Stalker
She had to be in her late twenties and Win observed that
she’d stopped crying these past few days he’d been studying her. Watching her
from across the street he could see the careful way she handled the clothes
she’d put on the mannequin. The store was a high end one and marketed solely to
women, which explained the elegant ladies who glided in and out with their
designer hand bags balanced on their arms.
Win had considered going in but he hadn’t been able to come
up with a proper explanation for why he’d be wandering in a women’s clothing
store. His mother had raised him to be honest so creating a fake girlfriend to
buy lingerie for was out of the question. The woman stopped suddenly and slowly
turned around. He observed her pass her eyes over the crowds across the street
but wasn’t worried, seated behind a bearded gentleman in one of the busiest
cafes in the area ensured she’d never see him. Then why did her eyes linger in
his direction, why did she nervously raise a hand to her strawberry blond hair?
Without warning she stepped off the platform and disappeared inside the store.
Win got to his feet, surprised and uncertain. Should he
leave? The woman appeared at the doorway to the store still looking across the
street at the café. Win decided to fall back in his chair and play innocent. He
picked up the newspaper he’d left in his lap and leafed through to a random
page. She was crossing the street now and passed right below where he was
sitting on the café’s balcony as she went inside. Win was sweating through his
Burberry shirt but was trying to play cool as he touched his black framed
glasses and pretended to read some story about a philandering local politician.
The woman came through the balcony doors and now that Win
could see her up close, he could see that her nostrils were flaring and that
she looked quite upset. She walked in his direction and Win couldn’t help
putting the paper down as she came closer. She went right past him and up to
the bearded man seated in front of Win.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ she demanded.
The bearded man raised his head to look at her and smiled in
amusement, ‘Is there some crime in being here?’
‘You know that I work right over there, so how dare you act
like you didn’t come here to harass me?’
‘Harass you? Dream on babe, I’m just here to get some
coffee,’ he said pointing at the cup in front of him.
Win expected her tirade to start up again but was surprised
when he saw tears in her eyes.
‘Can’t you just leave me alone? Please, let me just get on
with my life,’ she pleaded.
The bearded man got to his feet and took up his cup. He took
a small sip then poured it in her face. The woman flinched and drew back while
everyone stared. The bearded man stepped in front of her, then leaned in close
to her ear and whispered something that drained the color from her face. As he
drew back and gave her a wide grin Win punched him between the eyes. The
bearded man fell back toppling over the table he’d been occupying.
A dark bruise began to spread on his forehead as he stared
in disbelief at Win. Win ignored him looking over the woman whose eyes were
wide and confused.
‘Are you okay?’ Win asked her.
She numbly nodded her head still embarrassed and covered in
coffee. Win reached in his shirt pocket and handed her a handkerchief. She
resisted for a moment then took it, slowly wiping her face clean.
‘Come on,’ Win said taking her by the shoulders. ‘Let’s go
get you cleaned up.’
Win waited outside the ladies’ toilets for her until she
came out twenty minutes later. She smiled hesitantly and handed him back his
handkerchief. ‘Thanks.’
‘No problem,’ Win assured her. ‘So you ready to tell me what
that was all about?’
‘Not really, let’s just say it’s complicated.’
Win tried out a smile and was relieved that he wasn’t standing
in front of a mirror because it must have looked awful, but the woman didn’t
seem to mind it all that much. In fact she smiled back at him.
‘I don’t mind complicated and you look like you could use
someone to talk to.’
‘Alright,’ she said nodding her head, ‘but don’t say I
didn’t warn you.’
They found a table as far away from the balcony as they
could get. Win had even suggested they find another place but she’d convinced
him that she was fine with staying where they were. The woman, Camilla was her
name told him about her relationship with Logan, the bearded man. How he’d seemed
so sweet at first and then how he’d become possessive. How he’d taken to
following her everywhere and Win had coughed delicately remembering how he’d
come to be at the café but he’d let her continue. She’d confessed about how
she’d stayed with him because she was new to the city and had had no one at
all.
Somehow during all of it she got Win to tell her about his
job as an illustrator, about how lonely moving out to the city had been for
him. In the end that solitude was something they shared in common and pretty
soon she was laughing so hard that little tears came out at stories of him
getting lost on the subway and ending up at a cabaret. The entire time he could
only marvel at the way her whole being radiated joy and beauty.
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