Filed to story: Young Girls Forbidden Love Series: My Best Friend’s Daddy
A man wearing a dark hoodie and a baseball cap was leaning against the building. I didn’t think anything of it until he started walking a short distance behind me. I figured I was being paranoid, so I slipped into a convenience store, to wait for the man to pass, to ease my nerves.
I was filling a cup with a cola flavored slushie, when I noticed the same man browsing the candy bars, his head tilted just enough that I couldn’t get a good look at his face.
My heart started racing; he really was following me. I set down my slushie and walked quickly around the shelves and out the front door.
As soon as my feet hit the sidewalk I started running, weaving my way through the other pedestrians on the sidewalk. By the time I made it back to my apartment, my heart was pounding against my ribcage, but I took the stairs two at a time, not daring to stop.
I threw my key in the lock with a look over my shoulder, but the hallway was empty. I nearly fell into the apartment as the lock clicked, and the door burst open. I slammed it shut behind me, and slumped against the closed door.
Lin and Aubrey’s shocked faces met mine, but before they could start asking questions, I threw my finger up to my lips, shushing them. Loud thumping footsteps thudded down the hallway, and I forgot to breathe.
Silence followed, but a knock sounded on our door and sent vibrations of fear through my entire body. I nearly screamed, but clapped a hand over my own mouth before the sound could escape.
We sat in silence as the minutes ticked by, staring at the door. Occasionally, we’d sneak glances at each other, but we were all so scared we didn’t want to take our eyes off the door for long. My breathing started to slow, and I inched toward the door and looked out the spy hole.
The hallway was empty.
Lin couldn’t contain herself anymore. “Shelby, what the hell was that all about? What is going on?”
“I went to cancel my membership like I told you, but as I left I noticed a man following me. I went into a convenience store, and he turned up there too. So, I put the slushie down and left, running as fast as I could home,” I said breathlessly
“Was that who just knocked?” Aubrey asked, her face visibly paling.
“I don’t know,” I said, slowly standing up.
I turned and looked through the peephole. The hallway was empty as far as I could tell. I gripped the doorknob with shaking hands, still terrified to open the door. I took one last look through the peephole and noticed a small brown box on the edge of our welcome mat.
I know that the box hadn’t been there earlier, otherwise I would have smashed it on my way in.
“There is a box at the door,” I said.
“Maybe it was just the postal delivery, and it was just really bad timing,” Aubrey offered hopefully.
I slowly opened the door and checked up and down the hallway before picking up the box. There was almost no weight to it, so I grabbed it with one hand, still holding on to the door with the other, and pulled it inside.
There was no return address or stamps on the package. Just my name in simple writing in the center of the box.
“What is it?” Lin asked, seeing the worried look on my face and coming to stand next to me.
I opened the box and nestled inside was a printed picture of Michael and I naked in the ocean.
“Holy shit! Is that you?” Lin asked.
“Yes…” I said with a small nod.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Aubrey said, who had snuck up to my side while I was distracted by the picture.
“I thought this would all just go away. At least, I hoped it would. An unknown number sent this picture to my phone, right before I flew home. I figured it would be all over every headline before I even landed. When it wasn’t I figured Michael had bought off the photographer and taken the pictures.”
“Have you talked to him since?” Lin asked.
“No.”
I picked up the picture and flipped it over in my hand.
-Tell Michael he is running out of time-
“You have to take this to him, Shelby. You have to look for his number or something. He has to know about this.”
I stood holding the picture in my shaking hands. Lin was right, I needed to look for Michael. This clearly wasn’t going away.
*************************
*Shelby*
“He needs to know, Shelby. He is the one that got you into this mess; he needs to help get you out of it,” Aubrey said, her arms folded across her chest. She had become really protective after she found out I was being blackmailed.
“There are two of us in that picture, Aubrey. I was actually the one to get in the water first. I don’t know what got into me; I slipped out of my clothes to go for a swim. Micheal walked up, and I invited him in. Well, more like dared him to get in. We got a little carried away,” I responded, my cheeks warming at the memory.
“Are you blushing? What exactly do you mean by carried away?” Lin said, eyeing me with a suspicious grin.
I laughed, “Yes. I, uh, didn’t tell you guys this, but we almost had sex that day in the water.” I decided it was finally time I talked to them about it.
“Oh, my god, Shelby! How are you just telling us about this?” Lin said excitedly.
“I’ve just been trying not to think about it, but the truth is, I can’t stop,” I said, getting lost in my thoughts about Michael. As if I’d been doing anything but thinking about him since I got back.
“Why didn’t we hear more about this part of your vacation? I’ve been begging for more saucy details the entire time you were gone. You’ve been holding out on me, Shelby!” Lin said with a giant smile.
“This is serious, Lin. It’s no time to joke,” Aubrey said with a small swat to Lin’s arm. I couldn’t help but smile a little. Leave it to Lin to try and lighten the mood of a serious situation with an inappropriately timed joke.
“I just don’t understand why he hasn’t sent over a security team or something! He is like a bazillionaire, isn’t he? He needs to step it up and take responsibility.”
“He has just as much to lose as I do,” I said, sinking onto our worn-out sofa.
I was still trying to catch my breath from being followed by some man all the way from my gym. If I were to guess, it was probably the same man who was trying to blackmail Michael through me.
If I gave in, would it get worse for Michael? Who wanted to hurt him so badly, to go to the extent of not only blackmailing him, but stalking me too?
“Does he really? He has his money to protect him,” Aubrey said.
“He probably doesn’t even know this is happening,” I said defensively.
“Then you need to let him know,” Lin said, stepping in.
“I know I need to, but I don’t know how I should reach out to him.”
I wished that I could reach out with a phone call, possibly asking him to meet me somewhere in the city. But, I had never gotten his number because he had always been just a short walk away; it’d seemed unnecessary at the time. Then when I decided to leave, it was too late.
“I don’t have a way to reach out to him….”
“Could you ask Lauren for his number?” Aubrey suggested.
“Even if I wanted to speak to her, which I don’t, after the huge fight we had, I doubt she would answer me.”
Lin pulled out her phone and started typing. A few seconds later, she handed her phone to me with a picture of a skyscraper and a New York address underneath.
“This is his office. Just go in and talk to him,” Lin said. “Also, I can’t resist, was he a good kisser?”
Aubrey laughed, smacking Lin on the shoulder.