Dear Maren,

I'm sorry about the other day, I didn't mean for us to meet like that. I imagined it to go a lot nicer than that, but you caught me by surprise and I had to run. I hope I didn't hurt you. Looking into your eyes felt like magic, I can't wait to do it again someday. Next time, it'll be much nicer, with flowers and I'll cook you dinner and be able to smell your sweet skin, to revel in your beauty.

I hope the money helps, now that you aren't working at the diner. I'll send more soon.

Love,
Mrs. Lamb

I read through the letter with Detective Andrea at the police station. I'd received it in my mailbox a few days after the incident and immediately took it to Andrea like I had done with all of his letters and 'gifts'. It was almost surreal to feel relieved at receiving such a creepy letter because although it does send an unnerving shiver down my spine, I'd rather get the letter than one of his gifts or being confronted by him in person. Not only that, but it confirmed that the altercation really did happen and I didn't just imagine it.

At this point, getting a creepy letter was best case scenario for me.

"He talks like he's never met you before," Andrea stated the obvious, her blue eyes narrowed at the letter as if deep in thought. "He talks like that in all of his letters, which makes sense because everybody in your life that we've interviewed so far has been cleared. This guy may really just be a stranger. It'll make him harder to track down."

"Who have you interviewed?" I asked her curiously.

"We just finished up with all of the employees and regulars at the bar," she said, placing the letter carefully in an evidence bag to go join the growing pile of weird shit I'd received from Mrs. Lamb. "But the lock on the back door was tampered with, so he'd be able to get into the bar after hours without needing a key, so it wasn't an inside job."

"Even Sev?" I pressed the subject. I was desperate to know which side of my dueling instincts was right about him. In most ways, he made me feel so safe and heard, but in others I couldn't deny the coincidences that popped up between him and Mrs. Lamb. The safer I felt around him, the more paranoid I became because I started wondering if that was part of his plan after all.

"He's in the clear," she said with a nod.

"You're sure?" I continued, wanting to know for sure that I could trust myself around him, I could let myself relax and stop feeling so skeptical and terrified around one of the only people I had in the city.

"Yes, we're sure," she confirmed again. "He has alibis for every incident. Witnesses saw him at a bar when your car broke down, security cameras at his apartment complex confirmed that he was at home when our perp was at the Jackroller. His story adds up."

I mostly felt relieved, but also guilty and embarrassed that I'd accused him of something so terrible. Not only that, but I accused him while he was trying to ask me out. I'd gathered that he was a pretty shy person despite how cocky he sometimes appeared, so it must have been hard for him to become that vulnerable and I just smashed his confidence for no reason.

"Thanks for your time," I responded after a moment to process.

"As always, let me know if you come across anything else," she said as I began standing from the stiff chair across from her desk to leave the station.

I had a Skype call planned later with Lina to go over some new lyrics we'd both written, but that wasn't for another few hours and I had time to kill. My first thought was to go talk to Sev and apologize for my accusations, but I thought it would be a bad idea.

He basically admitted to having feelings for me and I needed time to process that information, now knowing that he was innocent and it would be okay for me to imagine that kind of relationship with him. But then again, would it really even matter if I did want to go to dinner with him?

Even if he could forgive me for saying what I said and my terrible timing, entertaining those thoughts at all could be extremely dangerous for Sev, and maybe even myself. The last time, it was just slashed tires when I slept with David, but what if he got angrier this time? He'd already escalated, I had no idea what lengths this person would go to.

However I felt about Sev, I needed to keep a distance, but still felt like I should apologize and clear the air between us. I didn't want to lose him altogether and really did appreciate how much he'd been there for me when I needed him. Despite the fact that I hadn't really been able to appreciate it completely until now that I know, without a doubt, he's innocent.

I wanted to talk to him in person and have a real conversation about it, but felt like it would be smarter and safer to just make it a phone call. Before going back to my apartment, I stopped at a fast food place to grab a greasy burger for lunch.

Before I could totally settle into the apartment, I sat my lunch down on the coffee table and pulled out a long black box that I purchased online with overnight shipping that would detect the frequencies of any hidden cameras or bugs in my apartment. The detector was something suggested by Andrea after we'd already found some hidden cameras and we wanted to be sure new ones weren't added.

It took me so long to carefully traverse every surface of my apartment with the detector, making sure to squeeze it into every nook and cranny, that my lunch was luke warm by the time I was popping fries into my mouth while watching sitcom reruns on TV.

I spent the entire time eating lunch thinking about what I should say to Sev. How should I start the conversation? Ask him how he's doing or just get right into the apology? I'd never had to apologize to somebody for falsely accusing them of stalking me, so I was in new and weird territory.

As if putting my thoughts of Sev into the universe pulled him closer to me, my phone started ringing before I could dial his number and his name popped up on the caller ID. Why was he calling me? To yell at me for accusing him? He probably knew that Andrea had cleared him by now, so maybe just an 'I told you so'?

No matter what, I had to face his wrath, so I answered the call and nervously put the phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hey. Are you busy?" he asked, sounding very calm and unbothered.

"No," I said, feeling relieved that he wasn't yelling.

"I heard about what happened at the bar," he said. "I feel really terrible that I left you there. I mean, I didn't know that you were still there when I locked up, but I still feel really bad. I would have called earlier, but wasn't sure how that would go after our last conversation. Anyway, how are you doing?"

"I've been better," I admitted slowly. "Thanks for checking in."

"I was also calling to apologize," he added. "For how I handled everything."

"Oh," I mumbled dumbly, definitely not expecting any of this. I had definitely expected a lot more anger on his end and was feeling very taken by surprise at his gentle and even guilt-ridden voice.

"I feel really bad. I felt like I was opening up and it backfired, so I lashed out and I'm sorry. I know that you are in a really bad spot right now and can't really trust anybody. I get why you'd be questioning everything and I'm sorry I wasn't able to put myself in your shoes. I can't imagine what you're going through right now," he told me as I began nervously fidgeting with the frayed upholstery of my couch. "I talked to the boss about moving my shift to Tuesdays, just to give you some space to figure things out. I don't want to make you uncomfortable. But I really mean this, Maren, I'm always here if you need something, or if anything happens. I mean, I talked to that detective, so hopefully she'll be able to clear my name for me."

I didn't know how to respond to his apology, because I wasn't expecting it and took me a few moments to clear my thoughts enough to know how to respond. "Thank you for saying that," I said slowly. "I have been wanting to call you too, to apologize to you for how things went down. I really have been so in my head lately. I did talk to the detective earlier today and she told me you're not the guy."

"That's good."

"You've been really great this whole time, even though we barely even know each other, and I really appreciate it," I said to him.

"I just imagine something like this happening to one of my sisters, and I know I'd want somebody to be there for them," he responded to me. "Not that I think you need a man to save you or anything. But just that you shouldn't be alone through this."

"I sure feel like I could use some saving right now," I said with a dry, sarcastic laugh. "Maybe I'm not a very good feminist."

"I think everybody needs saving sometimes," he said. "Especially with what you're going through right now, it's pretty understandable."

"How many sisters do you have?" I asked him randomly. I vaguely remembered him mentioning his family once when we were driving together on Halloween but I was so preoccupied with other things that I didn't really pay attention that much. I wanted to keep talking to Sev, but didn't want to talk about my situation anymore, so I felt like that was a good segway into a new conversation.

"Four," Sev answered me. "And four brothers."

"That sounds... busy. I felt like I never had any personal space and there were only four of us," I commented with a little laugh.

"It was absolutely hectic growing up," he agreed with me. "We all fought like crazy, but we're pretty close now."

"I feel like we're all scattered, I don't see my family very often. My sister lives back home, my other sister is in Indiana, and my brother is at Ohio State for school. I felt like we got along so well growing up because it seemed like it was always our parents against us and we had to team up to defeat them," I responded, recalling how strict our parents were growing up and it was something that brought us all together to commiserate in misery, and to help each other break rules without getting caught.

"I can't imagine you getting into too much trouble," he commented with a laugh.

"Are you kidding?" I scoffed. "I'm the worst out of all of us. I was always sneaking out in high school to hang out with friends and boys, I failed a physics class, and the worst part of all is that I didn't immediately get married and start popping out babies, or even go to college."

"What a rebel," he said sarcastically.

Our conversation lasted a while and it was so easy going. I felt myself relax into the couch as we talked about stupid things, listening to each other ramble on about different topics. Sometimes I wouldn't even understand what he was saying, but just enjoyed the sound of his deep and smooth voice.

Even though I knew we'd been talking for a while, I still felt surprised when the call ended and I looked at the time to realize that two hours had gone by. It barely felt like thirty minutes had passed.

I was so relieved that the conversation went so well, that he wasn't upset at me for what happened and that I could allow myself to feel completely safe with him. Talking to him just felt so much better knowing that I didn't have to guard myself so much.

It was hard for me to remember that I used to be like that with everybody. I never had to feel like everybody I met was out to get me and could easily trust everybody. But after dealing with Mrs. Lamb, I had to suspect that everybody I met was a villain. It was exhausting, but it felt good to have at least one person that I could hold onto through this.

It made me feel like everything would be okay again someday.