“What happened?” Cassidy said. “Did Fredrick do anything else? You should really talk to the police about this. Your car was the last straw.”
“He said he didn’t do it,” she said. “And the more I thought of it, the more I realized he might not have. Everything he’s done to me has been cause and effect. He’d discover something I did and get back. But everything I’ve done, it’s all out in the open. There isn’t anything else.”
“Unless he finds more glitter in the collar of a work shirt,” Cassidy said, laughing. “That was a good one.”
“He was hung up on that for a bit, but not my problem. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Sorry. I offered to spray paint his car so what you did was much milder. You could have done a lot more damage than what you did. You ruined none of his stuff.”
“HisMinecraftgame,” she said.
“Stop,” Cassidy said, waving her hand. “He’s thirty. Time to let that shit go. I don’t want to hear it.”
“Shhh. Don’t swear. You don’t know if there are kids around.”
Cassidy shook her head but lowered her voice. “I don’t care. What he did was horrible. You could have told his employers. He might have gotten fired.”
She’d thought of that but wouldn’t be that mean. She’d never want someone to take her job away from her and wouldn’t do it to him.
Embarrassing him in front of his mother, some glitter and a few tight threads in his clothing wasn’t so horrible to her.
“When I called him last week about my car I brought that up. That I could have done a lot worse and I only did it that day. Nothing since. He’s the one lingering with it. My arts and crafts room. The flowers. Then the dead fish. I told him we have to be done. It’s ridiculous. There isn’t anything left on my end. And he swore it wasn’t him.”
“Do you think he’s telling the truth?”
“We know he’s a liar, but I really don’t see him doing it. I don’t know. But then who did it and when?”
“Maybe it was just kids goofing off in a parking lot,” Cassidy said. “We know that crap happens all the time. Lots of cars get broken into in their driveways too.”
“I guess. I didn’t think of that.”
“So if it wasn’t Fredrick, then why was your weekend so horrible? I thought things were going well with the wedding planning and you were meeting with clients this weekend.”
She sighed. “Everything was going so well until Clay started being Clay and I took offense to that.”
“You’ll have to explain that better,” Cassidy said, reaching over and grabbing a chip out of the small bag she had on her desk.
Her sandwich was gone, so she went for a chip also and crunched loudly while she thought of what to say.
“He’s just really rude. I mean, I thought it was his personality. Even Gale said he was a jerk. But this was different. He was doing it on purpose. Then I baited him.”
“Why?” Cassidy asked.
“Because I can’t control myself. He’s got this rugged sex appeal that blinded my eyes and clouded my thoughts. Have you seen him?” She pulled her phone out and found his picture on his website. If it was in her bookmarks for easy access she’d keep that to herself.
“Holy shit,” Cassidy said. “Is he as big as he looks? And he looks mean there. I bet he never smiles.”
“Not that I’ve seen. But I called him out on being rude. Then the next thing I know he’s flirting.”
“Noooooo. Seriously?”
“I thought it was, but I think it was more about him trying to scare me away. He noticed my car and thought I hit something. He knows my history of falling. I was friends with his sister, so he might have saved me a few times when I was a kid.”
“I need to hear about that.”
“Another time,” she said, waving her hand. “We got talking and I squatted down next to him. I sniffed him. Like snuffed up his essence as if he was the last scent I’d want in my nostrils.”
“Meredith! You didn’t.”
