Damon didn’t planned on following her again that morning.
But something made him pull out behind her when she left the house on Calhoun Street, and within four blocks he understood why his instincts had pushed him.
She wasn’t heading toward his neighborhood.
She was heading toward Keisha job.
Damon stayed three cars back and watched her park on the cross street adjacent to the building where Keisha worked downtown.
Watched her sit. Watched her wait.
Watched Keisha walk in the building with a coworker, and never once notice the woman in the black Hyundai Sonata watching her from thirty yards away.
Damon sat in his truck and something came to his mind.
This wasn’t about him anymore.
Maybe it never was.
Damon called Keisha while she was on her lunch break that afternoon.
“I’m coming back over. Don’t ask me why yet just let me in.”
She didn’t question him.
That was one thing about Keisha when his voice carried a certain weight, she recognized it and moved accordingly.
He made it to Keisha house around two.
Then he walked inside into the living room where he had a clear view of the driveway, and the edge of the neighbor’s driveway.
He looked and seen the black Hyundai Sonata easing down to the street and then she backed up just enough the nose of the car visible from where he was looking from.
Lights on just sitting there. Idling.
Damon stood up, walked outside, and got into his truck.
Then Hyundai Sonata went in reverse smooth under the carport and sat still.
He could barely see her in there through the tinted windows.
He couldn’t really see her face or anything behind the dark tint plus she had angled her car just enough to have eyes on him.
He sat in his truck.
She sat under her carport.
Twenty minutes passed like nothing.
It was two people who had never spoke to each other before, playing a game that only one of them had agreed to play.
Then she started her car and pulled out.
Damon checked the time. 4:41 p.m.
Keisha gets off at five.
He went back inside and stood in the kitchen thinking while he drank a glass of the children juice.
Then walked back outside and sat in his truck.
At 5:03 Keisha Jeep turned into the driveway.
At 5:05 the black Hyundai Sonata passed in front of the house and turned in the neighbors driveway and pulled under the carport and blew the horn twice beep-beep.
Sharp and deliberate.
Damon ignored it and kept looking down at his phone.
He thought about looking over at the neighbor’s driveway the same way anyone would when they hear a sudden familiar sound.
He could feel her staring at him through her tinted window.
Like she wanted him to see her seeing him.
Then he had this weird feeling that she wants to be Keisha. When she comes home the same time Keisha comes home and then she sees when gets out her car and saying “Hi” to him.
Damon got out his truck and went inside before Keisha came inside talking about her day, dropping her work bag and kicking off her shoes.
Same normal shit and she had no idea what had just happened in the driveway fifteen feet from her.
Damon turned and closed the blinds.
“She followed you to work today,” he said.
Keisha stopped moving.
“What?” “Who is she?”
“The neighbor. I followed her this morning.”
“She parked on Clement Street and watched you and your coworker walk in the building.”
The expression on Keisha face changed.
Not fear exactly. Something older than fear.
The particular feeling a woman gets when being watched without permission.
“Damon—”
“I know.” He said it quiet. “I know.”
The school bus dropped the kids off at their driveway and they came in loud and hungry and the conversation paused the way it had to.
Dinner happened. Homework happened. Baths happened.
They went on with their normal routine.
Later, after the kids were all snuggled in bed Keisha stood in the kitchen doorway and looked at him.
“Can you stay tonight? I have an early morning and I just—” She stopped. Looked down at the floor for a second. “I’d feel better.”
Damon looked at her.
Over twenty years of history in this woman’s face. Two kids down the hall.
A idiot stranger next door who had inserted herself into both their lives without invitation.
He thought about his empty house on the other side of the city. Thought about what he now knew about how long has this going on.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll stay.”
Keisha nodded once and disappeared down the hall.
Damon turned the living room lamp off and sat in the dark for a while.
From where he sat he could see the edge of carport at the street next door through the side window.
That black Hyundai Sonata was there parked and still.
He didn’t know what she was planning.
Didn’t know how deep this went or how long she had been doing this.
But he knew this she had made a critical mistake today.
She also let him see that this was never just about him.
And now it was personal in a way that had nothing to do with restraining orders or police reports.
Damon leaned back in the chair and watched the dark.
Tomorrow he was going to find out exactly who she was.
All of her.
To be continued — Part 7 coming soon.