POISONED AT 21:00 Pt. 2

14:00 MSK time

I was sitting in the front seat of Fred’s car. Somehow, he successfully convinced me to go out with him. I don’t remember his exact words, but they surely got me laughing, and I agreed to go with him. The sane part of me opposed this idea, but he promised to return me to my house by evening, leaving me with enough time to pack. I also reasoned that he could not have been much of a bad guy if he had come to church. Maybe he was a good guy that genuinely wanted to hang out with me. 

Then I remembered the bonnet of his car. I thought of the amount of force that could cause such a dent and how fierce his rage was. “What if the person on the other end of the line was standing before him?” I thought to myself. I doubt the person’s head would still be sitting on the neck. However, I did not want to jump to a conclusion quickly. Maybe he was a good guy with a nasty temper. I still wanted to ask him what had made him so angry, but I did not want to bring back the memories that caused him to be angry, so I decided to let the sleeping dog lie.

“Lady, are you listening to me at all?” Fred asked. 

He was telling me a story about one of the projects that he handled in one of the biggest cities in the country and how tasking it was.

“Yes, I am listening, and my name is not ‘Lady’. My name is Linda,” I replied.

“I don’t believe,” he said.

“You don’t believe my name is Linda, or you don’t believe that I am listening,” I said with a laugh.

“Hmmm, actually both.”

I burst into uncontrollable laughter. He managed to stay focused on his driving and still paid enough attention to engage me in an exciting conversation.

“I don’t understand why you are laughing. You are not paying attention to my story, and now you are laughing. Lady, are you sure you want to be here?” he asked. 

His facial expression and how he said his words made me know that he was making a joke out of the whole situation.  

“Fred, I am not laughing at you, and of course, I am listening to you,” I tried to sound serious, but I was still giggling. I could not help it.

“Okay. I believe you. Tell me, what exactly do you do that makes you this popular and sorted for?” he asked. 

At that moment, I wondered where he was taking me to. He drove as though he knew the city so well. I also wondered where he had gotten a car from. I wanted to ask these questions, but I did not want to come across as nosy.

“Lady, it is either I am boring, or you have a very short attention span,” Fred said as he realized I was lost in my thoughts again.

“You are not boring, and I don’t have a short attention span,” I replied him, coming out of my thoughts.

“Well, I asked you a question, and you did not reply me. You are so quick to go back into your thoughts. What is happening there? Let me in,” he said as he stopped the car.

“Why did you stop?” I asked him. I looked out and did not recognize where we were. Even though I had lived in this city for two years, I still did not know a lot of places.

“Because I need you to talk to me,” he said, looking directly into my eyes. Something about the way he looked at me made me nervous.

“But I am talking to you,” I replied. 

As a businesswoman, I had been trained to maintain eye contact, but this time, it seemed very difficult for some reason. I also knew I could not look down, sending messages I did not want to pass. So I looked directly into his eyes also.

“No, you are not. You are doing more thinking than listening and talking to me. Is everything okay?” he asked with a heartfelt tone. 

Then I noticed that he started moving his hands to touch mine. I wanted to move my hands away, but I did not. The moment his hands touched mine, I froze.

Trying to regain my composure, I said, “Everything is fine. I am just wondering where you are taking me to.” I wanted to add, “considering you do not live here,” but then I did not.

“Why didn’t you just ask me then? Did you get your answer by thinking about it?” he asked, smiling.

At that moment, I knew that he was aware that his smile had a powerful effect on people, me especially. He was not just smiling because he wanted to smile or because something was funny. It was a tactic to disarm, and of course, it worked on me.

He kept smiling, looking into my eyes and holding my hands, waiting for a reply. I did not think his question required an answer, so I kept quiet. Something within me felt very uncomfortable. 

“Where are we going to?” I asked.

“Marriott,” he replied.

“But this is not the way to Marriott?” I probably didn’t know a lot of places in the city, but everyone knew Marriott. Maybe he did not know the way.

“I know,” he replied.

“Why then did you take this way? Marriot isn’t far from the church,” I said. 

“I know, but I took this way so I could spend time talking to you, but here you are, deep in your thoughts, and not with me,” he said as he made a pitiful face. It was an adorable one.

“Let’s go. I promise to be here with you,” I said as I smiled.

He let go of my hands like a happy child and said, “Wonderful. Off of Marriott with my Lady.” His happiness was contagious. 

I probably was just trying to find fault in him. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

21:00 MSK time

I lay on my bed, thinking of how the entire day went. I planned to spend nothing more than 4 hours with Fred, but I was out for 7 hours. It was indeed a beautiful time. From the reception to the food and the laughter, I was so glad that I went with him.

However, even with all the fun I had, the nagging thought I had while we drove to Marriot lingered. “How could Fred navigate the city without GPS and even know a longer route I was unaware of? How did he get a car if he was just visiting?” The voice got louder as I recalled how friendly the receptionist and waiters were to him. I could almost swear that they knew him.

But as we got out of the car, Fred had said to me, “I have always heard the food in Marriott is good; hopefully, they meet up to the hype.”

Nothing was adding up. “Could he be lying to me? Was all his niceness a fake act just to get me to go out with him?” These were the questions in my head.

I knew I could have asked him these questions, but I did not want to. Maybe I was actually overreacting. Perhaps it was because I had not been on a date with any guy in a very long time. 

I decided to call Janet. She might be able to make sense of everything. I sought my phone in my bag, and as usual, it was far down. As I searched for it, a note fell out of my bag.

It read, “HE IS A LIAR. PLEASE, RUN FROM HIM.”

To be Continued…