A Fresh Start

Cherise stared at her phone uncertainly. Her thumb hovered over the phone icon and she was biting her lip.

“You can do it,” Micah encouraged.

They were sitting in her living room. It was Friday and after work. Micah had cooked dinner while she poured some wine.

“Don’t drink too much,” she had teased.

He chuckled and flipped the chicken that he was searing. She ate slowly, trying to put off the moment when she would have to call Olivia. Finally, taking a deep breath, she selected the icon and held the phone to her ear. Half of her hoped she wouldn’t answer.

“You got the letter, too,” she said without a hello.

“Hi, Olivia,” she breathed. “Um, how are you?”

“Not so great, to be honest. I thought our dad was dead.”

“I did, too,” she admitted. “Tell me this is all a joke.”

“I’ve been getting a lot of emails and phone calls,” she said. “I don’t know their name. They won’t tell me. A few months ago, I saw a dark car outside of my house. They’ve been there every day since then.”

“They’re watching you?”

“You haven’t noticed anyone watching you?”

“Well, they – whoever ‘they’ are – knew I had left town for my sister’s wedding…. But surely they found out through Facebook or something?”

“I may not know you like I’d like to,” Olivia said sternly, “but I know you don’t believe that.”

Cherise sighed heavily. “Well, I was given a letter and email that said to call you. So this is me calling you. Did they give you something that’s supposed to mean anything to me?”

She heard the shuffling of papers and Olivia sighed.

“Where is it?” she was muttering to herself. “Ah, here it is. Write this down.” Cherise motioned for Micah to get her something to write on. “You ready? 3324589906.”

Cherise waited. “Is that it?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so.”

“What in the world am I supposed to do with that? Is it a phone number?”

“I tried dialing the number but it didn’t come up with anything. Google failed, too.”

Cherise sighed. “Well, thanks I guess.”

“Are you going to try and figure it out?”

“I don’t know, Olivia. This is all a little much for me.”

“Dad could be dead, Cherise.”

Cherise glared at her television. “Good bye, Olivia.”

She hung up and sighed, showing the number to Micah.

“What’s it supposed to mean?” he asked.

She shook her head and put her head on his shoulder, tucking her legs underneath her. She closed her eyes, feeling exhausted all of a sudden.

“Are you going to follow up on this?” He put his arm around her and set their wine glasses on the coffee table. “The number, I mean.”

“I don’t even know where to begin with it,” she said, enjoying him rubbing her arm. “Olivia looked online but nothing came up.”

“What about your lawyer?”

She laughed. “I can see that going well. Hi, Mr. York! I got this cryptic letter from someone wanting me to find my long-lost father! Oh, by the way, they’ve been stalking me and my sister. Can you look up this number for me, please?”

“Yeah, that does sound a little weak.”

They remained in silence while Lira gnawed on her bone. Cherise could feel herself slowly falling asleep.

“I’m sleepy,” she mumbled.

“We’ll leave the numbers for a later time,” he said and lay down behind her, pulling her close. “Good night, my love.”

“Good night,” she whispered.

-

Cherise couldn’t think of anything to do that weekend. She couldn’t focus. Finally, on Sunday, she called an old friend from college.

“Hey, Amanda,” she said into the phone, biting her lower lip.

“Cherise! It’s been a long time!”

“Yeah. Yeah it has. I’m calling in on a favor you owe me.”

“Sure! What do you need?”

“I have a set of seven numbers here,” she said, her heart racing. “I’ve tried calling it, Googling it, and searched court records but nothing has come up.”

“So you want me to snoop?”

Cherise couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Well, that is what you do, isn’t it?”

“Not exactly,” she said but Cherise could tell she was interested. “Read those numbers off to me and I’ll see what I can find.”

“Thanks,” she said and read the numbers off.

She hung up and sighed heavily. Now she could at least focus on work the next day.

-

Micah picked her up at 8 and she filled him in on the way to work.

“I thought Amanda was majoring in Law Enforcement,” he said.

“She did. But she also had a flare for finding things out she shouldn’t. It’s the only place I could think of to start.”

He shrugged and held the door open to their office open. “Who do you want to start off with?”

Cherise contemplated the clients in front of her. “Personally, I’m really suspicious about this Lido character. If he’s in as much trouble as he says he is, then we should help him right away. But something doesn’t seem right about him….”

Micah nodded. “I know what you mean. Shall we then?”

“Bring the hand sanitizer,” Cherise muttered, shuddering at the thought of the dirty restaurant.

He laughed. “At least the food is good.”

Cherise smiled and walked out to the car, holding his hand.