“I’m getting concerned.”
It wasn’t what she wanted and had to play this off as best as she could. “I wasn’t truthful with everything concerning Fredrick and me and the breakup.”
Her mother’s eyebrows lifted. “How so? Please don’t tell me you cheated too.”
“Oh God no. I’d never do that. Just my reaction to what happened.”
“You were mad. Upset. Embarrassed. You told me that.”
“And I let those emotions take over.” She confessed everything she’d done to Fredrick’s possessions, from the glitter in the boxes, to the stitches in his pants, even deleting his video game creation.
“Meredith,” her mother said, shaking her head. Then the laughter came. “That was wrong. Funny, but wrong. I’m sure he didn’t appreciate it.”
“Then he should have kept his dick in his pants,” she hissed. The last thing she needed was anyone to overhear those words.
She’d even whispered what she’d done to his stuff.
“I couldn’t agree more. I’m actually proud you had the courage to do something, but not sure I would have advised all of that. Maybe stop at the glitter and the stitches. Changing the contacts in his phone was brilliant. His mother should know the type of man she raised.”
“Thanks, Mom. And no, he wasn’t happy about any of it. There were a lot of nasty texts and voicemails over the phone contact switch. The glitter went on for a while. He kept finding it places. It’s difficult to clean up.”
He always complained about that in the house; she was just proving him right.
You’d think he would have appreciated that she agreed with him.
“A little glitter is good for the soul.”
Meredith laughed. “I get that from you. But he didn’t find it that way. He got back into the apartment and rearranged my art supplies.”
“You’re particular about those things.”
“I am. I was annoyed and then had the locks changed. That was a few weeks after he’d moved out. Then when he found out about his video game, he took all the flowers out of my pots and dumped the dirt on the porch.”
“That’s a big mess. Did they die or were they ruined?”
“I think that was his plan, but I salvaged them with the help of Karl and cleaned it up.”
“Your neighbor?”
“Yeah. He’s been nice and helpful through this. Last month I came home after my interview with Clay and there was a dead fish in the wrapper opened on the porch covered in flies.”
Her mother sighed. “Now I’m more concerned.”
“I was angry. I had it out with Frederick. I asked him to call it a truce. I thought he did. He said he did. Things seemed fine.”
“But?”
“Someone scratched and put a dent in my car. I called him and he said no, it wasn’t him. I then discovered that people had their cars broken into at the apartment complex, so maybe that’s what happened.”
“Could be.”
She was eating and talking at the same time. She realized now she had a lot to say before they had to leave.
“Last weekend I got a nasty anonymous letter delivered to the house. I thought it was him based on something that was typed.”
She filled her mother in, and what Fredrick’s response was to it.
“So now his ex is mad at you?” her mother asked.
