Chapter 10
The week went by in a blur without me getting any rest, but I managed to have potential candidates listed out for Jean-Pierre to meet up with after the weekend. I was knocked out cold by Friday night, unaware to the impending doom looming on me.
My phone, both cell and landline, blared incessantly the next morning. There was banging on my door and it panicked me so much that I fell out of bed as I ran towards the door, wondering what on Earth was going on. To my groggy self, it felt like the world was ending and sirens were blaring.
“Lyra?” I groaned and let her in, “Jesus, please pull all the curtains together. I can’t see.”
“Have you seen the tabloids?” she demanded, rushing around to do as I asked. As the apartment grew dimmer, I got a better hold of my mind and plopped onto the couch to massage my head. The phones had stopped ringing finally and there was nothing but silence weighing down on me heavily.
“I just woke up!” I informed her with as much sarcasm as I could muster.
“Should I wait for you to wash up for this?”
I groaned, “Just get on with it.”
Lyra brought her tablet to me and let me see it for myself.
‘Is famous matchmaker, Lilith Mendez, baiting potential partners for herself?’
“This is the last thing I need.” I sighed and fell back into the couch, the sleep pulling my eyes shut. I knew Lyra was giving me a dubious look, but perhaps I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation because of how sleepy I was.
“Lilith,” she snapped, “there are pictures of you on this!”
I sat up straight, suddenly very awake. The headlines weren’t alarming because I wasn’t the first one to be accused of such scandals, and neither was it the first time I’d dealt with the press on this matter. But pictures? What kind of pictures?
Gesturing to Lyra to hand me her tablet, I scrolled through the article carefully. She was right. There were pictures. There was one with Mr. Boulevard. One with Jean-Pierre from last night. One with…Cristo. In the New York Central park by my favorite pond.
But the one that stood out the most was with Marcus outside the convenience store. Someone must’ve been on the roof of the graffiti wall to take that picture.
“I’ve got a stalker…” I spaced off as a void opened up in my chest, trying to swallow my guts whole.
“Lilith? Lilith.” Lyra sounded panicked. I was panicked. I was panicking so much that my airways were closing up and I knew I would drop dead. I reached out for Lyra to hold onto her as the world spun.
I can’t breathe!
“LILITH!” she screamed.
I fell into oblivion.
The chandelier glinted on the ceiling with its pretty crystals, spiraling slowly. The window to my left held the large full moon. The linen sheets under me were soft, just like before.
I needed to get off this bed. But I couldn’t.
Turning on my side away from the window, I looked at the desk pushed against the wall. Blair’s desk. My heart shook in my chest and I threw myself onto my back again and squeezed me eyes shut.
“Lilith?”
Is that Cristo? I thought.
“Lilith, are you waking up?”
My eyes flew open, vision out of focus and blurry. A dark silhouette of a face loomed over me, getting in the way of the light bulb.
“You’re up.” The voice said, but it sounded watered down in my ears. I groaned and held my face, trying to get a grip on my marbles. It smelled weird, like disinfectant. Was I in a hospital?
As I slowly started feeling more balanced, I took my hands away to look at who was there. Lyra was holding my arm to help me up. She handed me a glass of water and I took a sip, blinking away the rest of the fuzziness. My eyes fell on the person on the other side of the bed and my heart skipped a beat.
“What are you doing here?” I said, the words came out more sour than I’d wished for it.
“I saw the tabloids.” Cristo sighed, “By the time I called to check up on you, Lyra was with you in an ambulance. You’d stopped breathing for a bit.”
Lyra squeezed my hand and I gave her a grateful look.
“I’m so sorry…” she whispered. She looked like she’d been crying. A lot. Her mascara was everywhere and I brought my other hand to pat hers. “It’s all my fault,” she sobbed, “I should’ve never told you about it.”
“I was bound to find out sooner or later.’ I reasoned, “I’m glad you were there to catch me.”
“Lilith!”
We all looked at the doorway and saw Marcus run in out of breath. The heat in my neck came back, crawling up my ears so quickly that the heart monitor went off into alarms.
“Get the fuck out.” I seethed, pushing myself off the bed to chase him off.
“Whoa, whoa–” Cristo ran forward to hold me down, “stay down.”
“Let me go!” I demanded, trying to push him off but he grabbed my wrists and shook me.
“Lilith!” he breathed in exasperation, “Please, stay down. Let me handle this.”
I looked into his pools of melted silver, begging and concerned. He looked so worried…I was so glad the anger set off my heart rate in the monitor, because it wasn’t anger anymore that was sending it in a frenzy.
“Fine,” I said softly letting myself fall back on the bed, “but keep that fucker away from me.”
“Okay.” He replied quietly and moved away from me. I missed the warmth of his presence the moment he did that. I watched as Cristo turned his back to me and walked up to Marcus with shoulders squared. I hadn’t noticed it before but while Marcus was slightly broader than Cristo, he was still shorter. Cristo towered above him, muscles rippling under his plain white T as he crossed his arms and nudged his head for Marcus to follow him out. Marcus looked too intimidated to even try fighting him. They left the room and Lyra turned to me.
“What happened with Marcus?” she demanded. So I told her about all of the arguments that we’d had that led up to this. Lyra looked absolutely livid.
“How did he even know how to find you?” she asked while racking her own mind for answers, “No one but Cristo knows you’re here.”
“That’s what I’m worried about, too.” I sighed, “I know he’s stalked me before but there’s only so much evidence I have.”
“Are you thinking of getting a restraining order against him?”
“He’s tried being controlling before.”
We sat in silence until a doctor came in. She checked me over one last time before deeming me stable to be discharged. Cristo came inside looking exhausted.
“Marcus is gone and I’ve made sure that he won’t come near you again.” He explained, “He tried to bullshit things but I know you wouldn’t react the way you did without good reason.”
“Thank you.” I said softly, hoping I sounded nice.
We stood in awkward silence until he nodded, turned around, and left without a good bye. He seemed so much further away even when just standing before me.
I felt numb.
“Come on, let’s get you home.”
I sat on my couch staring at my laptop screen. Staring at the article, more specifically. There were more popping up, most of them stating that I’d set my eyes on Cristo.
‘We reached out to Blair Halls, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, for a statement on the matter.’ The article read, ‘She didn’t seem too worried. “Cristo and I go way back and I know we still have the spark we once did. No one can get in the way of that.”’
Jesus Christ, I thought sourly, She didn’t even bother defending me knowing the truth.
‘Is it true Lilith Mendez will still be a part of your speed-dating event next week? Halls laughed, “She doesn’t have much of a choice seeing how this might affect her business. She should’ve been more careful. Meeting clients out in restaurants isn’t the most conventional way to work on things.”’
My stomach dropped lower into my abdomen and I knew exactly who had caused this.
“Lyra,” I spoke into my phone, “I need damage control. Blair was the one who did this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Also, can you look into whether she and Marcus have been in touch at all?”
“Sure.”
Shortly after cutting the call, I got one from Aubrey.
“Lilith, is everything okay?”
“I assume you read the news.”
“Look, I know it isn’t true.” She said gently, “Is there anything you need me to help you with at all? Jenna’s ready to call Mrs. Beaumont to put out a statement for you.”
“Really? I would appreciate that so much.” I said gratefully, “I need all the help I can get in clearing up this bullshit.”
“On it, Lilith. You sit tight!”
She hung up and I fell back into the couch with a sigh of relief. It felt comforting to know that even from so far away, she had my back. And so did Lyra. After this, I knew I wouldn’t have any time to deal with anyone of the likes of Marcus and Cristo anymore. I had to work on saving my career and taking care of a bitch called Blair Halls.
Until the day of the event, all I could do was slip in and out of consciousness when at home. I spent the days mindlessly in my office, brushing up the profiles coming in from the participants of the speed-dating event, matching them with potential partners, and setting up interview timings with married couples. I knew the participants wouldn’t know much about me, seeing as how they weren’t of this side of the industry. Maybe I could utilize this event to break into the middle-class market.
Isn’t that what Blair wants? My conscience whispered, For you to move away from the elite’s radar?
I almost dropped my cup at the thought, thinking of how genius a move that was on Blair’s part. I knew I was right in the assumption. The speed-dating event wasn’t targeted at the elite, it was targeted at the middle-class. And whilst I had no problem working for them, my profits would still take a hit. It’s not like I lived lavishly, though. My lifestyle was modest with the occasional splurge. I had saved up enough to live comfortably for over fifty years if I wished. I wasn’t in any real danger financially if I retired.
“But I like my work…” I whispered to myself. And it was true. I enjoyed it. Even if I didn’t believe in love, I liked finding people other people that could work with them and make them happy. I wanted to keep my career going for a long time.
“Nevertheless,” I told myself, “it’s time for a Plan B. Break into the middle-class market. Just in case.”
I could work my way up to top all over again if I needed to.
Getting dressed up appropriately but still modestly, Lyra dropped me off at the university where the event was to take place in their gym. She parked neatly in the car park and I looked at her in confusion.
“Aren’t you heading back to the office?”
“I’ve got someone to cover for me.” She explained seriously, “I’m not leaving you to possibly be alone around Blair. I recently found out this isn’t the first time she’s tried to sabotage someone’s work.”
“What do you think she’s doing?”
“I think,” she breathed deeply, “she’s trying to take your place as a match-maker. The industry’s hard to break into, and only the most honest and loyal people make it into the circles you’re in, Lilith. Trust me, your image is going to be just fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Have I ever been wrong?”
That was true. Lyra was a beast when it came to research. I wonder how she did it. With a grateful squeeze of her hand, we got out the car and headed inside.