Dinner For One

Another long night, riddled with thoughts and hazy dreams of his indiscretion. Greg sat up slowly in his bed and after a long yawn, reached over and slapped at the off button on the blaring alarm clock, finally silencing it. He had tried the music wakeup function, but had overslept with it on two separate occasions, causing him to be late for work. No, he was that type who needed to be pulled from his slumber with loud, mind-numbing noise.

He stretched his arms, reminding him of his aches and pains. It didn't help that he wasn't sleeping very well, a condition which he attributed to his indiscretion. guilt. It had been Gregory Telly Anderson's twenty-eighth birthday just a few days ago. He was supposed to have spent that Friday evening with his fiance, Angela, but her shift as an evening nurse in the emergency room had run over again for the millionth time.

They had been engaged for almost three years. Angela was a petite blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty, at twenty-seven. He felt that she was out of his league, not that Gregory himself was a slouch. He was of medium athletic build, toned, with black hair and had dark blue eyes of his own. The couple were to marry next month.

The birthday plan had been to meet up at Dark Nights, the latest and greatest contemporary dance club on the Upper East Side, when Angela texted that she was stuck with a multiple victim car crash situation, and wouldn't be making it. Gregory had grown more and more upset as his evening progressed, and started drinking, a lot.

By midnight, he was dancing with, well more like dancing on the toes of, a dark-haired, short woman wearing Gothic style clothing. His recollection of the night was hazy, but what he could remember with his alcohol doused memory was that she wore little silver half-moon earrings that caught his eye. He liked the way that they shimmered and danced in the moonlight, as well as the seductive way that she stared so intensely into his eyes with her own smoky dark eyes. She wasn't his normal type, tall and blond, but she had been curvy in all the right places and had a cute face.

His past two nights of guilt filled, poor sleep came from the fact that they had ended up in an alleyway getting it on. He had never cheated on Angela before and had never planned to, yet it had happened. The sex had been quick, and a bit rougher than he liked. The Goth girl had an aggressive side to her. He really wished that the whole thing hadn't happened.

Not only because in his drunken stupor and alcohol inflamed lust, he had not used protection which scared the crap out of him, but because he didn't want to risk losing Angela. She was bright, funny, and driven to make something of herself. Besides, the Goth girl had given him something.

Perhaps the flu because his muscles were sore, and his stomach was upset. Not to mention that he was hungry, because everything that he had eaten in the past two days, he had thrown up. Gregory got up, and after taking a couple of aspirin which he hoped would stay down, he showered and dressed for work.

When he left his third-floor apartment, and reached the elevator, Jeanine, one of his neighbors got on with him. She was a divorcee in her mid-forties, but still looked good for her age because she worked out every morning.

‘God, those spandex are tight,’ he thought as he stared at her behind, then noticed that her shirt was nearly see thru. The older woman got off the elevator before him, nodding at him as she left for her morning jog.

‘What the hell was that?’ He had barely noticed the older woman before, never really even spoke to her, his thoughts were running in all directions, ‘Now that he had a one-night stand, he was going to perv over every woman that he encountered?’

Then it hit him like a bucket of cold water in the face. Of course, it was the wedding. The date was looming over him like a nerve-wracking cloud of anxiety.

That was it. He wasn't having second thoughts, Angela was amazing, but he had never been married before and was nervous about it.

Besides, it didn't help that Dr. and Mrs. Helmer, Angela's parents, were turning their wedding into the event of the century.

By the time that he reached his office, three blocks away, he had convinced himself that the upcoming wedding was what was messing with his head.

Gregory worked at a New York Savings and Loan, as a loan officer. His office was small, and windowless, but the bosses liked him. Word at the water cooler was that he would be moving up soon.

His day was slow, as two of his three appointments cancelled. The third was a sweet elderly woman who refinanced her condo for a lower payment.

He spent most of the mundane day twiddling a pen between his fingers, thinking about Angela. Should he tell her about his indiscretion? Maybe take her out for dinner and lay it all out? No, it would only hurt her and kill the relationship.

Still, the guilt was eating him up. That would be his punishment he concluded. He worked it out in his mind that suffering from his guilt would be the price that he would pay for being so incredibly stupid.

On his way home, he stopped at a small corner McDonalds. This was day three without holding a meal down. He was starving and his stomach actually felt a little better since he hadn't tried to put anything in there today.

Gregory knew that he and Angela were trying a new a low-carb diet, but he needed to eat and his stomach would never turn down his guilty pleasure, the quarter pounder with cheese. It was risky with his recent stomach trouble, but he was willing to chance it. He was so hungry, and he wanted it.

Once he got his tray, he sat down at a corner table and stared at the delicious quarter pounder. It was just the way he liked it, dripping cheese out the sides, with little pieces of lettuce casualties strewn about the cardboard box.

When he brought the juicy burger up to his lips and smelled the sandwich, his stomach let out a loud gurgle and initiated an assault on his throat, trying to spew a stream of projectile vomit forth.

Luckily, he made it to the bathroom in the nick of time, filling the toilet bowl with God knows what, because he had thought that his stomach was empty. After cleaning up, and tossing his once glorious looking meal into the garbage, he left the restaurant with his stomach doing flip flops.

When he reached the last block, he saw a muscular young man approaching him. He was an attractive athletic fellow. Brown wavy hair, big brown eyes, and tanned skin. Gregory found himself staring at the man, feeling quite attracted to him.

Once the brown-haired man passed, Gregory shook his head in confusion. He had never been attracted to another male before, but he sure was now. He needed to get home, immediately.

He hurried back to his apartment, and after taking some stronger flu medicine, laid down. Should he go to the doctor? Seemed more likely that he needed a psychiatrist to help him sort out the emotional jungle that he felt lost in.

He startled awake at the sound of his alarm clock blaring in his ears. Even with the loud clamoring, it had taken a few minutes for him to hear it, before finally reaching over to shut it off.

Gregory hadn't even known that he had fallen asleep, nor had he planned to. He had laid down at about six in the evening and had slept thru to morning. He showered, and dressed, skipping breakfast.

Although work was busy, he mostly kept to himself, avoiding the usual office banter amongst bank employees. He faked his way through his two appointments, acting like the eager loan officer that he was supposed to be, but actually just wanting to get through the day. Then his desk phone rang.

"Hey babe, are you avoiding me?" It was Angela's voice on the other end.

"No, of course not. Just busy with bank stuff. Besides, I have been a little under the weather," he answered.

"Oh? Sorry to hear that. I was afraid that you were still peeved at me for missing your birthday. I called you about twenty times, and left you several messages," she seemed worried.

"No, I'm not mad. I mean, your job can be a real pain in the ass, but I'm over it. Just been battling a nasty stomach virus. Been sleeping a lot. Don't want you to get it," he replied while scrolling through his cell phone, seeing that she had called fourteen times and left him several messages. He hadn't even checked his phone in the past two days that now seemed like a blur.

"Are you still sick?" she inquired.

"A little, but I'm, getting over it," he lied.

"Awesome, then we are still on for tonight?" she seemed excited.

"Tonight?" he asked, a foggy recollection that something was scheduled threatened to surface.

"Dinner. At Tobies. With my parents to discuss the wedding. Don't tell me that you forgot, Greg," he could hear a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"No, of course not. Seven o'clock. Wouldn't miss it for the world," he remembered.

"Oh good, you do remember. I know that you don't care much for my father. Just be a little more assertive … you know, aggressive. That is the type of man that he is. Oh, and wear that blue suit and the matching tie that you look so good in," she requested.

A couple of hours later, they were seated in Tobies with her parents. Angela, as always, looked stunning. She wore a tight black party dress with matching black high heels, and wore her long blond hair up in a bun. He noticed that she had on the diamond dolphin shaped necklace that he had bought her on their first year of dating anniversary. She really liked it and wore it on special occasions.

Dr. Helmer wore his usual two-thousand-dollar black suit, while his wife, Becky, was in a more casual purple dress and a far less-casual string of expensive pearls. She was already on her third scotch and the entre hadn't even arrived. He had never seen his future mother-in-law without a hard drink in her hand.

Gregory was sure that living with a pompous arrogant ass like Dr. Clark Helmer would push any woman into a sharp nosedive right into a bottle. The man worked at Mount Sinai, he mentioned it every other sentence, as a heart surgeon. He drove a Porsche, and had a huge penthouse on the Upper East Side, which he also brought up every time that he saw Gregory.

Of course, he kept opinion to himself. Gregory had worked extremely hard to remain semi-tolerable in the good doctor's eyes, even taking up tennis to have something in common with his future father-in-law. At least now they were on speaking terms.

During dinner, they discussed several aspects of the wedding, with Dr. Helmer insisting on paying for everything from dress to cake. Her parents also had created the guest list. Picked the venue. Arranged everything with very little input from Angela or him. It seemed that the entire event was more for her parents, while the two of them were just more pieces of the puzzle in their big social event.

"Gregory, are----" Becky started to speak before Dr. Helmer rudely interrupted his wife with his own question.

"Don't you like the food here? You haven't touched your steak," he questioned accusatorily.

Gregory knew that to insult Tobies would be a great affront to Dr. Helmer, because the owner had graduated with him from Yale. He went to answer, but was saved by Angela coming to his rescue.

"Greg has been feeling a little under the weather lately. Stomach issues." She smiled sweetly at her father.

"Shouldn't wonder with that long hard and stressful job at the bank, making loans to little old ladies," Dr. Helmer laughed, pushing his silver rimmed spectacles up on his long-pointed noise, before even more sarcastically adding, "Not like your conducting heart surgery or anything."

"Daddy!" Angela exclaimed.

Gregory slowly rose from the table and tossed his cloth napkin on his plate, saying, "If you will excuse me, I am not feeling well."

Becky took a long drink from her half-empty glass of scotch, while Angela said, "Babe?"

Gregory stepped in close to Dr, Helmer, placing his mouth next to the wrinkly ear that was peeking out of the man's salt and pepper black hair, whispering, "You seem to be really good at pointing out what I am not, but do you know what I am? I am the man who nails your daughter every night, the man who is going to fill her with your grandchildren, and the man who is going to be calling you dad next month. Chew on that steak, Dr. Helmer."

With that he left. The entire taxi ride home he was surprised at what he had just said. He had never confronted the good doctor before. It was more of a "nose in his butt" type relationship than anything like what he had just done. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he had shown such aggression. He wondered what the fallout would be.

Gregory awoke to the blaring alarm clock again, only this time it seemed to be further away. With a start, he realized that he was sitting out on the fire escape outside of his apartment window. What was going on with him? He was going to make that doctor's appointment first thing this morning. After shutting off the annoying alarm clock, he crawled into his bed and fell back asleep. He was awoken by heavy pounding on his front door. He slowly made his way to the door and slowly pulled it open.

"What the hell, Greg?" Angela stormed in. "I have been calling you and texting for three days. I understand that you have the right to be upset after that dinner debacle with my parents, but ignoring me? Really?"

"Three days?" He didn't understand, and making his way over to the couch, slumped down in it, ‘Now he was losing time? Had he really slept for three days?’

"Yes, three days. Your manager, Todd, called me from down at the bank. You haven't been going to work? What is going on with you? You haven't been the same since your birthday," she looked worried. "And why are you still wearing the same clothes that you had on at Tobies?"

"I am?" he was surprised to see that he was wearing his blue suit pants and collared shirt, although the tie and jacket were now long gone. "Oh, I didn't know that I was."

Gregory couldn't remember what her other questions were because he wasn't really focused on what she was saying. He was more concerned about her hair. When had she started wearing it up in a bun like that? Damn it looked good. And she smelled awesome. He could smell her sweet scent from across the room.

"Look babe. Tell me what is going on. You owe me that. I saw those awful scratches on the back of your neck at dinner the other night." She looked scared when she came over to the couch and sat next to him.

"Scratches?" he frowned pulling his shirt up, exposing deep red marks not only on his neck, but all the way down his back.

"What the hell?" she whispered.

"I met a woman that night that you bailed on me at the club. She was rough, all scratchy and bitey," he admitted, trying to fight his urges, but losing against the uncontrollable attraction that was now driving him with a force that he couldn't fathom.

Angela looked hurt, and with tears welling up in her eyes, made for the door. He was quicker. He leapt over the back of the couch like an animal and had her pinned against the closed door in an instant, his hand pulling her head back by her beautiful blond hair bun. There was no fighting it now.

He could hear her frightened heartbeat pounding out a frantic rhythm while he sank his extended fangs into her tender neck. He felt a tinge of regret as he sucked the life from her, his eyes turning black as death. The deep, throbbing, longing hunger finally satiated, for now.

The panting man stared at a line of blood running down from the two fresh puncture holes under her ear. It traveled to the nape of her neck, trickling over the dolphin shaped diamond pendant. He reached up and ran his fingers over the two fading fang marks on his own neck, just above the shoulder line.

He knew that this was one meal that would forever change his life. He was no longer Greg the happy-go-lucky banker. He was now Gregory Telly Anderson, the undead night stalker.