Chapter 1
Lisa opened the door and walked into her and her boyfriend’s apartment, setting her bag on the counter as she slumped onto the couch. She ran her fingers through her black hair and sighed. It had been an exhausting day. The kids she nannied on Fridays were hyped up on sugar because of a birthday party from the day before. They were already the craziest kids she took care of, the sugar made it about two billion times worse.
Lisa opened her phone and waited for Instagram to load. Through the reflection on her blank screen, she could see that her eyes had dark circles under them and her freckled face looked almost 20 years older.
“Geez, I really am exhausted,”
Once Instagram loaded, she began scrolling through her feed, but was too tired to actually understand what she was reading. Those kids had really worn her out. After scrolling for about half an hour, Lisa heard the front door open.
“Babe, I’m home!” Lisa’s boyfriend yelled from the other room.
“David!” Lisa shouted excitedly as she ran to the door and hugged him, “How was work?”
“Same old, same old,” he sighed, walking with her to the couch, “Looks like I’m probably not getting that promotion any time soon. Jared got one today and the boss usually only does that every couple of months,”
“I’m sorry, baby,” Lisa said, placing a soft kiss on David’s cheek, “It’s okay though. Promotion or no promotion, you’re making enough money to get us by.”
“I guess so,” David muttered, “Hey, how was your day?”
“Oh, it was exhausting. The Johnson kids were all hyped up on sugar so I’m sure you can imagine how that went,” she said, laughing a little.
“I bet it was awful!,” David chuckled, “You sure you still want kids?” Lisa gave him a playful shove.
“Of course I’m sure! You aren’t talking me out of that, David!”
“I know, I know. But it was worth a shot right?” David laughed.
“Nope!” Lisa smiled and stood up, “I’m gonna make us dinner real quick. Then I was wondering if you’d want to go on a walk around town,”
“Sure! We haven’t done that in a while,” David said. The two talked about how their day went as Lisa made dinner for the two. As they ate, they talked about a vacation they would be going on soon.
After eating, they went for a walk. It was about 8:30 pm and it was one of those summer nights that wasn’t cold or hot. It was just right with a bit of a chilled breeze.
The two walked around for about an hour, just talking and having fun together. It was a huge relief after the stressful day both of them had had. As they were nearing the end of their walk home, they ran into a fancy looking man in a suit. David waved to him, as that was his normal greeting on their walks. Usually, the person he waved to didn’t start actually talking to him, but this one did.
“David?” The man asked.
“Er- yes. I’m David,” David told the man.
“Oh, hey!” The man exclaimed, “I think I’ve seen you at work! Do you work in the Liano building?”
“Oh, yeah! I work in accounting, where do you work?”
“I’m a higher up in manufacturing. My name’s John, by the way. I don’t believe we’ve formally met.”
John stuck out his hand and David shook it. The two men talked for a while about the new changes at work but eventually they started getting into personal life. Turns out, John and David had a lot of things in common!
“And who is this?” John asked, looking at Lisa.
“This is my girlfriend, Lisa!” David exclaimed. For a split second, Lisa swore she could see a disappointed look on John’s face when David said the word girlfriend.
“A pleasure to meet you, Lisa!” He said, politely, extending his hand towards her. Lisa took his hand and to her surprise, he placed a kiss on her knuckle. Lisa cringed but went along with it, not wanting to be rude. David didn’t even seem to notice.
“Ah, David, I almost forgot. I was thinking. I’m a higher up in the office. I know people. You seem like a great worker, so if you’d like, I could get you a promotion,”
Lisa smiled when David’s eyes lit up, “Really?!” David exclaimed, “That would be so awesome! I would love that!”
“Perfect! I’ll see what I can do! Oh, yes, one more thing,” John said, “Would you like to come over for dinner at my place tomorrow night? I thought that since we are friends now, that could be fun. Plus, I need some paperwork from you anyway.”
Before Lisa could say anything, David answered, “Yeah, that’d be great! What time?”
“Oh, just come over around 6:30,” John said.
“Okay, cool! We’ll see you then!” David smiled. They said goodbye to John and then parted ways.
“David, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Lisa said, following David back to their apartment.
“What do you mean? It’s a great idea! If we go to his house for dinner then I’ll probably get my promotion! Plus, free dinner,” He laughed.
“I know, but we don’t even know him,”
“Sure we do! We literally just met him!” David said and Lisa sighed.
“David, honey, that’s the problem! We just met the guy! He could be a drug dealer or a serial killer for all we know!” Lisa exclaimed.
“Lisa, that’s absurd! If there was something off about him I would have known. I’m great at detecting those sorts of things. Besides, stuff like that doesn’t happen where we live. There just aren’t serial killers walking around town asking people to have dinner with them. I think you’re just being paranoid,” David chuckled. “It’s not like my work would allow a serial killer to be an executive anyway, they have standards.”
Lisa sighed. She loved David but he was very stubborn (to be fair, she was too). She wasn’t going to be able to convince him not to go, but she wasn’t going to let him go alone. Lisa didn’t trust John. There was something off about him but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Even though she hoped with all her might that she was mistaken, she couldn’t get rid of the sinking feeling that something about John was terribly wrong.
