The Man in the Three Piece Suit

That’s him. That’s the man who’s been following me. That’s what I thought to myself as I stepped out of the liquor store, holding a bag that was so heavy I could barely carry it with one hand. It was the usual. Vodka, tequila, I threw a bottle of wine in there this time too. There was no telling what kind of mood I'd be in tonight. I had to plan accordingly. 

It was the same man I had seen two times before. Once when I was leaving work and then again while picking up dry cleaning for Jake. This mystery man was wearing an old fashioned three piece suit. It was a light beige color with a red tie that looked to be made of wool. He wore a matching fedora hat on his head. He didn’t look like he belonged here. He looked like he belonged in the 1940s or even earlier. I hadn’t seen him use a car or utilize any form of public transit. He was on foot each time I saw him. I could already hear the doubt with which my family and friends would certainly respond if I tried to explain this to anyone. 

Maybe it wasn’t the same man. 

Maybe it was a different guy each time. 

Maybe a different man was wearing a similar peculiar outfit to the last man you saw. 

Maybe all of these men wearing antiquated suits coincidentally decided to stare at you.

  This is what they'd all say. They’d all be wrong. I know what I saw. 

The last thing a twenty five year old girl like me needed was some creep stalking her. I was petite and I've always been told what a warm smile and demeanor I have. Perfect for accidentally attracting stalkers. I walked to my car in the parking lot after exiting the liquor store. I tried to not look scared and to not look in the direction of the man standing in between the liquor store and the laundromat located next door. I did my best to not look directly at him, but I still knew he was there. I tried to not let my hands shake as I opened my car door and sat in the driver’s seat. I didn’t look at him at all the entire time while I backed the car out of my parking spot and drove out of the parking lot, but I could feel his eyes on me. I was nearly numb from the fear I felt. I could barely feel my limbs working the gas pedal or moving the steering wheel. The liquor store was now directly behind my car. Despite all my best advice to myself, I felt an overwhelming urge to peer into the rearview mirror. I felt the urge to see him. I felt safe being this far away and sitting behind the locked doors of my car. I pointed my eyes up towards the mirror and looked over the liquor store in the small, grungy parking lot. The man was gone. 

I made it a few blocks before I had to stop. I pulled my car into a fast food parking lot and parked in a parking spot. I had no intention of ordering fast food. I just couldn’t wait any longer to check my phone. I had to see if Jake answered me. 

He didn’t. The last eight text messages were all highlighted in blue. I was being left on read by the guy I was counting on asking me to be his girlfriend someday. He already told me we wouldn’t be facetiming tonight. I was disappointed, but had hoped we could at least text the rest of the day. Maybe he’d ask how my day at work was. Maybe he’d make plans for when we could see each other next. 

I shut my eyes and leaned my forehead against the steering wheel in front of me. I sighed. I didn’t have a boyfriend, but I had a man who was trapped in the wrong decade stalking me. My phone buzzed. I popped my head off the steering wheel and grabbed my phone as fast as I could. I expected to see a text message or two from Jake. There was a text, but not from Jake. 

The text was from a different guy. A guy I met at church last week with my mom. We texted briefly throughout the week but I haven't thought much of it. 

The text said: "Hey Lauren, How's your week going?”

It was a boring text. I couldn’t even remember his name. It was hard to remember back that far with all the drinking I’ve been doing. Not knowing where you stand in a relationship will make you drink like that. I do remember church guy being handsome and nice. He complimented my church outfit and told me it was nice to meet me. He said he and my mother had become church buddies. Whatever that meant. 

I gave him my number just to make my mom happy. I didn’t hear the end of it from her during the whole drive to her house after church. She ranted about how this guy wasn’t the same as the guys I’ve dated. How he was a true gentleman. How he reminded her of how men were when she was young. How he didn’t spend all of his time on his phone or playing video games the way today’s men did. How he would treat me the way a woman should be treated. Blah blah blah. I tuned it all out. 

I left church guy on read. I didn’t have time for whatever conversation he wanted to have. I only wanted a text from Jake. I threw my phone onto the passenger seat and drove my car out of the parking lot. 

My car didn’t have enough horsepower to get me home fast enough. I was counting the seconds until I was on my couch with a tall glass of whichever of these bottles I decided to open first. I tried to transition my mind to anything other than the man in the three piece suit. I fantasized about Jake answering my texts. Maybe he would apologize for being distant and reveal his elaborate plans to take me on a romantic date. The fantasy was interrupted when I remembered I needed to get gas. 

Shit. I thought to myself. I was almost in the clear. Almost home with nothing left to do but to take a few sips and allow the alcohol to sail the man in the three piece suit out of my memory and to numb the pain of Jake not texting me. But I wasn’t in the clear yet. This is what I get for procrastinating everytime I notice my fuel tank getting low. I didn’t have enough gas to get home. I had to make one more stop. 

I slapped down on my turn signal at the first sight of a gas station. I didn’t allow myself to hesitate. I had to bite the bullet. I did a full scan with my eyes the second I stepped out of my car at the gas pump. There was no sign of the man anywhere near the gas station store or any of the pumps. My parked car at the pump was crooked but I didn’t care. I removed the gas nozzle, my hands shaking as I opened the gas cap and inserted the nozzle. I turned around and looked over my shoulder at the pumps behind me. Still no sign of him. My tank was now full. I placed the nozzle back in its holder as fast as I could and returned to the driver’s seat of my car before I could give my answer to the gas pump asking me whether or not I wanted a physical receipt. 

I stepped on the gas and pulled my car back onto the main road. With a full tank of gas, only ten minutes until I’d be home and no sign of the man in the three piece suit at the gas station, I was officially in the clear. I turned up the music playing in my car and took a deep breath. I told myself that this strange occurrence was behind me and I’d never have to think about this again. Even if it really was some creep that was stalking me, I clearly lost him. 

I stopped at a red light at a four way intersection just a few blocks away from my apartment. I quietly sang along with the radio that was playing some old song by Frank Sinatra. I hummed and felt like I was on the verge of smiling when I saw the man again. 

He was standing on the corner of the sidewalk on the street across from my car. The three piece suit and fedora were unmistakable. I was directly in his line of sight and I felt his eyes on me again. The next feeling that went through my body was my stomach dropping. It felt like I just sped down the world’s largest roller coaster drop. And then I was shaking again. I didn’t want to move any closer but the light turned green and my foot instinctively eased down on the gas pedal. He was standing on the edge of the sidewalk, as close to the curb as he could get without standing in the street. I drove my car towards him. He stared directly at me the entire time as my car eased past him. This time, I stared back. It was like driving past a car accident, when you don’t want to look but for some reason you can’t look at anything else. The man and I made eye contact. I had to stop myself from screaming at the top of my lungs. I pressed the weight of my foot down on the gas and sped down the street towards my apartment, hoping the man wouldn’t be able to see where I was going. I had a feeling I’d be seeing him again. 

I rushed through my front door and slammed it shut behind me. “Hello?” Megan called out from the kitchen. “Is that you?” 

“Yeah. I’m home.” I said. I tried to sound as calm as possible. 

“Why’d you slam the door?” 

“Sorry. Just happy to be home.” I said. I placed the bag of liquor down on the coffee table in the living room and started walking towards the bathroom. I’d need a few minutes to make myself look presentable enough to successfully avoid any questions about what kind of day I just had. I didn’t feel like explaining to my best friend and roommate that I thought I was being stalked by a guy who looked like he was in the wrong decade. 

“I’m making dinner. You hungry?” Megan said. 

“No. Just thirsty.” 

We sat on the couch together for our usual nighttime routine. I held the large glass of vodka I poured for myself in the kitchen. I didn’t need any fruit or sugary mixers to make vodka tolerable. I liked it just fine by itself. It got the job done whether it tasted like plain vodka or like vodka with fruit and sugar added to it. 

“Have you talked to him today?” Megan said. She held a cup of tea in her hand. Her brown hair was wet from the shower she just took. She had her pajamas on. It was time for some cozy girl talk whether I wanted it or not. 

“He texted me saying he couldn’t come this weekend.” I took a large sip. 

“Are you kidding? Not coming to your birthday?” 

“It’s not that big a deal.” 

“Wrong. It’s a huge deal. He’s a man child.” 

“He’s just busy.” 

“What else did he say?” 

“He asked me to pick up his dry cleaning. And told me he couldn’t talk tonight.” 

“Why?” 

“He didn’t say.” I said. I tried to keep my answers brief. Maybe that would lead to a change in topic. I’d rather talk about anything else. Well, anything besides the man in the three piece suit. 

“What’s he doing instead? Playing video games again? Like when he canceled that date you guys had planned?” Megan said. 

“It wasn’t a date.” I finished my drink and grabbed the bottle of vodka to pour another. 

“It wasn’t a date? What was it?” 

“I don’t know.” I broke eye contact with Megan and looked down at the cup in my hand. 

“It was a man, or excuse me, man child, and a woman going out to dinner. That’s a date where I come from.” 

“He didn’t call it a date. So it wasn’t a date.” I said. I took a big gulp and slid down lower in the chair I was sitting in. 

“And you’re okay with that?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“When is he planning on seeing you? Or making any kind of effort at all?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“What about that other guy?” Megan said. 

“What other guy?” 

“Don’t act like you don’t know. The other one that’s been texting you. The one you met at, what was it? Church?” 

“Oh yeah. He’s been texting me. I haven’t really answered.” 

“Why not?” Megan said. She furrowed her brow and stared at me as I took another big sip. 

“I don’t know.” 

I laid down in bed. I couldn’t wait to go to sleep and move one step closer to this day being a distant memory of the past. I wasn’t looking forward to the hangover I’d be feeling tomorrow, but I’d take that over being stalked or having to answer Megan’s nosy questions. I dropped my head on the pillow with a thud and closed my eyes. It felt like the bed was spinning. It felt like our apartment was on its way to Oz like it was Dorothy’s house. I fell asleep. 

I was walking down a busy Manhattan street. There were people walking past me, going about their daily routines. Cars drove past me. I heard the usual loud and obnoxious noises of New York City. Cars honked, street vendors and street patrons haggled prices of fruit and vegetables, people shouted things about how they were walking here. But, something was off. Everything looked different than usual. It looked older. Like I was in a different time. It was an old fashioned New York that I had only seen in movies. 

I continued down the sidewalk only because I didn’t know what else to do. I walked past the tall buildings next to me towards a hot dog stand on the corner at the end of the sidewalk. Then I saw him. 

The man in the three piece suit. He was facing me from down the street. We were walking directly towards one another. He had his eyes locked on me just like the other times I’d seen him. I told myself to turn around and run. To get the hell out of there as fast as possible. But I didn’t. I kept walking. He kept walking towards me. I didn’t know what would happen once he reached me but I felt myself wanting to face it. I couldn’t take this anymore. I needed to know. 

We were both moving fast. Only a few more seconds until I found out what this man would do once he reached me. We continued walking. We reached the same spot on the sidewalk and the man stopped walking. I stopped too. We were now face to face. I spoke before he could. 

“Who are you?” I said. I tried to not let my voice shake when I said it. I tried to sound strong and brave. 

The man in the three piece suit smiled. “I’m John. Nice to meet you.” He said.

I woke up in my bed. I was in a sweaty panic. My heart was beating so hard it felt like it was trying to burst its way out of my chest. It was a dream but it felt real. Too real. The man was following me into my dreams like he was Freddy Krueger. I felt frozen in my bed. Like my brain was warning my body that there might be danger nearby and telling it not to move. The feeling reminded me of waking up from a nightmare as a child. I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I had to tell Megan about this man and ask her what I should do. 

I got out of bed and exited my room into the hallway. I walked next door, turned the knob and entered Megan’s room. 

“Megan.” I whispered. “Can I sleep in here with you? I honestly had a terrible day and just had a scary dream.” 

Megan sat up in bed and looked at me standing there in the darkness. “Was your dream about John?” Megan said. I felt a cold chill pulsate through my entire body. “How do you know John?” I said. 

“I don’t.” Megan said. She raised her arm and pointed her finger towards the door behind me. “But you just brought him into the room with you.” 

My stomach dropped. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I turned around. I couldn’t see John or anything in the dark bedroom. I ran over to the light switch on the wall and flipped it on. The room lit up and I turned back towards the bed. I saw Megan lying in bed. She was asleep. 

I turned around again. I looked back towards where she was pointing. Where she claimed The man in the three piece suit had followed me into the room. 

“There’s no one there.” I said.