Don't Get Caught

Chapter 13 - Ariel

Bristol, England

2019

A musician and an artist. If I could have chosen any talents for Danny myself, those would have been it. Anticipation over what else he had in store for me occupied my mind as our relationship continued, but the investigative journalist in me wouldn't let his continued secrecy go.

After the painting, I had slightly more to go on. I started simple - I tried his name with the word artist to see if any images of his artwork would come up. His style was pretty distinctive so I googled all sorts of combinations of phrases, locations, names, and scrolled through thousands of images. If he'd sold his work in the past, he must have sold it somewhere. He didn't have a foreign accent so either he was taking his secrecy to a whole other level or he really was British.

I also tried digging into the information about his house. I had his address but I could only trace his house as far back as a letting agent so I had to assume he was renting it. I went to the letting agency one Saturday morning to ask about the house, pretend I was interested in buying it, but they simply told me it wasn't for sale and wouldn't give me any details.

I knew I was bordering on obsessive so, when my investigations all led to dead ends, I decided I had to stop. If Danny wanted to keep his private life private, I should let him and either accept it or leave him alone.

One month after our reunion, Saturday rolled around and Danny didn't invite me over for sex as he normally would. Sunday arrived and there was still no word from him. I bit back my pride and sent him a message instead.

Abstaining from sex this weekend?

No response. It didn't even deliver.

"Should I be worried?" I asked Hasmita over a coffee after the second weekend of silence.

We were crammed into a tiny indie coffee house on too-small stalls with our coffees perched on perpetually wobbly tables. Leah was with Christopher, but Hasmita and I had taken the opportunity to do some shopping. I'd refrained from mentioning Danny sooner as I knew she didn't approve, but I couldn't get him off my mind.

She raised her perfectly pencilled black eyebrows at me. "Would he be worried about you if it was the other way around?"

I shrugged. "Maybe not. But my question is still valid. Who turns their phone off for over a week unless something's up?"

"Perhaps he got a new number. He's probably just ghosting you, bru. Move on."

"But why would he?" I continued, trying and failing to perfectly fold a napkin under the table leg to stop the movement.

"Ariel, he's a guy who won't even tell you his last name. You've said yourself a hundred times, it's just sex. Take the hint and drop it."

"I'm just worried about him. Do you think it's too stalkerish if I go to his house? Just to check everything is OK."

Hasmita shook her head in a firm no. "Don't do it. You'll just embarrass yourself."

Summer had turned to autumn and Hasmita was wearing a thick long skirt with high boots, layers of colours and fabrics covered her body. She always looked so effortlessly chic. I trusted her opinion on fashion and men, but today she was wrong. I had to check on him.

When we parted ways mid-afternoon, I hopped into my yellow Beetle and instead of driving back to Bath, I headed to Danny's house.

His car was parked in the driveway, the curtains open in the front room. Sure signs he was home. I wanted to believe everything was fine and he was simply ignoring me, but my ego didn't let me think that. Instead of relief, my stomach clenched.