Silver Linings

pressure had been mounting. She could feel it, a palpable field of energy pressing on her as surely as claustrophobia.
    She knew that sooner or later she was going to have to make a decision. Emery and Ariel and Aunt Charlotte were all probably right about Hugh. He wasn't planning to stay in Seattle permanently. He was playing a waiting game, and he was not a patient man.
    One of these days he would come home from work and announce that he had given her enough time to get used to the idea of trusting him. He would tell her he was leaving for St. Gabriel on the six o'clock plane the next morning.
    And she would have to make her decision.
    The walls were definitely closing in on her.
    “And up and out and up and out and up…”
    She was not ready to take the risk a second time. She would not be a stand-in for Ariel.
    “Reach and pull. Reach and pull. Move it, people. Reach and pull…”
    Hugh had claimed he would stay here in Seattle as long as necessary. But Mattie knew better. She could feel him getting restless. The last three mornings she had awakened to find him already awake beside her, gazing out at the dawn. She had known instinctively that he was thinking about his island and Abbott Charters and his dream home.
    “Slide and skip, two…three…four. Slide and skip, two…three…four…”
    Aunt Charlotte was right. Hugh was not meant to live in the city. He had started to build a dream for himself out in the islands, and now, half-finished, it called to him. Mattie tried to tell herself that her dreams were right here in Seattle, but a part of her denied it.
    “…And two, three, four, and slide, turn, kick…and two, three…”
    A part of her knew that her dreams were forever linked to Hugh's.
    So she would have to make a decision.
    Mattie wondered how much time she had left.
    The walls were definitely closing in.
    Half an hour later, showered and changed back into the well-tailored pin-striped suit she had worn to the office that day, Mattie left the health club and started the five-block walk to her apartment. It was dark and a light rain was beginning to fall. Hugh was going to get wet on the way home tonight. He never remembered to take an umbrella with him to the office.
    Mattie had just unfurled the umbrella she always carried with her in her briefcase when she heard the footsteps behind her.
    Footsteps on a city street were hardly unusual, but there was something about the pace of these particular footsteps that sent a flicker of anxiety down her spine. A woman who lived alone in the city soon developed a certain degree of street savvy. There were footsteps and there were footsteps .
    The sidewalk was uncrowded at this hour. The rain and the cold had driven most people indoors. The few people who were still out were hurrying toward the shelter of bus stops, restaurants, or parking garages. She listened for a change in the pace of the person walking behind her.
    But the footsteps behind Mattie did not quicken or slow. They beat a steady tempo that matched her own brisk stride.
    She was getting paranoid, Mattie told herself. There was no cause for alarm. If worse came to worse, she could always run out into the middle of the street and scream bloody murder.
    Unless whoever was following her jumped her suddenly and dragged her into a dark alley.
    She clung more tightly to her purse and briefcase and hugged the outer edge of the sidewalk. She remembered reading somewhere that it was safer to walk near the curb.
    The sense of being followed was sending chills down her spine now. At the corner Mattie swung around abruptly and looked back in the direction she had just come.
    Two men were on the sidewalk behind her. One had his keys out and was heading toward a car parked at the curb. The other was staring into a shop window. He was wearing a cap and had the collar of a khaki-green trenchcoat pulled up high around his neck. But Mattie caught a glimpse of his face and realized he was a young man, probably in his early twenties. He didn't look like a street thug; he looked more like a soldier, especially in that military-style trenchcoat.
    She was getting paranoid. Maybe she'd lived a little too long in the city. Mattie crossed the street and hurried down the next block. Midway she whirled around and saw that the man who had been looking into the window was still behind her. An aura of menace hung in the air.
    Mattie gave up trying to fight the anxiety. She was probably going to regret this, but there