On April 17, 2014, principal photography of Seth’s film was finally complete, and all Seth had to do now was edit the film.
He also had to decide what he was going to tell everyone, as he did say he was entering this film into a festival.
Seth decided to wait until the film was actually in its finished status to worry about it. Nineteen days later, on May 6, Seth received an overwhelming amount of text messages from everyone involved in the film, asking him the status. He figured the film was pretty much complete anyway, so he decided to tell everyone he was going to submit the film tomorrow, May 7, and if they didn’t hear anything back, that meant the film didn’t get chosen. Between May 7 and May 30, Molly and Seth argued constantly about Seth’s future career.
Molly was really pushing Seth to go to college for the culinary arts. She was pushing him because Maude continually harped on her, and Molly unwillingly started giving in to her sister. After everything Molly and Seth had been through these past months, Molly wanted to make the relationship work. She didn’t just want to walk away, not on Seth.
On June 6 Seth and Molly were sitting out back at Seth’s house just after another argument, when the back door slowly opened. Mr. Zimmer joined them at the table. Seth stared at his father with narrowed, angry eyes. He knew his father way too well. He was definitely up to something.
Things between Seth and his father weren’t the best. Mr. Zimmer was pretty much a child trapped in a 63-year-old body. In other words, he was immature and absolutely loved playing mind games. He enjoyed causing big trouble for people. He got some sort of pleasure out of it.
When Seth’s father sat, Seth got up. He grabbed his and Molly’s glasses. “Would you like a refill?”
“Please, babe.”
Seth smiled at Molly and walked inside.
“Beautiful day!” Molly said to Mr. Zimmer.
“Sure is.” Mr. Zimmer sat up and moved closer to Molly. “Mrs. Zimmer and I can’t thank you enough.”
“For what?”
“For dating our son. You must really love him.”
Molly smiled. “I sure do.”
“Seth was so depressed, so unhappy for years after his first relationship ended, we never thought we’d get him back.”
“That would wreak havoc on a parent, sure, I can see that.”
“So, Molly. I hear you actually got Seth off his ass and took him to the college the other day, to inquire about a culinary course.”
“Sure did. It’s just, at the risk of sounding like a nagging wife, I don’t mind Seth doing his filmmaking business as a hobby or on the side. But what he needs is steady income. He’s a great chef and baker, and I’m trying hard to show him that in order to make this relationship work properly, he has to contribute more than love, charm, kindness and creativity.”
“I totally agree with you, but I also have to wish you the best of luck.”
“Why’s that?”
Mr. Zimmer smiled deviously. “Because with Seth, you really have to kick his ass to get him to do anything.”
“Really? I haven’t noticed that.”
Mr. Zimmer chuckled. “Just you wait; you will. Seth is still trying to impress you, he’s still in his ‘woo her’ state.”
The back door opened and Seth exited the house. “Here you go.” He handed her a glass of iced tea. Seth sat beside Molly.
Mr. Zimmer looked at Seth deviously before getting up. “Well, I’ve had enough of this heat. I’m going back into the air conditioning.”
Suddenly Molly received a text message from Maude. You, me, the club tonight. I’m not taking no for an answer. I will come by and drag you out of Seth’s house if I have to. Come home now to get ready.
Molly sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have to go. My sister wants to hang out before she goes back home.” Molly could tell Seth was a little disappointed, but being the respectful, understanding person he was, Seth nodded.
“Okay, you need sister time, that’s fine.” When Molly pulled into the driveway of her grandparents’ house, there was a brand-new Mercedes parked behind Maude’s 2013 black Nissan.
For a moment she thought she pulled into the wrong driveway, but then she saw Maude looking through the screen door.
Maude ran to Molly’s vehicle and opened the door.
“Whose Mercedes is that?”
“It belongs to someone I really want you to meet!”
They entered the house. Maude led Molly up to the sitting room. There, sitting on an old 1940s chair, was the sexiest man Molly had ever seen.
When he saw Molly and Maude, he immediately stood.
“Molly, this is Aegeus. Aegeus, this is my sister, Molly.” Aegeus reached out for Molly’s hand and slowly brought it up to his lips then gently kisses it.
“Aegeus?” Molly asked.
“Yes, it’s Greek. I’m Greek. I’m named after the mythological figure who was supposed to have a hand in the founding of the city of Athens.”
Molly said, “Will you excuse my sister and me for a moment, Aegeus?”
“Sure.”
Without looking, Molly reached over and tightly clasped her sister’s shirt and dragged her to the kitchen.
“Who the hell is Aegeus? And why the hell did you want me to meet him?”
“I figured you two could go clubbing together.”
“What! Are you out of your mind? Are you forgetting I already have a boyfriend?”
Maude shook her head disappointedly at her sister. “No, I didn’t forget about Seth. God, how could I? You never shut up about him. I just want you to see that there’s more to life than Seth.”
“Such as?”
“Well, his family is well off, he has a job and a steady paycheque. He owns a brand new Mercedes.”
Molly stared at her sister.
“What is it, Molly, that doesn’t impress you?”
Molly slowly shook her head.
“All right, here’s the other thing. He’s tight. Aegeus has cast iron pecks, thighs that could choke a bear and an ass so gorgeous it’s like it came directly from Mount Olympus.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
“What’s wrong?”
“My own sister wants me to cheat on my boyfriend.”
Maude thought for a moment.
“No, I don’t want you to cheat; I don’t condone that. I just want you to have a good time, and if you cheat on Seth, that’s your problem.”
With a little more coaxing from Maude, Molly finally agreed to go out with Aegeus. She was totally dedicated to Seth, but it was just something about Aegeus’s old world ways and European charm that, over the next couple of days, attracted Molly to him.
She started blowing off her plans with Seth to hang out and be intimate with Aegeus. She started missing work too. June 15, Seth’s 24th birthday, would be the last time he would ever see Molly again.
And it was the furthest thing from a happy occasion. Molly started dating Aegeus officially on June 13, and for the past two days Molly had been rapidly falling out of love with Seth.
She only attended Seth’s birthday barbecue party to see if there was anything left between them. If there wasn’t, she’d have to painfully tell Seth it was over.
Before the party guests arrived, Seth and Molly were in Seth’s bedroom having a conversation.
She reached into her purse and pulled out a wrapped box. “This is for you, birthday boy.”
“Thank you.” Seth unwrapped the box and opened the lid. Inside was a copy of the Buddy Valastro book, The Essential Cake Boss, and a beautiful blue, short-sleeve dress shirt.
“Thank you, honey!” Seth leaned over and kissed Molly. He noticed she was acting strange; when he kissed her, her lips were really hard, and he got the feeling something was up but decided to ignore it and flipped through the book.
Molly inhaled deeply. “Seth, I’ve been thinking a lot about a few things lately that have been bothering me.”
“Okay.”
“And I was hoping you could shed some light on them for me.”
Seth closed his book and turned to Molly. “Sure, if I can.”
Molly cleared her throat. “I was thinking about Mr. Fisher. You remember the paramedic that was texting me when you were going to the hospital?”
A terrible feeling hit Seth like a ton of bricks. His face got red and his stomach throbbed with pain. “Yes, what about him?”
“That’s illegal for him to have texted me. How did he even have your pass-code?”
Seth thought carefully for a moment. “I guess I told him the code when I told him to text you.”
“But it’s illegal for him to do that. Something doesn’t add up here. Either I missed something, or something isn’t right in general.” There was a moment of extremely thick, awkward silence.
“And what about your parents?”
“What about them?”
“They didn’t seem to worry about you, or have never mentioned the fact that you were ever in the hospital. Why is that?”
Seth took a moment. He didn’t know how to answer.
“Just as I thought. Maybe I’d better go and ask your parents myself!”
“No, no! Don’t!”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t tell them!”
Molly was finding this a little hard to swallow. She didn’t know what to think. “You didn’t tell your parents you were in the hospital?”
“Correct.”
Molly shook her head. “If I was a parent, I would want to know everything about my children. And another thing, Seth, what about this film festival? I haven’t been able to find anything about it online.”
He sat there trying to work out what to say, what to do. At this point he knew Molly was on to him, and he sure as hell didn’t want to make things worse.
“Well, I …”
Molly sighed heavily. She was extremely disappointed and upset. “You know, this is hard to believe. I overlooked all of it because I loved you so goddamned much. It was my sister, parents and grandparents who saw right through you.
“For months they’ve been harping on me, and one day I woke up and decided, enough’s enough! I will get to the bottom of this. So please, Seth, please. Tell me the truth, all of it.”
Seth stared at Molly with tears streaming down his face. He knew he’d eventually get caught. “Before I begin, please keep an open mind and try to see things from my point of view.”
Molly silently waited for Seth’s explanation.
“When Keri left me the way she did after four years, I was devastated. I fell into the deepest, darkest depression imaginable. The generally good, decent person I was died that day, and after that, I referred to myself as a walking zombie. I never thought I’d fall in love again. I ate and ate and gained so much weight. But then, after a couple of years, I decided to make a movie. A film might help with the depression, so I mad it.
“Skip forward to September 13, 2013. At the premiere I meet this gorgeous woman with the most beautiful amber eyes I’d ever seen in my life.”
As angry as Molly was, hearing that made her smile.
“We talked, we laughed and we enjoyed each other’s company. Being with this woman, a woman I had never met before that night, brought up feelings I had long forgotten, feelings I didn’t even know I had anymore. I knew after that night I had to see her again.
“I knew you enjoyed acting, so I concocted a story about a film festival and wrote a screenplay.”
It really hurt Molly hearing Seth admit this. The whole time of filming, she thought she was making this film for a good cause, yet the whole time it was all just a trick.
Seth could tell Molly was upset. He continued anyway because she asked. “The more time we spent together, the more those feelings within me woke. Then pretty soon, being friends wasn’t enough.”
“Wasn’t enough, Seth? What do you mean?”
“Friends was fine at first. But I started falling for you. I fell hard in love with you. Friends love each other, yes. But the way I felt about you wasn’t friendly. It was romance. Even though I knew you had a boyfriend, I was determined to make you mine.” Seth took a bit of a rest for a moment.
Molly was absolutely hurt. She started to cry.
“I fed on your relationship’s faults to muscle my way to you. Then when we started having the affair, I knew you loved me as much as I loved you. That was my golden ticket, if you will. My opportunity to start your relationship transitioning. But before I had the chance, you texted and called me to threaten you would drop out of the film if our affair continued. Honestly Molly, that hurt me. If you would have stabbed me with a knife, it would’ve felt the same. I didn’t want to lose you. We weren’t dating yet, but goddamn it, you were the best thing that ever happened to me.” Seth took a moment to take a breath.
“I then decided to play the sympathy card. Yet again, I concocted a story about a heart problem brought on by stress, just to get you feeling sorry enough to come running back to me.”
Molly wiped her eyes. “What about this Mr. Fisher?”
Seth’s eyes dropped and focused on his bed. “There is no Mr. Fisher. I texted you as Mr. Fisher. I figured I would text you as a paramedic first, just to get your blood pumping, and then a little later on as a friend of mine to see how you felt about me. It was my way of getting you to tell me how you felt about without telling me directly.
“If you didn’t feel the same way as I did, I never would’ve pursued you.”
Molly cried hard, very hurt.
“God, I am so, so sorry, Molly. I never wanted to hurt you.” Seth became emotional, and tears rolled down his cheeks. “Everything, everything about my love and feelings for you is 100 percent legit.”
“You didn’t have to lie, you son of a bitch! Everything about you is fake!”
“That’s not true! Not at all.”
Molly got off the bed and walked to the door. “Listen, Seth. I will stay for this barbecue dinner. But I’m going home right after. I think it would be best if we didn’t see each other for a while.”
Seth immediately jumped off his bed. “What! We’re breaking up?”
“I didn’t say that. I just said we shouldn’t see each other for a while. It’ll give us time to think things out.”
For the rest of the evening, Molly was distant with Seth. She was mingling with other guests but not once stopped to talk with Seth.
Seth sat with his aunt Betty, finishing his dinner.
“Is everything all right with you and Molly? She’s been awfully distant tonight.”
“I’m sure everything’s just fine, Aunt Betty.”
“I see.” Aunt Betty drank her water. “Seth, I was wondering if you could do me a favour next month.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Your cousin Sarah is taking me to New York City for my birthday and—”
“Your birthday isn’t until September.”
Aunt Betty chuckled. “Sarah has summers off, remember? It’s an early birthday present. Anyway, it’s only for the weekend, and I don’t have anyone to watch the dog. Could you come to the house and watch her for me?”
Seth looked over at Molly and then back at Aunt Betty. “Yes, I would love to.”
“Great!” Aunt Betty leaned over and gave Seth a big hug.
“We’ll be leaving on July 3 around one-thirty in the afternoon and returning on July 7. So if you could be at my place by noon on the third, that would be perfect.”
Seth smiled at his aunt. “I’ll be there with bells on, Aunt Betty.”
Seth saw Molly heading for the house. He got suspicious and followed her. “Molly, where’re you going?”
“I’m going home. I told you I would only stay until after dinner.”
“I understand you’re mad at me, and you have the right to be. But are you ever not going to be mad?”
Molly turned and walked into the living room where she had her purse. She opened her purse and reached for her keys.
“I don’t know, Seth. I don’t know. Right now I’m just a well of emotions. I’m furious, hurt, disappointed, etc.”
“When’re we going to see each other again?”
“At this point I really can’t say, because I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to calm down.” Molly walked to the front door.
“Molly, wait! Wait, please.”
“What, Seth, what?” Molly said, annoyed.
“If I promise not to contact you, and really work on myself, will you join me at my aunt Betty’s house on July 5? I’ll cook dinner for you and everything, just to show you how sorry I am, and to see if we can iron everything out.”
“Why at your aunt Betty’s?”
“Because my cousin Sarah is taking her to New York City for the weekend and I’m dog sitting. I figure this way we’ll be alone with no one to disturb us.”
Molly knew there was nothing Seth could do to win her back. She was dating Aegeus now, the man of her family’s dreams.
She stared deep into his brown eyes and knew he was sorry. She did still love him. But her family hated him.
“Okay, I’ll be there.” Molly left, and Seth followed her onto the front porch. She didn’t say another word to him.
As Molly walked to her Sportage, an overwhelming sadness fell over him, a feeling as though he was never going to see the love of his life again. Molly slowly backed out of the driveway and onto the street and hit the accelerator.
Molly was gone. Seth started to cry; he felt absolutely horrible. He felt better now that the truth was out, but he knew this wouldn’t go without consequences. He just hoped it didn’t mean the end of his relationship, because that would just kill him.
Seth did what he promised. He didn’t contact Molly once in three weeks, because he spent those three weeks locked in his room severely depressed. He didn’t make time for anything else.
Finally, July 5 arrived, and Seth was nervous. He hadn’t slept in two days. Actually, if he was lucky, he might’ve gotten four hours sleep in the past three weeks. He promised Molly a home-cooked meal, so around noon on the fifth he decided to walk up to the supermarket down the street and buy ingredients for a lovely chicken and beef stir-fry.
Around one-thirty, when Seth was rounding the corner to go back to his aunt’s house, he received a text message.
He gently placed the bag down on the front porch and read the text.
Seth, I really hate to say this, but I won’t be coming tonight.
Seth began to cry. He didn’t know the reason for Molly’s sudden decision to bail, but he felt his worse nightmare had come to life.
He went inside where he could cry in private. He placed the groceries on the kitchen table and went into the sitting room to text her back.
What! Why?
Seth’s stomach turned and filled with pain at the thought of Molly’s next text.
Seth, I can’t trust you right now, and my respect for you is gone. And when there’s no trust and respect in a relationship, that’s not a relationship worth having. That’s not a relationship I want.
Seth rushed over to the bathroom and violently vomited.
As of now, our relationship is over.
Seth continued vomiting, to the point of hardly being able to breathe.
It’s obvious to me, and the rest of my family, that you’re sick. You have mental problems, and that’s okay. Look, I love you. That’s why I’m totally open to being with you in the future. But in order for that to happen, you need to make some life changes, and they are as follows.
1. Seek professional help from a psychiatrist.
2. Get a job, sir. A real job with a yearly income of at minimum $30,000, or go to school and train as a chef or baker.
3. Get yourself a driver’s license. It’s goddamn annoying having to pick you up, drop you off and do all the driving myself, and if I feel this way, you can bet your ass other women feel that way too.
That’s the way it has to be, and until you make those changes, you’re going to be alone in this world. I’ll keep your number on my phone, but DON’T bother contacting me until you’ve made these changes—good-bye!
Seth was crushed. In a way he saw this coming, but he just brushed it off and thought positive. “Stupid me!” Seth said to himself. “Instead of thinking positive, this whole time I should have been preparing for my world to end.”
Seth spent another three hours in the bathroom, hanging over the toilet.
Suddenly something happened.
Seth stopped vomiting and his eyes ran out of tears. He looked at his watch. It read a quarter to five. Seth stood up, flushed the toilet and washed his hands. He looked into the mirror and saw an extremely pale-faced, mean-eyed man staring back. This person scared him. Seth saw him once before in 2009 and knew what was coming next.
Seth clapped for Aunt Betty’s dog, the adorable salt and pepper coloured miniature schnauzer, Mckenzie.
“Come on, Mckenzie, time for a walk!” Little energetic Mckenzie rushed over to Seth. Seth grabbed Mckenzie’s leash and clipped it to her collar. When they got back from their walk, Seth refilled her water bowl and then made his way to the kitchen. He opened the cupboard, reached to the back and pulled out an unopened bottle of Glenfiddich 12-year-old Scotch.
He took a seat at the table and opened the bottle. He gently brought the bottle to his lips and took a long sip, and then another and another. Before he knew it, the bottle was half gone.
Seth reached across the table for his blood pressure pills. With the Scotch in one hand and his blood pressure pills in his other hand, he made his way to the sitting room. He sat on the love seat in front of the huge window and began to cry again. Slowly he twisted the lid off of his pills, took a deep breath and filled his mouth with the pills. He let the bottle drop out of his hand and hit the floor.
He then raises the bottle of Scotch and took a massive mouthful and slowly swallowed this deadly concoction of drugs and alcohol. When he swallowed the last little bit of Scotch, he got up and walked over to the dining room table, where he had two speakers hooked up to his iPod.
He turned on his iPod and played the Genesis album We Can’t Dance. He immediately turned to “Since I Lost You,” a song Phil Collins wrote for Eric Clapton’s son Conor after the child’s tragic death on March 20, 1991. Seth thought this would be appropriate.
As Seth walked back to the love seat, he became dizzy and disoriented and fell hard to the floor. He didn’t know how much time he had left, but he knew he was dying. As he listened to the sad words of Phil Collins, he began to cry. As Seth lay there taking the last few breaths of his life, he’d never been sorrier for anything in his short life than what he put himself through in the months leading up to this moment.
After a few moments, Seth’s breathing became weaker, and he felt cold. With what little time he had left, he thought of Molly: her gorgeous amber eyes and her beautiful smile, her luscious, soft lips and her warm, welcoming hug.
Suddenly he could no longer hear the music and slowly closed his eyes.
At that moment, Molly and her new boyfriend, Aegeus, were in the middle of making love when she suddenly got the chills. “Aegeus, stop, please.”
“What, why?” Aegeus continued to pump into Molly.
Molly then became angry and pushed Aegeus away. “Goddamn it, Aegeus, I said stop!”
“What the hell’s the matter with you?”
Molly sat up, covered herself with the blanket and began to shake. “That’s just it—I don’t know. For whatever reason, I lost the mood.”
Over the next couple of months, Molly really started to think about Seth. She didn’t know why; she thought it was strange.
On October 31, Molly woke up screaming from a nightmare. She sat up and began to cry. After half an hour she started to calm down. She reached for her cell phone and opened up her photo folder. She saw a photo of Seth and really missed him.
She cried again because she missed everything about him—his kisses and his deep, hearty laugh, his smile and the way he made her feel. She often referred to her and Seth as Johnny Cash and June Carter. And now looking back at their relationship, that couldn’t have been closer to the truth.
Seth, much like Johnny Cash, did everything in his power to get the girl of his dreams, the person he loved the most. And much like Johnny, Seth didn’t give up. Molly then switched to a picture of her and Aegeus, and she no longer felt anything for him. Sure, him having a job, money and a car was thrilling and exciting at first, but Aegeus, like Molly’s other boyfriends, didn’t give her the thing Molly wanted the most, the thing Seth excelled at over every other man in her life. Seth gave her true unconditional love.
That was one out of the many things that attracted her to Seth in the first place. But somewhere down the line, in the stress of her family telling her to get rid of him, she completely forgot this.
Right then and there, she decided to break up with Aegeus and get back together with Seth. She now realized everything Seth did was out of love. He really didn’t mean to hurt anybody at all.
It’s just that love can make people do peculiar things. Molly hoped Seth would take her back. She took a deep breath and texted Aegeus it was over between them and to never contact her again.
Then came the big one: what to say to Seth. What could she say? How do you apologize for completely ignoring somebody for four months? Molly took another deep breath and began her long apologetic text message.
The next day Molly had hundreds of texts, and a few voice mails from Aegeus, but nothing back from Seth. She thought that was strange, as Seth would always return texts within five minutes.
So Molly decided to text him again. After a couple of days passed, Molly was worried. This wasn’t like Seth at all. “If he’s still mad at me, or doesn’t want me in his life, he could’ve at least texted me back,” Molly said to herself.
Finally, on November 6, Molly gathered enough courage to drive to Seth’s house. She crept up the front porch steps.
A chilling, eerie feeling washed over her. She opened the screen door and knocked. She waited and waited, but there was no answer. She started to turn around when all of a sudden Mrs. Zimmer opened the door.
“Ah, hello, Mrs. Zimmer.”
Mrs. Zimmer stared at Molly.
Molly became incredibly uncomfortable. “It’s me, Molly Featherlite.”
“I know who you are. I’m just trying to figure out what you want.”
“Is Seth home? I really need to talk to him.”
Mrs. Zimmer slowly backed up and indicated Molly should enter. They entered the living room.
“Please,” Mrs. Zimmer said, “have a seat.”
Molly looked around the room. She realized Seth’s computer wasn’t on the desk, and a few other things of Seth’s weren’t present either.
“You know, you were the best thing that ever happened to Seth, but I’m sure you already knew that.”
Molly could tell by the tone in Mrs. Zimmer’s voice she was upset. “Mrs. Zimmer, I know you’re upset with me. All of you have the right to be. But if I could just talk to Seth, I really want to put this right.”
Mrs. Zimmer stared at Molly for a moment and became teary eyed. “You want to talk to Seth, eh?”
“Very much so.”
“Do you have a Ouija board?”
Molly’s eyes got wide, and a deep sadness fell over her; her stomach dropped, and her eyes got teary. “I beg your pardon?”
“Do you have a Ouija board?”
Molly scratched her head in confusion. “Mrs. Zimmer, please forgive me. But I just don’t understand—”
“He’s dead! My baby boy is dead!” Mrs. Zimmer began to cry. She stood up and pointed at Molly. “And you killed him!”
Molly began to cry as well. “What? When? How?”
“Seth committed suicide on July 5, the evening you were supposed to have dinner with him. Imagine Betty’s welcome home surprise! Her dead rotting nephew in the middle of her sitting room.”
Both Molly and Mrs. Zimmer cried uncontrollably for a moment.
After a couple of minutes, Mrs. Zimmer walked over to the front door and opened it, signalling Molly to leave.
“If you want to see Seth, you have to visit Memory Gardens Cemetery, section I, plot 40.” Mrs. Zimmer slammed the door in Molly’s face.
The next day, after calming down, Molly took a little drive to the cemetery.
As she put her vehicle in park, she remembered the story Seth had told her months before. Everything that’s been happening this week, with the text messages and yesterday at the Zimmer home, Seth said would happen.
This was uncanny. To cheer herself up, Molly thought perhaps that this was all apart of an elaborate hoax that Seth was pulling on her, knowing he’d told her this story.
Molly wanted to get out of her vehicle and not see Seth’s name on the headstone. She slowly exited her Sportage and made her way to section I. As she made her way to plot 40, her stomach became twisted with a heavy, ripping pain.
When she came upon plot 40’s stone, there it was, Seth’s name carved in granite. It read
Seth Andrew Zimmer
June 15, 1990–July 5, 2014
Molly dropped to her knees and cried uncontrollably.