Deadly Romance

Day 5

      Kevin looked at the bedside clock. Eight thirty four in the morning. Jessica was still sleeping peacefully beside him. He thought back about what she had said last night that they would never see each other again when his holiday was over. That was three days from now. He had to get her to change her mind somehow. 

He heard a phone beep with an incoming text message. It was Jessica's phone. It was on the table on his side of the bed. She didn't wake. He knew he shouldn't look, he knew it was invading her privacy, but he couldn't help himself. He picked up the phone and read the message. It was from her father.

'We need you here at two o'clock for a contact. Don't be late."

A contact? What did that mean, Kevin wondered. He scrolled back through her messages with Daniel over the last couple of days.

Daniel: 'When are you coming back to the unit? Don't get attached to that boy. You know what could happen.'
Jessica: 'Can't I have any fun while we're here? He goes home on Saturday, he won't even be here when this thing happens.'
Daniel: 'You better be right.'
Jessica: 'I am right. Now leave me alone so I can have some fun like a normal person for a few days.'

"What are you doing with my phone?"

Kevin whirled around to see Jessica sitting up in the bed glaring at him. "Were you reading my messages?"

"No, no" Kevin stammered, feeling guilty about lying. He quickly pressed the button which returned the display to the home screen and handed her the phone. "I heard a message coming in and I had just picked it up to give to you."

"So you didn't read any of my messages?" she didn't look at all like his happy smiling Jessica of the last few days. She looked angry, almost menacing.

"No, of course not," Kevin said, trying to sound convincing. Oh fuck! He just remembered what had happened last night. She could almost always pick when he said anything false. Something to do with body language she had said. He was so busted! 

She stared at him for a few more seconds making him feel very uncomfortable, then her expression softened slightly. She looked at the message, holding the phone so Kevin couldn't see it, then she turned the phone off and threw it in her bag by the bed.
Had she believed his lie?

Without a word she got out of bed, still naked, and stalked off the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. He stared after her, then he heard the sound of the shower. He sat there in the bed wondering what was going on with Jessica and her parents. A 'contact' this afternoon, and in a few days something was going to happen that she didn't want him around for. What was that all about?

Ten minutes later Jessica came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. She was smiling again. "What are we going to do this morning?" she asked as if nothing had happened, "Want to go to the beach again?"

After three hours at the beach they made their way back to Kevin's unit to change. As they walked up the steps off the beach to the street Kevin had the feeling someone was watching them. He glanced around and saw a man standing on the edge of the sand wearing sunglasses staring in their direction. He looked slightly familiar, and Kevin was sure he had seen the man before, maybe at Sea World.

Then Jessica yanked on his hand. "Come on, slowpoke," she said, "I want to get changed and have lunch."

After lunch at a café Jessica dragged Kevin to a tourist stand in the middle of an outdoor mall. She looked through the leaflets. "We should go on a cruise tomorrow," she said waving a leaflet at him, "It's a river cruise, leaves at ten thirty in the morning, lunch is included at a stop up river, and the boat has a bar, so Kevin you can drink too much and throw up over the side." She laughed at his astonished expression.

"I wouldn't get that drunk," he said, "Okay, sounds like fun. Let's go on a cruise tomorrow."

Jessica glanced at her watch. "I've gotta go," she announced, "My parents want me to spend some time with them this afternoon. I suppose I had better since I have been ignoring them so much to be with you. Meet you at the club tonight at nine o'clock." She sprinted off through the mall to the nearby street where as if on cue a car pulled up which she climbed into. It drove off a moment later leaving Kevin staring after it. Jessica was a very mysterious girl and so were her parents.

Only three more days to go before he had to leave. Kevin couldn't believe he would never see her again. He walked slowly back to his unit where he lay on the bed, dozing off a few minutes later.
He awoke at five o'clock, showered and put on fresh clothes before walking down to the mall where he had dinner at the same café he and Jessica had been to several times. Then he spent another couple of hours at a bar waiting for the nightclub to open. Finally it was nine o'clock and he was sitting down at a table at the club waiting for Jessica. An hour and three drinks later she still hadn't showed up. He called her mobile phone but it went to voice mail. "Jessica, where are you?" he said, "I'm waiting at the club. Please call me."

At midnight after leaving two more unanswered messages on her phone he gave up and made his way unsteadily to the exit. It was time to go home. She wasn't coming and he was drunk. He had lost count of the number of beers he had had. Near the door a man seemed to be staring at him as he stood aside to let him pass. Kevin looked at him with slightly blurred vision. Was it the same man he had seen watching them at the beach that morning? But the man turned and quickly walked off into the club. Kevin thought no more about it was he made his way back to his unit.