The Perfect Stranger

Chapter 5: Jackson

Well, today has been a long day. When I say a long day, I do mean a long ass day. All I want to do is go home, kick my shoes off, sit on my old worn leather couch with a nice cold one and relax. After the day I’ve had, I need it. I mean how can today get any worse. I’ve stupidly taken on an assignment with the most difficult client I have ever had the pleasure of having in my office. I mean I should have known something was up when she scared off a case worker or two that I had working with another employee. I mean how can anyone be so shrewd. I need to get out of this office. My head is starting to spin and I think if I read one more email from my client complaining about the amount of sugar packets I have in my waiting room, it’s literally going to spin off my body.

Grabbing my briefcase, I go ahead and load up my laptop and some files I can use to work from home for a couple of days. I need a break from seeing that walk- ing nightmare of a client face to face this week. I mean don’t get me wrong, I am all about my clients and the security my law services provide them, but I too need a break sometimes. Even if its just for me to work at home while I avoid a client. Gathering all my things, I turn to leave my office, locking the door behind me.

The elevator ride down is quiet. Thankfully, I need the peace and quiet after a today like today. It was as if the client was harassing me for pleasure. What could I have ever done to deserve this. Such a pretty middle aged woman with nothing better to do than sit in a boring law office complaining about what type of nuts we have available in the waiting room or how many sugar packets I have in the lobby. Like, who sent this woman to personally torture me. Good thing her husband’s business was worth all the outrageous nagging, or else I would have sent her out the door so fast it would make her head spin.

The elevator doors ding open and I side step through the crowded lobby to get to the doors. Hopefully, unnoticed. I make it out the front doors of the office build- ing I own and head towards the parking lot only to realize I didn’t call my car to come get me like usual. s**t. No problem. It’s okay. My apartment isn’t too far away and I could use the walk. I can use the fresh air to help me refresh my over- worked brain.

So far the walk is pleasant. Wish I would have been a little less impulsive though. I mean its not too crowded on the street but it is pretty dark out here and I can smell rain. Plus, the temperature has dropped a little. Could it be that my

shit of a day is about to get worse? I continue walking, silently praying that the rain holds off until I get to my apartment. I really don’t want to ruin this suit, it’s bad enough I decided to walk home in twelve hundred dollar shoes.

I’m so wrapped up in my thoughts that I don’t even realize that I am almost to my apartment. I’m down the street about to cross over where my apartment is located, when I notice a woman who I think is my neighbor, running out of my building. I mean I’ve only seen her a couple times waiting in the lobby, so I don’t really know if she’s my neighbor or not. She’s dressed to the nines and looks gorgeous in that white dress. Her caramel skin glowing in the light of the moon and under the street lamps. She comes running down the street not paying attention to where she’s going. She’s just looking up at the sky and she is headed straight for me.

It’s a dark night, even with the street lights glowing. The small sliver of the moon is still miraculously visible above the town. It’s mystery and beauty seems to have captured my “neighbors” attention so much so that she comes flying down the street straight towards me now at a full sprint. I move quickly out of the way managing to only bump shoulders with the track star in heels. She quickly glances back at me to see what she’s hit, just managing to get a quiet sorry past her lips.

Before I can respond, she’s back to running down the street with her eyes toward the sky like she’s praying to the stars and moon to suck her up.

Just as I turn and continue my reflective walk home, a man comes running out of my building. He’s dressed in what appears to be a nice suit, but clearly its a knock off of mine, and its in horrid shape. His tie is untied and his shirt is but- toned unevenly. He calls out to the mysterious woman running down the street. She turns and runs faster. I just reach the bottom of the stairs leading up to the en- trance when the sky opens up and showers the whole street. I’m instantly wet and just about to complain as I take off up the stairs when I hear the most blood curdling sound of metal against metal at as the same time as I hear a horrible scream. Looking up, a blonde woman in an oversized t-shirt is standing next to the man in a disheveled suit, and is screaming her lungs out. “Lizzie! Lizzie! No Lizzie!” She screams. Turning towards the sound of the crash, I see a car stopped in the middle of a walk way and a white dress sticking out from underneath.