Read Online Someone Is Watching by Joy Fielding - Free Book Online Page B

thing was her idea, not mine, but the look in her eyes tells me she will brook no such nonsense, and I don’t know her well enough to argue. The truth is that I barely know her at all. We’ve probably spoken more today than in the past decade. So I take the two bags into the kitchen without protest and deposit them on the gold-and-brown-flecked marble counter.
    “Those aren’t going to unpack themselves,” Claire says, following after me with two more bags that she puts down next tomine. “Come on, Bailey. You know where everything goes.” She gives my arm a pat. “You can do this.”
    What if I don’t want to?
I’m about to ask, but she’s already back in the hall, gathering up more supplies. What choice do I have but to comply?
    It quickly becomes apparent that Claire has thought of everything. Along with at least a week’s supply of fruit and vegetables, she’s bought steaks, chicken, pasta and several different sauces, at least a dozen cans of soup, bread, jams, butter, milk, eggs, coffee, tea, even a bottle of wine. There is dishwashing detergent, laundry detergents for both warm and cold water washes, fabric softener and a variety of cleansers, toothpaste and a couple of fresh toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, body lotion, mouthwash.
    I lift the large plastic bottle of emerald green liquid from the bag, my hands shaking.
Tell me you love me,
a man directs, the mintiness of his breath taking mine away, causing the bile to rise in my throat.
Tell me you love me.
    I’m not sure whether I start screaming before I drop the bottle or whether I drop the bottle and then start screaming, but one thing is certain: I am definitely screaming, as loud as I have ever screamed, my screams bringing Claire and Jade flying into the kitchen.
    “What is it?” Claire is shouting, looking everywhere at once.
    “Was there a spider in the bag?” Jade asks. “I saw that once on
1000 Ways to Die.
This lady …”
    “Jade, please,” her mother snaps, her eyes skipping across the kitchen floor. Then she says, “
Was
there a spider in the bag?”
    I shake my head furiously from side to side, my screams having given way to sobs.
    “Maybe she just doesn’t like mouthwash.” Jade retrieves the bottle from the floor. “Good thing it’s plastic.”
    “Get it out of here,” I manage to spit out between sobs.
    “What is it?” Claire asks as Jade grabs the offensive bottle and runs from the room. I hear the door to my apartment open and close. “Bailey, what just happened?”
    It takes several seconds before I’m able to explain my sudden aversion to mouthwash.
    “Oh, shit,” Claire exclaims as Jade returns to the kitchen. “I’m so sorry, Bailey. I had no idea.”
    “I threw it down the garbage chute,” Jade is telling her mother as I excuse myself to double-lock the door. Not that the locks will do much good, I know, thinking of how easily Jade was able to manipulate them.
    “I’ll call someone in the morning about having those replaced with something sturdier,” Claire says when I return.
    “What was it like, being raped?” Jade asks.
    “Jade,” her mother says. “Honest to God …”
    “It was awful,” I answer.
    “What did it feel like?” she presses.
    “Oh, for God’s sake …”
    “It’s all right,” I tell Claire. “It felt as if someone was scraping at my insides with a razor blade.”
    “Ouch,” Jade whispers.
    “Happy now?” her mother asks.
    “It’s just that on TV, it always looks, you know …”
    “No,” Claire says. “We don’t know.”
    Jade shrugs. “Kind of … exciting.”
    “You think rape is exciting?” Now Claire looks horrified.
    “I just said that’s how it looks. Sometimes. Women fantasize about rape all the time. I heard on Dr. Phil or, you know, one of those shows, they were having this discussion about fantasies, and they said that rape fantasies are really common among women.”
    “There’s a big difference between fantasy and reality,” her mother