Chapter 11

Angela got home late Sunday night. The loft was quiet so she assumed Thomas was already in bed. She had felt so good when she was with Steve, but it was strange…there was something about being back in the loft that gave her an uneasy feeling all over again. She shook it off, took her shower and went to bed. She slept peacefully that night with no strange dreams and when she woke up on Monday morning…on time, she felt rested and not confused and disoriented the way she’d been feeling in the recent past.

She showered and dressed, putting her long hair into a side braid, before going out to make her coffee. Thomas was already up and ready for work, having his coffee in the kitchen.

“Good morning. How was your weekend?” She asked him.

“It was great,” he said, “How was yours?”

“Great too. I feel so much better today, relaxed…normal, almost.”

He smiled. “That’s good. What time is your doctor’s appointment?”

“It’s at two. I’ll just take that as my lunch break. I’m hoping it won’t take more than an hour.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, I think I’ll be alright,” she said with a smile. She went over and put some bread in the toaster and then she asked him, “So the date was good?”

“Yeah, it was good. We just had dinner and saw a movie, but it was nice.” He got up and put his cup in the sink. “Do you want to ride in with me this morning?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. I really don’t mind taking you to the appointment either. It might be quicker than you taking a cab or the bus.”

“I just don’t want both of us being gone to piss Kim off. I’m walking a narrow line with her lately.”

He shrugged. “I’m not scared of Kim,” he said with a wink. “I’ll meet you in the lobby at one-thirty, that should give us enough time, right?”

“Okay, thank you, Thomas.”

He smiled again, “Not a problem,” he said. She was once again touched by his generosity and she wished that Steve and Joanne could see this side of him. They both finished their breakfast and headed into the office. Angela had a lot of work to do in order to get ready for another new presentation. This time she didn’t plan on letting the laptop or the power points out of her sight before the meeting on Wednesday. She worked straight through lunch and just after one she decided she had to bite the bullet and go in and talk to Kim. When she got to Kim’s office, the door was cracked open. She knocked and stuck her head in. To her surprise, Kim smiled brightly and said,

“Hi Angela! Come on in!” Angela let herself in and nervously approached the desk.

“Hey Kim, I’m sorry to ask you this, but I have a doctor’s appointment at two. I was going to just take it as my lunch break, but I might be back a little late depending on how long they take, so I wanted to let you know.”

“Sure, of course,” she said, “I hope everything is okay?” She sounded sincere and Angela was a little freaked out by how nice she was being. She told herself just to appreciate it and not fight it.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” she said, “I’ve just been feeling a little…off lately.”

“Well take your time,” she said. “We’ll be fine around here for an hour or two without you.”

“Thank you.” She left then before the good Kim vanished or morphed back into the monster that Angela had come to know. When she met Thomas in the lobby she said, “Did you tell Kim you were taking me to my appointment?”

“Yes, she told me to take my time. She’s in a really good mood today.”

“I know, it’s weird,” Angela said.

Thomas laughed. “Maybe she got some this weekend.”

“Maybe, I guess maybe that would solve a lot of our problems.”

Thomas drove her the six miles to the doctor’s office. When they got there she told him he didn’t have to wait, she could call when she was done. He wouldn’t think of leaving her, he said. He sat down and picked up a magazine and began reading up on home decorating. With a smile, Angela checked in.

She waited about twenty minutes before she was called back. The nurse took her vital signs and checked her height and weight and then she asked her questions about drugs and alcohol use. Angela told her that she drank occasionally, but no drug use and no smoking. She described her symptoms to her and the nurse asked her if she thought she might be pregnant.

“I don’t think so…I take my pills religiously, I’ve been on them for years.”

“Are you sexually active?” the nurse asked her.

“Yes.”

“Have you been checked for STD’s?”

“No.”

“Would you like to be?” Angela thought about that. She didn’t see the point. She trusted Steve implicitly. But, as long as she was here, she wanted to know for sure what was wrong with her.

“I guess we can check for it all,” she said.

The nurse made a notation on her chart and gave her a cup to use to pee in. When she brought the cup back out, she had Angela take a seat and she put a tourniquet on her to draw blood.

The nurse drew three tubes of blood from Angela’s arm, marked them with labels and put them aside. Then she showed her into a room to wait for the doctor. When he finally came in almost twenty minutes later he greeted her and the first question he asked her was, “You’re not using drugs, are you?”

She sighed. “No, why?”

“You have traces of GHB and Versed in your urine; do you know what that is?”

Her eyes widened, “The date rape drug?”

“Yes, that’s what GHB is called and Versed is a sedation drug. Have you been prescribed anything lately? For insomnia or anxiety?”

“No! I swear, I didn’t take anything.”

“Well, that’s the unfortunate case a lot of times where both is concerned. Sometimes you don’t take it, it’s given to you. Have you been in any bars alone lately, woken up feeling like you’ve had sex when you didn’t think you did, memory lapses, confusion?”

“Yes…I mean to the memory lapses and confusion and feeling like I had sex…but no to the being alone in bars. Not for a long time.”

“What about a partner who might just want to “spice things up?” She thought about Steve…that wasn’t even a consideration. She knew he would never do that. Then her mind went to Thomas and suddenly she felt sick.

“Would it be noticeable in wine or some other kind of beverage like tea or coffee?” she asked.

“No, not at all. That’s the unfortunate part.”

Angela was suddenly shaking all over. Her heart was racing. She was being drugged? By who? Thomas? “Miss Black are you in a safe place where you live? Are you in a safe relationship?” The doctor’s voice was fading as her racing thoughts took over. She started making a list in her head of all of the strange things…the missing underwear, the mood swings, the photographs, the way she’d been feeling and the constant dreams of having sex with Thomas…rough, and borderline non-consensual. That son of a bitch!

Angela muddled through the rest of her appointment. The final bombshell the doctor dropped on her was some elevated HCG levels which he said could indicate a “very early” pregnancy. He wanted her to come back in a month to have that rechecked. He also gave her a card for a detective if she decided to report the fact that someone might be drugging her. She left in a daze and when she came face to face with Thomas in the lobby, she made a snap decision. She wasn’t going to confront him with this and give him the chance to deny it. She was going to catch him in the act. The game just turned – that mother fucker was going to pay! She took a deep breath and smiled sweetly at him.

“How did it go?” he asked as he stood up.

“Good…I mean he didn’t find anything wrong, so that’s good. I’m still not sure what’s wrong with me.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Well that’s not good. Maybe it’s your diet. Have you thought about that? Maybe we should have more fruits and vegetables and organic foods in the house.”

“Maybe,” she said. “Can you do me a favor, Thomas?”

“Absolutely,” he said as he held the door open for her. She took a shaky breath of the fresh air.

“Can you drop me at the loft and tell Kim that I’m not feeling well. Tell her I’ll be in tomorrow.”

“Okay, sure. You want some company?”

“No…I really just want to veg out for a while.”

“Okay, no problem.”

Thomas dropped her off and she stood just inside the lobby until she saw him drive away. Then she made her way up to the loft. She was going to get the proof she needed that this son of a bitch was drugging her…and then he was going to pay.