healthy salad? Umm... not tonight. Burger and ribs? Nope. Japanese?’
This time the ‘umm’ came out with a singing intonation. Cassandra unfolded the menu and quickly scanned the offerings.
‘Chicken teriyaki sounds nice. Maybe even some sashimi.’ She pressed her lips together and felt her mouth salivating.
Decision made.
‘But first things first,’ she said as she returned all the other menus back to the drawer. ‘What I really need right about now is a large glass of wine.’
This time Cassandra didn’t need to think about it. She knew exactly which wine she would go for. To-go menu in hand, she walked back into her living room and from their large and well-stocked wine cabinet she chose a bottle of 2002, Hourglass Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon. As she pulled the cork from the bottle, she brought it to her nose and gently breathed in its aroma — spring flowers and berries.
‘Oh yes, absolute heaven.’
Cassandra poured herself a glass, but didn’t sip it straight away. First, to better define its tones, she wanted to let the wine breathe for a minute or two. Meanwhile, she could order her dinner. She walked over to the sofa and grabbed her handbag. As she searched inside it for her cellphone, she found the note that some creepy psycho had left stuck to the back window of her car. She hadn’t really forgotten about it, but as her fingers brushed against the white piece of paper, the memory of the words inside it came back to her and the skin on her arms turned into gooseflesh.
Have you ever felt like you’re being watched, Cassandra?
‘Urgh,’ Cassandra said, shaking her shoulders as if to dislodge the uneasy feeling. She quickly grabbed her cellphone, dropping the bag back on to the floor. Instinctively, she looked around her living room before walking over to her front door. She knew she had locked it. She could see the security chain safely in place, but paranoia made her go check it. The key had been turned all the way inside the lock until it could rotate no more.
‘Fuck! How can such a silly and stupid note make me feel so unsettled?’ Cassandra asked herself, but the truth was, she knew exactly why — for the past three or four weeks, way before she’d got that note, the feeling that she was being watched had been shadowing her like a dark ghost. Almost everywhere she went — to work, out with friends, dinner with her husband, it didn’t matter. Wherever she was, she would suddenly feel like someone had their eyes on her.
Cassandra knew that everyone, every once in a while, felt like they were being watched. She had felt that way a few times in the past, but this was nothing like anything she had ever experienced. This was a dark, soul-choking feeling, as if evil itself was doing the watching.
Cassandra rushed over to the dining table, picked up her glass of wine and had a healthy couple of sips. She knew that that was no way to appreciate such a beautiful wine, but right then she needed the alcohol a lot more than she need the palate experience.
She returned the glass to the table and checked her cellphone. No messages. No missed calls. Mr. J had promised her that he would call if his return plans were to change. So far, nothing, which meant that he should be back home by tomorrow at the latest. That notion brought a lot of comfort to her.