Chapter 4
Sarah startled awake in the dead quiet of the large house. The morning sun flooded into the windows, as she heard the same distant crashing surf from last night. Her eyes were dry, and she felt like her limbs weren't working right. She shook the cobwebs from her mind and did a quick mental assessment of what happened. She knew she was with Joe last night. She knew they had dinner and drinks. She had that awesome back rub, and then...blank. She wriggled her toes, and tried to get feeling back into her arms so she could move them finally. It was when she strained her head upward that she saw that same tie from last night wrapped neatly around her wrists. She had been secured to one of the posts of the antique, wrought iron bed.
Now it was time to panic! She was trapped in an unfamiliar house, and she was tied to a bed. She heard her phone chiming away to notify her of the unread emails and texts, but she was utterly and hopelessly stuck. She cursed herself for being so naïve! How did she not see this coming? She had a showing today, and she was sure to miss it since she was lashed securely to Joe's guest bed. She hated herself for the fact that she was hoping so much more would have happened last night. It was obvious that she was just being played like always. Every struggle seemed to make the knot tighter around her wrists, and she feared that any more movement would start cutting off the blood flow to her hands.
Resigned to her fate, she let her hands go slack and just decided to wait it out. After about an hour, she heard footsteps coming down the hall. They weren't Joe's, in fact they weren't even men's footsteps at all. There was a quiet knock at the door, and a small Hispanic woman peered around the open door. She began uttering various unintelligible phrases in Spanish, as she rushed to untie Sarah.
“Muchos gracias Senora.” Sarah said to the woman in her broken Spanish, while she rubbed the red marks on her wrist.
“Eyyee, Mr. Jose es muy loco!” The woman said with an angry look on her face.
Sarah was already up and out the door.
“Jessica, I'm emailing you my location. I need you to come pick me up.” She furiously mashed buttons on the touch screen of her phone while she talked out loud.
“Wow Sarah, you ignore all my messages today, and then you start barking orders at me? Not cool girlfriend...” Jessica chastised.
Sarah paused and caught herself. “Jess, look, I'm sorry. I was tied up, um literally, at Joseph Blake's house. I need to reschedule the Nickerson's showing.”
“Done already.” Jessica said coolly. “I figured something was up when you failed to check in.”
Sarah felt the weight of the world lift from her body. “Oh my God, I owe you so much. If it wasn't weird, I'd kiss you right on the lips.”
“Heh, heh, I don't like you like that kiddo. Just give me the deets on your little meet up with the mysterious Joseph Blake and we'll call it good.”
Joe stepped out of his car and stretched long and loud. He groaned and growled as he reached his long arms to the sky. Free to do what he wanted, he took his time getting the bag out of the passenger seat.
He came across a sporting goods store that had a fifty-pound bag of field marking chalk. He had the great idea of pouring the powdered stuff into the ventilation system of the house that Sarah was showing next week. When the heat tripped the air conditioner on, the house would become an instant winter wonderland inside! He hummed merrily to himself as he strolled past one of Sarah's signs staked into the manicured front lawn. Staring back at him from the sign was the cheery face of the woman currently tied to his guest bed. He reached down, and yanked the sign out of the ground and tossed it over his shoulder with a melodramatic flourish.
He switched the heavy bag of powdered chalk to his other shoulder, and reached for the polished brass door handle. His smile faded quickly, as he realized that he was somehow stuck to the door! The bag of chalk fell from his free hand, as he tried to get a grip on what was happening. He gently tried to pry his hand off, but whatever had glued him in place was too strong. He would tear his skin off if he kept struggling, so he fumbled for his phone right as a call came in.
Without looking, he unlocked the screen and held the phone to his ear. “Hello Sarah. I see you freed yourself from my silk tie?”
Sarah sat in the Starbucks by her condo and sipped an iced coffee deliberately while she talked. “I had some help from your cleaning lady. That was quite a knot by the way. Were you a Boy Scout or something?” She teased in a calm, purring voice.
“A Sea Scout, actually.” He snapped back, as he tried to find a comfortable position in which to lean up against the door. “What did you glue me to the door with, by the way?”
She took another long sip from her iced coffee, right in Joe's ear. “ I figured you might try something, so I set a little booby trap. That glue is something called Derma Tech Fusion Bond 3423. My roommate in college did her internship for the company that makes it, and she actually developed the skin glue that has you stuck to the door right now. It activates with body heat. Isn't that cool?” She teased. “It’s supposed to be stronger than sutures in human skin. There is a release agent, but Jessica got stuck in traffic and she's having a hard time getting it to you.”
Jessica took a big noisy sip from her own iced coffee as she nudged Sarah's foot with her leg. The two girls giggled at Joe's expense while he fumed into the phone. Sarah got a quick thought in her head, and sat up straight to ask him point blank.
“Did you drug me last night?”
Joe could be heard exhaling loudly on the other side. “Well, technically no. It was Ernesto who mixed up the cocktail that I slipped you. Club drugs are more his thing than mine.” He answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Did you, you know... while I was out cold?” She asked slowly.
“Oh God no! I am an asshole Sarah, but not a monster. I just made sure you would miss you meeting. That's all.” He said firmly.
“Well, for your little chemistry experiment on my behalf, you just earned another two hours stuck to my client's door. Ta ta, Joey boy!” She sang, as she slipped her phone back in her purse.
Joe tossed his phone on the broken bag of powdered chalk. He had underestimated this girl. Part of him was happy to finally have a worthy adversary, and the other part was slightly scared of what she might do next.
A couple of days later Sarah straightened her blouse while she took in the cool morning air. The Nickersons were a tough couple to please. She knew that she could sell them on this house though. If she had to hold them at knifepoint, she would get them to make an offer! Oh man, what was she saying...?
As the terse, young couple pulled up in their BMW SUV, Sarah made one more touch up run on her makeup. While the two got out of the car, Sarah strode over to meet them at the curb.
“Hello guys!” She offered cheerfully. “Thank you for rescheduling on such short notice. It was crazy yesterday.” She said with a friendly laugh that morphed into an awkward silence.
“Well, we are very busy people Sarah. We had heard such good things about this housing tract, and we wanted to give you one last chance.” Mr. Nickerson said, as he walked up the path to the large entryway.
Sarah followed behind them, and stared at Mrs. Nickerson and her perfect little housewife figure. While she was trying to comprehend how mach Pilates one has to do to keep that kind of body, she reached into her bag to find the combination for the lock box that held the house key.
“Just a minute!” She said brightly, as she thumbed in the combination.
As the key fell into her hands, she could feel the burning look of impatience on her back like focused sunlight through a magnifying glass.
“Now as you can see, the large entry....”
Sarah's well-thought out sales pitch was cut short by a flood of little foam packing peanuts, as they washed down from the top of the door and settled around the ankles of the group. The looks of startled annoyance turned to disgust, as the Nickersons threw their hands up and made a hasty departure. Sarah turned back to look at the wall o
f little foam twists, as they stood packed inside the entry way to her biggest house. She ran along the side yard to look in another window, only to see another solid white mass of packing peanuts. The other windows revealed the same view. The entire floor was packed solid with the little foam pieces! She held out her phone and counted down in her head. “3, 2, 1...”
When the phone beeped, she answered in her best happy voice, but it just sounded bile-filled and sarcastic anyway. “Hey Joe. Nice stunt! I have to congratulate you on this. It was a little juvenile, but well thought out.”
Joe was ripping along the 210 Highway, darting in and out of traffic like it was a mass of parked cars. His Porsche screamed in defiance, as he down shifted and dropped the clutch. The sound of his squealing tires could be heard as his car wound down and shot off onto a side street. He slammed the shift lever into another gear, and smiled to check his teeth in the rear view mirror as the car screamed like a banshee.
“Juvenile? Ouch Miss Bella, that was harsh. Do you know how much planning went into that setup? I had to consult a structural engineer and everything. I'll have you know that the interior of the whole first floor is filled solid to the walls. There's actually a five PSI load spread universally throughout the walls from the packing peanuts! HA!” He bellowed to himself, as his came to a stop in the gym parking lot. “Look, I have a spin class to get to, but you have fun finding a group of guys to sweep up all of those little wispy pieces of foam.” He silenced his phone and dropped it in his gym bag. His veins were filled with an almost viscous sort of pride that only came from besting your true match in battle.
Sarah kicked at the little white pieces as she held her phone against her head. This made them even for the last sale. It was all going to come down to the last open house. She needed help like never before. She was also dreading what Joe had planned for this last hurrah.