Chapter 8
8
Late That Night
Wyatt
I t was the shouting that woke me up. At first, I thought it was a continuation of my dream. I was arm wrestling Nick, and if I won, he had to come to family Christmas. If I lost, we never contacted him again. Liam was shouting at me to win.
But then there was the sound of someone’s fist banging against glass, and I bolted out of bed.
I bolted out of bed and ran into the living room.
A security light must have come on, because the back deck was lit up. A man stood on the other side of the glass. It was his voice I’d heard. If he was trying to break in quietly, he was doing a shit job of it.
What I didn’t expect was Syd, wearing a tiny pair of sleep shorts and baggy t-shirt, trying to shush him through the glass.
“Shhh, you’ll wake him up,” she said.
“Who?” the man trying to break in cried. He didn’t seem like a thief. He wore khaki pants and glasses. “Your husband? I don’t care! Tell him to come out here and explain himself! How could you do this to me? I love you! You know I love you!”
“Barry,” Syd tried again, her voice barely above a whisper, but she had her mouth pressed up close to the glass. “You know that’s not true.”
“It is true!” he cried. “I. LOVE. YOU. I don’t care if he finds out about us.”
“The fuck?” I finally said.
Sydney whirled around to face me, and I could see the fact that I was dressed only in a pair of boxer briefs caught her off guard. She stuttered for a second, blinked a few times, then shook her head and looked directly at my feet.
“I’ve got this,” she said.
“Got what?” I said, stepping around the couch towards the door. I wasn’t sure if I should be jealous. She asked me not to see anyone else, but she had some guy trying to sneak in at night?
“It’s not what you think,” she said, still whispering.
“It is what you think!” Barry wailed from the porch. “We’re in love!”
Closer to the door, I got a better look at her would be lover. He didn’t look like a thief or like any of her other boyfriends. He looked like…a high school science teacher. A little nerdy. A lot older. He pulled off his hat and the light from the motion sensor made his balding head glow blue.
This wasn’t a lover. Nope. He didn’t have a key and she wasn’t letting him in.
“Sydney,” I said, jerking my thumb at the guy on the deck. “Who is this guy?”
“It’s Barry,” she sighed. “He…he comes around. He doesn’t mean any harm, really.”
“Is Barry a stalker ?”
“They only call it stalking if the love is not reciprocated, and Sydney loves me!” Barry shouted through the glass.
I turned to face him directly.
“Barry, you’re going to get quiet real fast or I’m going to come out there and mess you up.”
“You think I can’t take you?” he asked, very bravely, with thick glass doors between us.
I lowered my eyebrows and barked at him.
“Oh my god,” Syd sighed. “Did you just…”
“Yeah. Cause it works.”
Barry got quiet.
I turned back to Sydney. “Explain. Please. Why are you talking to your stalker and not calling the cops?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know how to explain. Sometimes he shows up down at the beach and sings my songs to me. Or leaves flowers. Or writes messages in the sand. He’s never come up on the deck before.”
“I had to!” Barry shouted. “You got married! How could you get married?”
My brother had stalkers and he never took them seriously. Called them fans, and for the most part, ignored their existence. But my brother could take care of himself with women.
Syd was a tiny woman living alone.
“I’m calling the police.” Except my phone was back in my bedroom and I wasn’t leaving her out here alone with this guy, even with the glass door between them. “Go back into your bedroom and lock the door. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out.”
“Wyatt, I don’t think he intends to hurt me-”
“I don’t,” Barry cried, collapsing dramatically against the glass door. “I would never hurt her, I love her.”
“You’re a stalker, Barry. There are laws against what you’re doing. I’m calling the police. Don’t fucking move,” I told him. “Syd, your room. Now.”
Instead of listening, she crossed her arms over her chest and got that little furrow in her brow like when she was upset about something.
I was starting to learn her. Her emotions were blasted on her face at high volume. Happy, shy, flustered, worried.
Right now she was more frustrated than mad.
“Wyatt, we’re not calling the police. I don’t want the publicity that comes with it.”
“You have no idea what this guy is capable of,” I said.
“I’m not really capable of much,” Barry said from the other side of the door. “That’s why Gran says I can’t hold down a job.”
I tilted my head back and prayed for patience.
“No, it’s true,” Barry insisted. “I’ve only ever been good at one thing and that’s loving Sydney Malloy.”
It was her turn to sigh. “Barry, we talked about this. It’s not love. It’s just a fan crush run wild. Now, go home before your Gran wonders where you are.”
He nodded. “She doesn’t like me to stay out past nine, but you got married. I had to come.”
“I understand, but you need to go,” Sydney said gently.
“You are providing therapy to your stalker?” I asked.
She gave me a look like of course, what else would I do?
But it worked, Barry walked away, looking over his shoulder at Sydney as he went like a lost puppy. “I’m a seriously jealous dude, Barry,” I said. “And a professional hockey player who hits people for a living. You come near my wife again and I promise to hurt you. Do you want that?”
“No,” he said, clearly dejected now. Then with one last defiant look back, he said. “You’re mean.”
“Yep. Remember that!”
Syd and I watched him walk down the beach until he was absorbed by the night.
“Are you?” she asked softly.
I wanted to hit something. Preferably Barry. “Am I what?”
“A seriously jealous dude.”
I frowned. “No.”
I didn’t do serious relationships, so there was never anything to be jealous about. But before I realized Barry deserved more pity than anger, when he referred to him and Sydney as an us it bothered me.
It really bothered me. Yeah, Barry was harmless, but were there other guys out there who thought they had a connection with Sydney?
“Could you maybe put a robe on or something?” She waved her hand up and down as if trying to show me what she would like covered up.
“I don’t own a robe.”
“I’ll have Beatrice pick you up a robe,” Syd said.
“I don’t want a fucking robe. Listen to me, I need to know. Are you single? Like legit single.”
“What kind of question is that!”
“One you have to answer, Tink.”
“Tink?”
“You look like a furious fairy right now. Tinker Bell is the only fairy I know by name.”
“I am furious. I don’t like having my honor questioned.” There was a new emotion on her expressive face. Outrage. “Do you think I would have gotten drunk married if I was in a relationship with someone else? Don’t answer that. I’ll tell you, I would never. I don’t cheat and I don’t lie, unless it’s to the press. I’m loyal, even in a fake situation. Ask anyone.”
“Got it. I’m sorry.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “But maybe you should have security?”
She patted my shoulder like she was trying to calm me down. I didn’t spend my nights providing free mental health care to my stalkers.
“I swear most of the harassment stuff happens online,” she said. “Barry’s grandmother lives in Malibu and he lives with her, so he has a little more access to me. That’s all. I have security cameras and codes on all the doors and gates on the house. But it doesn’t matter. Unless I can come up with a new album that’s amazing, it won’t even matter. I’ll be irrelevant soon enough.”
“You do that a lot,” I told her. “Make it like you’re not a big deal. You’ve been releasing music for almost a decade. You should be proud of that.”
“I am,” she insisted. “I really am. I just know fame is fleeting and I want to be prepared for what comes next.”
That sounded familiar. I let out a long sigh and turned to look out over the ocean. Now that Barry was gone and the automated lights were off, the deck was dark once again. The half-moon was lit up over the ocean showing me a color I didn’t know that I’d ever seen before.
“I can appreciate that,” I said quietly, the dark seemed like a safe place for secrets. “This body of mine is almost shot. I’ve been thinking about retiring a lot. What that looks like, what comes next. But I can’t see it yet.”
“Your body looks fine,” she said, and ducked her chin to her chest. “To me, I mean, in the dark, but really you should have a robe.”
“I’m not gonna wear a robe.”
“Okay, but they can be really soft. Anyway, I guess I’ll just…”
She jerked her thumb back towards the bedroom.
“You go. I’m going to sleep on the couch.”
“You don’t have to do that. It’s not like Barry’s going to come back. You barked at him. Like, literally barked at him.”
“It’s what I do, Syd. Don’t try to reason with me. There was a threat at the door. I’m going to sleep on this couch until I’m comfortable that the threat no longer exists. It’s just how I’m wired.”
“Okay. I think you’re over-reacting, but the couch is super comfortable. I fall asleep there all the time.”
That meant the cushions and blankets and pillows would smell like her. Suddenly I couldn’t wait to get on that couch.
“Go to bed,” I told her, softly.
I waited until I heard her door close and I laid down on the couch. I punched the bright green pillow until it supported my head just right and pulled the pink and yellow blanket up to my nose and gave it a good sniff.
Some soft lavender soap? A citrus shampoo maybe?
All fairy dust.