Jealousy Junction by Cathryn Grant (rosie project .txt) 📗

to him, but same thing—he disappeared. Jerry didn’t even see which direction he went. It’s almost like he knew Jerry was coming out and slipped away right at the last second.”

“Well, I’m glad you have the alarm system. Hopefully, you won’t forget to set it again,” Officer Morales said. “And lock your doors, obviously.” She sounded almost embarrassed for us that she had to say this.

I heard Tanya grunt, but that was the extent of her response.

“Aren’t you going to look for fingerprints?” I asked.

Officer Morales smiled. “Everyone knows to wear gloves. It’s extremely unlikely we’d find anything.”

I walked her to the door and thanked her, but I felt anger start to fizz inside me. It wasn’t fair to expect the police to do more; there wasn’t really anything to do. But I felt utterly helpless, and it was starting to look like the police felt exactly the same. They couldn’t get prints, didn’t find any easily sold electronics missing, and were never around when the stalker showed up outside.

I wasn’t sure if I felt more like I was living in the Twilight Zone or in a world where you can never be safe, and the people you think will keep you safe are really quite helpless in a lot of situations.

Chapter 15

After Officer Morales left, we sat in the living room and drank the tea Jerry had made. No one said anything. You could hear us sipping, and I could feel Tanya’s defensiveness like it was a fourth person in the room, her anger that I was blaming this on her.

“Nothing happened to you anyway,” she said, thumping her mug on the coaster. “So it’s not that big of a deal. And just so you know, I did lock the door. I did punch in that number.”

By now, I was guessing she hadn’t punched it in correctly and ignored the beep that alerted her to that, or she hadn’t pressed enter when she finished. I imagined she inserted the key and turned the deadbolt in the wrong direction, but I wasn’t going to push until she admitted what she’d done. I still felt on thin ice in our newly floundering relationship, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to chase her away because she might never return. Besides, it was too late. He’d already been inside my house.

It’s a sickening feeling to know a stranger has entered your space and touched your things. I was shocked by how much it upset me. It felt almost as if he’d touched my body without permission.

“You’re acting like this is my fault,” Tanya said.

“The fact that this guy has followed me is because of you. How can you ignore that? And I don’t understand why you don’t want to get the police involved. This is insane. It’s like we’ve asked them to keep an eye out for him and then blindfolded the cops.”

“You can already see why. They won’t do anything. They can’t do anything. I’ve been through this, and I’m not going to piss off Dave and then have the cops keep on doing nothing.”

“Well, I’m not going to live like this.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Tanya’s voice was weak, the signal she was ready to start crying.

“I don’t know.”

Jerry slurped down the rest of his tea. He stood. “I’m going to clean up the bedroom, and then I’m gonna crash.” He bent down and kissed the top of my head. “I’m staying at the campground tomorrow night. I have some late check-ins, and then I’m hanging out with a mate who’s in the area for just a day. Smoke a little weed.” He grinned.

“That sounds fun. I wouldn’t mind relaxing with some weed,” Tanya said.

Jerry moved toward the door, holding the handle of his mug with two fingers, letting it hang by his side, which made me worry the remains of the tea were going to dribble on the hardwood. “Just the guys. Sorry.”

“Well, that’s no fun. All boys,” Tanya said.

“I thought you were too scared to leave the house?” I said.

She glared at me. “I need to relax. This is really stressful for me.”

“Some other time,” Jerry said. He moved so fast out of the room and into the kitchen, I wanted to laugh.

A few minutes later, I left my sister’s complaining and went upstairs. Jerry had put everything away and was lying in bed. I joined him, and he managed to make me forget all about the break-in.

The next morning, Jerry got up when I did, and we left the house together, which was comforting because I figured I wouldn’t be followed. The minute I arrived at work, I saw a text from my sister, letting me know she’d stayed up almost all night and Dave had been out there the entire time. She said she couldn’t go to bed, knowing he was out there.

I didn’t respond. Why was she upset about this? She knew the guy; I didn’t. She refused to get the police more involved, not me. I shoved her and the stalker, if you wanted to call him that, out of my head and went about my day.

In the middle of the afternoon, I realized I’d only had one text from Jerry. Usually, he texted often during the day.

I sent him a message, telling him to have a great time with his buddy, but he didn’t respond. It started nagging at the back of my head, like someone trying to drill a tiny screw in there—was he cooling on me? Maybe he hadn’t just been friendly with my sister but was actually flirting with her. They’d spent a lot of time alone, and just because it didn’t seem as if they were flirting when I was in the room didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.

He’d been quick to turn her down when she invited herself to his boys-only party, but Jerry was a stand-up guy. He would want to end things with me first. Maybe he turned her down because