At the bank the next morning, Julie tried to forget last night’s disaster. All through their meal at the restaurant Marty had hardly spoken to her. Instead he just glared at her as if he didn’t like what he saw. By the time he dropped her off at her apartment Julie was so nervous she barely said goodnight to him. A goodnight kiss, their usual ritual, seemed absurd under the circumstances.
The truth was that, by then, Julie had wanted to get away from Marty Case as quickly as possible.
Zeke Palmer, another bank employee, noticed Julie taking some aspirin at the water cooler. Zeke was 25, a nice guy who’d been trained for the job along with Julie and Michelle. He was a real whiz at the computer. Whenever something went amiss on one of the programs, all the other tellers turned to Zeke.
He was also sweet and sympathetic about people’s personal problems. Now he gazed at Julie’s pale face and said, “Everything okay?”
Julie tried to smile at him. He had become a very good friend. “I’m okay,” she sighed. “My fiancé had a really hard meeting in San Francisco, I guess. Last night he wasn’t very good company.”
“Ahh—relationship trouble,” Zeke said with a wink. “Very complicated. Give me computers any day of the week.”
At lunch, Julie confided her problem to her friend Michelle. “He was so uptight, Michelle—like a totally different person.”
Michelle tried to laugh it off. “Maybe your worrywart tendencies are rubbing off on him,” she suggested.
“It was more than that, Michelle. I’m telling you that he was actually nasty. I mean, it’s like Marty had turned into a totally different person. It was horrible!” Julie groaned.
“Really? Maybe the guy’s got two personalities. Did you ever think of that? In that case, it’s better to find out before you guys get married,” Michelle said.
“Oh, Michelle, don’t say that! I love Marty. I couldn’t bear it if we broke up!” Julie cried out.
The rest of the day dragged by very slowly. As Julie headed for her car after work, she noticed Marty’s sports car in the parking lot. He was just sitting behind the wheel, staring in her direction. When she waved at him, he made no effort to get out of the car to greet her.
Julie strode toward Marty’s car, but before she reached him, Marty started up the car and drove away!
At the same moment, Zeke was walking toward his van. He noticed what had happened and called over to Julie, “Wasn’t that Marty who just took off?”
Julie couldn’t think of a reasonable explanation. “Yes—” she admitted.
“Is something wrong?” Zeke asked, looking concerned.
Julie felt humiliated by Marty’s behavior. “No, everything is fine,” she said, quickly getting into her car.
But Julie’s mind was in turmoil. If Marty had wanted to talk to her about something, why didn’t he stay and talk? Could it be that he was afraid to tell her something? Maybe he’d driven here to have a talk—and then, when he saw her, he’d lost his nerve.
Had he lost an important client up there in San Francisco? Was he in financial trouble? Maybe he’d fallen for another girl, and he didn’t know how to break the news.
Julie made up her mind. She would talk it out with Marty tonight no matter what. If she didn’t get to the bottom of this, she’d go mad. Then she turned her key in the ignition.
Nothing happened.
“Oh, no,” Julie muttered. “Just what I need now—a dead engine!”
She looked around and noticed that Zeke hadn’t left the parking lot yet. When she waved at him, he got out of his van and walked over to her. “Won’t she start?” he asked.
“No! And I just had the darned thing serviced, ”Julie wailed.
“Let me look under the hood and see if I can see any obvious problem,” Zeke said. “I’m no mechanic, but I can fix simple things.” After tinkering for a few minutes, he said, “Try it now.”
The car started immediately. “Zeke, you’re wonderful,” Julie said gratefully. “So it’s not just computers, huh? You’re an all-around genius.”
“I didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to fix what was wrong, Julie,” Zeke said. “Someone had disconnected the battery.”
“What?” Julie gasped.
Zeke closed the hood and came to her window. “I’ve noticed that you leave the window open when the car is parked out here. That’s not a good idea. Just about anybody could come along and do all sorts of damage,” he said.
“But it’s such a quiet little parking lot,” Julie said. “And who in the world would want to mess with my engine?”
Zeke shrugged. “Who knows? It’s a funny world, Julie,” he said.
“Anyway, thanks a million, Zeke,” Julie said. “You’re a real pal.” He smiled and offered to wait a few minutes to make sure Julie was safely on her way.
Zeke was such a nice guy, Julie thought. When they’d all started working together, Zeke had asked Julie out. She could tell he liked her and hoped that something might develop between them. But there was no chemistry at all on Julie’s part, so she’d turned him down.
Now, as she drove toward her apartment, she wondered if Marty might have disconnected her battery. But why? Why would he do something like that?
“I can’t stand this anymore,” Julie said to herself. “One way or another, he and I are having it out tonight.”
It was dusk now. Other cars on the road were turning on their lights. That was what made Julie notice the car just behind her. She watched it for a while. Whenever she turned, it turned, too.
It looked like Marty’s car. Julie squinted in the rearview mirror to get a better look. Yes! She was almost sure. She hadn’t been planning on turning into the mall, but she did. She had to be sure that Marty was actually following her. She pulled into the parking structure and waited to see if Marty would cruise up behind her. She almost wished he would. They had to talk.
Julie waited in the parking structure. After 10 minutes, she was beginning to distrust her own eyes. Maybe it hadn’t been Marty at all. Maybe the car wasn’t even a sports car. Julie wasn’t really that good at identifying cars.
Julie sighed and backed out of the parking place. She returned to the street that led to her apartment house. As she drove she kept glancing behind her. Maybe Marty had parked off to the side and was waiting for her somewhere along the way.
Suddenly a car pulled up dangerously close behind her. She peered into the rearview mirror. It was Marty again. Maybe, Julie thought, he’d finally decided to open up about whatever was bothering him. She pulled off to the curb and waited for him to pull in behind her.
Instead, Marty gunned his engine, and Julie watched with a sinking heart as his car roared off in the darkness.