Keep Me Safe (4 page)

“Hey Sadie, I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“No, not at all, what’s up? Change of plans?” I tried really hard to not sound disappointed.

“Well, sort of. They were short some bodies today and needed me to come in early. But we can still have coffee, I’ll just need to meet you there instead of picking you up. Is that cool?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Where do you want me to meet you?”

“Let’s do Starbucks right around the corner from your house. We can still meet at ten. I’ll call you if anything changes, but I should be there on time.”

“Okay, see you at ten.”

I swore I could hear him grinning through the phone. “See you then.”

I hung up and went to take a shower. When I got out, I picked out a pair of khaki Bermuda shorts and a teal colored lace capped top. I decided to scrunch my hair so the heat wouldn’t make it too terribly frizzy and twisted it into a messy bun. I recalled Parker telling me to wear it up, although I wasn’t sure why. If he liked it up, I would certainly wear it that way all the time. The thought surprised me, given that if Brent told me to do the same and I would’ve found it part of his controlling behavior. But I didn’t mind doing it for Parker, his was a request rather than a demand and I wanted to look nice for him. I put my makeup on very lightly. I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard, especially for coffee on a Sunday morning.

I left the house at 9:50, hoping to just be a few minutes early. I pulled into the parking lot and saw a patrol car parked out front. When I parked my car and got out, I saw Parker getting out of his car and he was on his cell phone. I walked over to where he was and he smiled at me and put his finger up for me to wait. I didn’t mind waiting because it gave me a chance to admire him in his uniform this time. It was dark blue and perfectly starched. I could see that his sleeves were tight because of his muscular arms, but I could also tell he was wearing a Kevlar vest because his chest looked broader than usual. I noticed all of the weapons attached to his belt; night stick, taser, and his gun. Guns usually made me pretty nervous because of my inexperience with them, but for some reason it just made me feel more protected by him. He felt very safe to me and that was definitely something I needed.  

“Yes. Yes sir. Yes, I got the BOLO. I’ll keep my eyes open. Thank you, sir.” He closed his phone and stuck it back in his pocket as he turned to meet my eyes. “I’m so sorry this turned out this way. They’ve been trying to put a few extra guys on the road during all hours and no one wanted the voluntary overtime, so I was next on call.”

“It’s okay, I understand. Work is work. I’ve been there plenty of times. I was just surprised you didn’t cancel altogether.” I looked down at my feet.

“There was no way I was cancelling on you. If I did, I’d be afraid I’d never get you to agree to go out with me again. Let’s go in before I get a call and I look like a liar.” He held his arm out and I walked in front of him to the door.

He opened the door for me and when I walked in, I could feel his hand on the small of my back. Thankfully I didn’t startle, but every one of my extremities was tingling. I couldn’t believe how easy it was for him to make me feel this way. We got in line and when it was our turn, I ordered my usual fall favorite; an iced pumpkin coffee. I pulled my wallet out to pay as Parker told the cashier he wanted a black coffee and to put the order together as he handed her his debit card.

“Thank you, you didn’t have to do that.” I turned and smiled at him over my shoulder.

“I know I didn’t, but you’re welcome. How are you going to let me buy you a proper dinner if you don’t even want me to pay for your coffee?” He winked at me and his lips turned up on one side into a smirk.

“Well you’d have to ask me out for dinner first, assuming I’d say yes,” I teased. I quickly grabbed my coffee and walked over to sit on a small leather couch in the corner of the coffee shop. Parker grabbed his coffee and followed not too far behind me, sitting next to me.

“Ouch, that hurts my ego. You wouldn’t say yes if I asked you out to dinner?”

“What is it with men and their egos? Doesn’t it get in the way sometimes?” I shook my head and smiled. “It’s a wonder some of you can carry your big heads around.” I realized I had scooted in a little bit and quickly moved back to the far side of the couch when I heard a familiar voice.

“Hey Sadie! Oh my gosh, how are you?” I realized that it was Veronica, a mutual friend who Brent and I both knew. I gave her a tiny wave and she gave a quick glance over at Parker, who obviously wasn’t my husband.

“Oh hey, Veronica, how are you?” I really didn’t want her to stick around for long because I wanted to get as much time with Parker as I could, but I didn’t want to be rude.

“I can’t complain. The shop is doing pretty well. You know women; they love their jewelry. I haven’t seen you in a while, everything…okay?” She glanced at Parker again and I realized that it probably looked weird - me sitting here with a police officer. Brent and I hadn’t seen her for some time after our relationship took a turn for the worst and she probably didn’t even know we had broken up.

“Oh, yeah, everything is great. Veronica, this is my friend Parker. Parker, Veronica.” He reached out to shake her hand and she leaned over to shake his back.

“Are you and Brent still together?” Dammit.
Shut up.

“No, we split up a couple months ago.” She didn’t need any details and even if she wanted them, she wasn’t going to hear them here. I could feel Parker staring at me like he was burning a hole into me.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you’re doing well though. We’ll have to get together sometime.” I hated when people said that. It always felt like their way out of a conversation without being rude. I nodded and waved to her and she turned and walked out the front door.

I looked over at Parker who had a completely blank expression on his face. “I’m sorry about that. I haven’t seen her in a while. I assumed she already knew my ex and I broke up.”

“Your ex…husband, ex-boyfriend?”

“Ex-husband. We got divorced six months ago.” I had just met Parker and now he had to hear about my jackass of an ex.
That’s just great.

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” I really don’t think he knew what to say. His voice was very unsure and he was trying not to pry too much.

“No, it’s okay. We don’t speak to each other anymore. I haven’t talked to any of our mutual friends since then, Veronica included.”  I looked down to avoid seeing his expression. My past relationship with Brent wasn’t something that I liked to talk about anymore. I hated that Parker had to find out about it this way. I felt dishonest even though I hadn’t really had an opportunity to tell him about it. Did he think he was a rebound now? We just met; it wasn’t something that he needed to know yet.

“Hey,” Parker’s fingers brushed under my chin and he brought it up until I was looking him in the eyes. “If you’re worried about what I think, don’t. We all have pasts we’d like to forget about.” I pulled away from him as soon as I felt his fingers burning on my skin. The sensation of someone touching my face was more than I could handle right now. These automatic responses were starting to piss me off. Was I going to silently freak out every time someone touched me? I could feel my throat getting tight and my eyes were starting to gloss with tears. I shot my eyes down towards my coffee and he leaned down to meet my gaze again without getting too close. “Is there anything I can do? I didn’t mean to upset you.”

I ran my fingers under my eyes to check for mascara and cleared my throat. “You don’t need to do anything, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I‘m so emotional about it. It’s not like I have feelings for him or anything anymore. I really don’t want anything to do with him. I just didn’t want you to think I was hiding it from you. I hadn’t seen any need to bring it up. I mean we’re just sitting here for coffee. I didn’t think you’d have to find out this way.”

“Hey, don’t worry about me. Are you okay? I’m a jerk for even making you talk about it, let alone in the middle of a coffee shop.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. She just caught me off guard.” A piece of my bangs fell into my face and before I could brush it back, Parker’s hand came up and swept it back behind my ears. I flinched, but it was so small that luckily I didn’t think he noticed.

“So, are you going to hold out on my invitation for dinner, or can you just say yes and spare my feelings?” Just as I opened my mouth to give a smart ass answer, his radio went off.

“One William twenty-one, are you ten-eight? I have a disturbance call at 1342 Elm.”

“Ten-four. I’ll head that way now.” He turned his radio down and there was almost a hint of sadness on his face. “I’m sorry Sadie, I have to go. I’ll give you a call later. Give you a chance to think about dinner?”

We stood up and he threw his coffee cup away. “Sure, call me whenever. I’ll be unpacking the rest of the day. I’m really sorry for losing it a few minutes ago. I promise I’m not some emotional psycho,” I joked.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and grinned. “I didn’t think for one second that you were. Although even if you might be, I’m sure I can handle it.” He walked the rest of the way to the door. “Talk to you soon Sadie. Get some of that unpacking done so you have time for dinner.” He smiled and walked out the door. I stood there for a minute reeling from everything that just happened. He wants to take me out to dinner.
Unbelievable
.

I couldn’t help but wonder what Beth said about him being a troublemaker. What did she mean by that? Maybe I could nonchalantly ask her after the movie on Saturday. I needed to find out everything I could about Parker before taking whatever we had any further. I walked to my car and drove the very short distance home. Hoping to hear from him was going to feel like the longest wait ever. Luckily, I had a ton of stuff to keep me busy until work tomorrow.

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly; I managed to get a good portion of the remaining boxes unpacked and decided to take a break to heat up some dinner. I went to the kitchen and popped the leftovers that Beth gave me in the microwave. Brent never let me make him leftovers. I usually had to take them for lunch at school because he refused to eat them. Even the littlest differences like that in my new life made me smile. I poured myself a glass of tea to go with it and went and sat on the couch.

I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. I channel surfed for a few minutes, and finally decided on the news. I wasn’t overly fond of the news since the majority of it was violence or someone doing something stupid, but there wasn’t much on at the moment, so news it was. The reporter was standing in front of the local police department where Parker worked. She was doing a story about a man who they believed had followed and attacked five women. She then went on to say all of the women looked eerily similar with light brown hair and blue eyes and that the stalker obviously had an M.O. The police department had issued a BOLO – which she explained to mean ‘be on the lookout’ – and if anyone had any information to call the Crime Stoppers number. That must have been what Parker was talking about on the phone this morning.

“Sick bastard,” I didn’t understand how people got to be so mentally screwed up. Not that I was one to talk. I was partially emotionally damaged from my marriage and it took me two years to get out. I was just thankful it was behind me and I could move on to better things. I didn’t know if that included a man – I surely didn’t feel the need for one right now – but when the opportunity for a relationship was put in front of me, I’d definitely be more careful this time around. If that happened to be Parker, I wouldn’t be disappointed. But with guys like the one on the news, it was already a good idea to be cautious. I couldn’t handle any more relationship drama.

I looked at the time on the cable box and it was already eight. I needed to stop unpacking and get my things ready for school tomorrow. We were now going from marching band season to concert season and I needed to get the pieces of sheet music sorted and have copies printed. There was never a break in the music department. I liked it that way though; there was always something to work on and I preferred to stay busy. I went into the kitchen and threw my Styrofoam plate in the garbage, refilled and set my coffee maker for tomorrow and headed upstairs. I turned the water on in the shower and got undressed. I pulled the hair tie and pins out of my hair. I had forgotten the reason I wore my hair up today and Parker didn’t seem to really notice that I put it up at his request. Maybe I’d ask him at dinner if he still wanted to go.

I took a quick shower, put some moisturizer on my face and slipped into my USF sweatpants and hoodie. I got into bed and checked my phone one last time to see if Parker had called but no such luck. There was no denying that I wanted to have dinner with him, but I was going to let him bring it up. I didn’t want to seem needy or too eager. Hopefully, he didn’t wait too long to find out my answer. I managed to stop thinking about him long enough to fall asleep.

Four

I hit the snooze button three times before I dragged myself out of bed. Mondays were always the worst for me. Not that I had the luxury of sleeping in on the weekends, but they just seemed to drag the most. I turned my flat iron on and went to my closet to find something to wear. I had forgotten to do laundry over the weekend, but being a girl with a lot of clothes, I think I could go weeks without doing laundry and still have something to wear.

I snagged a pair of black slacks, a purple button up silk top and grabbed the purple flats that I bought to match the shirt.  I quickly straightened my wavy strands and threw half of it up in a barrette. I put on just enough makeup to not look too tired and headed downstairs.

“Thank God for coffee,” I said with a yawn as I grabbed my travel mug out of the cupboard. Traffic was light and I got to school a few minutes early. I unlocked the door to the still dark band room and headed towards the back where my office was. The lights weren’t on in our office either yet which meant I was the first one there. My office was big, but only because I shared it with the Orchestra director Stephannie Easton. Each entrance to our office was from our individual classrooms, but it was usually full of students walking back and forth or standing in the middle between our desks waiting to ask a question. Nothing about my job was ever calm. I did teach high school students after all.