Beauty and The Beasley

Chapter 14

Jim declared that it would take him about two weeks to finish the trap and so Bree had to take it upon herself to track down the monster and come up with the best way and place to capture it.

She also had to figure out a way to get Jim his freedom - maybe Norman could help.

Norman!

Bree sighed as she thought of her new boyfriend. Yes, she had said yes to him and they were now a couple. Although they'd agreed to keep their relationship on the low so Bree could avoid getting mobbed by the girls upstairs.

To them, Norman was still the single poetic prince charming they swooned over and Bree sometimes found herself laughing when they flocked around him. It reminded her of how nervous she'd felt whenever Norman stalked her, oblivious to the fact that he also had stalkers of his own.

There were about ten girls. The feistiest were a set of triplets named Fallon, Hailey and Sally. They were beautiful Israeli immigrants that had moved to Oakwood several weeks after Norman had. They seemed to always fight over which one of them he'd waved at or smiled at or even looked at. Sally who was the youngest, looked older than the other two.

What interested Bree the most was how they wore a certain color all the time. Fallon loved gold, Hailey stuck to white and Sally sported burgundy. All together, they looked like a country's flag with lipstick.

The rest of the girls were younger than most and sometimes their parents would glare at them for fawning over someone obviously older than they were. Bree didn't even bother to know their names.

Norman had suggested they go out for breakfast but the girls had intercepted them before they made it to the lobby. Norman signalled Bree to go on since their relationship couldn't be made known, at least not yet. She proceeded to wait outside. After a few minutes, Norman came out looking more flustered than he usually was.

His brown shirt was rumpled and his hair stuck out in many places. He looked like he just escaped death but as he got closer, Bree noticed lipstick marks on his cheeks.

Burgundy. It was Sally.

"She kissed me, i'm sorry." He apologized knowingly.

Bree found herself laughing. A couple of months ago, seeing Norman disoriented and covered in lipstick stain would've made Bree happy as it was a sign of intervention from the girls but now she just felt pity for him. He had literally escaped a mob of beautiful ladies just for her.

She hooked her arm around his own. "Come on."

Amy's AM was still closed and so they had to go to Betty's Cafe. Somehow, all the legit food places in town was run by women.

Nobody ever saw Betty but her daughter, Diane ran the place. They served the best coffee, even better than Amy's Bree had to admit.

Norman had initially suggested they visited a fancy restaurant uptown but Bree dismissed the idea, claiming she didn't want crabs in her purse.

They secured a table by the window, a spot Bree found liberating. She hated being in the middle of a room. As they sat, Norman clutched her hand and squeezed it gently. She managed a smile. They'd been going out for only a week but he'd done more for her than a normal boyfriend would; he'd brought her another giant vase filled with flowers and this time they were yellow. He bought her jewelry, sent care packages in lovely blue boxes decorated with pink ribbons.

Everyday she found something new in these "care packages" (a concept Norman claimed to have invented). She'd found a small diary covered in glitter and a pen stuck to it, a bar of chocolate, pearly studs, sometimes a love poem and one time he'd sent a single flower petal. Bree didn't understand why and never bothered to ask.