When Melinda left to go on a weekend trip with some of her girlfriends, she left her boyfriend George home alone for the time being. Or so she thought… When he sends her a selfie from the bedroom, Melinda immediately notices that something is off in the picture. When she sees it, she tries to get in contact with George as soon as possible! There is “something” sticking out from under the bed… George just sent the selfie his girlfriend asked for, she wanted to see him. He took the selfie in the bedroom and without looking at it, he sends it to his girlfriend. He planted his ass back on the couch. But then he suddenly receives a lot of messages from Melinda, what’s going on…? George wonders what’s going on. Melinda never sends so many messages at once. He probably didn’t take a good selfie, or didn’t make the bed properly. But nothing turned out to be less true when he sees what the messages are about… “BEHIND YOU!” George’s face turns completely red when he reads the messages and immediately checks the selfie for verification. But Melinda is right in what she saw. “George, what is that under our bed…?”. So what was under George’s bed? Was he hiding something from Melinda? Or was he hiding someONE? For the first time since they got together, George and Melinda were going to spend a week apart from each other. Recently some arguments had started building up more and more and they figured maybe some time away from each other was just what they needed. So Melinda was going to go on a trip, leaving George with the house to himself for the weekend… When the trip was edging close, Melinda thought that George was acting a bit strange. Almost nervous. Could it be that he wasn’t feeling ready to spend the week alone? Or was there something else going on? She wasn’t sure what it was but he assured her she should go. Almost like he was pushing her away… Melinda left that next day still slightly concerned. She knew this is what she needed and probably what George needed as well. Some time away from each other to think and have fun apart. When she got back things would be better. Or at least she hoped so… While the original plan was to also have no contact at all during the week, it only took a few days for Melinda to get the urge again to start texting with George again. She also just wanted to see his face again and hoped he was willing to send her some pictures… To her pleasant surprise, George was actually really open to text with Melinda. He told her he had been missing her too. Even just those few days apart was enough to reset things apparantly. Melinda felt overjoyed but that feeling would soon make way for worry. Lots of worries… The texting stayed consistent for the next couple of days and they even called each other once or twice. Melinda had been sending George lots of pictures from her vacation as well, but she had not seen his face in a while. He had been not been so forthcoming with this yet, so Melinda came up with an idea… She decided to jokingly ask him for a couple pictures from him in his “vacation home”. George seemed happy to play along with this joke and started sending her selfies he took of himself all around the house. It was more fun than he thought it’d be, just walking around the house and taking pictures. But he was not paying close enough attention… Melinda was smiling from ear to ear when she was scrolling through the pictures he sent her. She was so lucky to have a man like George in her life. Everything just felt so perfect for a second but then Melinda got to the selfie of George in their bedroom and she felt her world stop… She had to look twice herself and even showed the photo to her girlfriends so that they could confirm what she was seeing. But they all noticed the same thing. There was something poking out from under the bed. And now she was quite worried about just what this could mean… At this point, it could still be anything and Melinda tried not to worry. She took deep breaths and told herself there was probably nothing going on. But when she asked George what it was that they were seeing, he suddenly stopped responding altogether… He didn’t even answer Melinda’s calls anymore. Now Melinda knew that something was going on and felt the stress race through her body. What was going on at home? What was George hiding from her? Was there actually someone under the bed or was she just imagining things? She had to know… When Melinda first told George that she was going to go away for the week with her girlfriends so that they could spend a week apart, he was fairly excited. He loved the idea of having a little freedom as he had felt like Melinda had been smothering him recently. The build up to this trip went very normal and uneventful, but the day before Melinda was set to leave, George got some unexpected messages from a number he most definitely recognized but never expected to hear from again. The person he got the messages from was very direct and straight forward about the plan. He tried to not make it too obvious that these messages really had him feeling some type of way, but George had always had a shitty poker face and he feared that Melinda could look right through his bullshit. But to his surprise, she didn’t say anything and they just kept on preparing. The first days that George spent alone in the house, he tried not to think about the messages. He just wanted to try and forget them and maybe they would go away. He knew there was no way he could respond to or act on them. It would be totally wrong of him. When Melinda started texting him again after only a couple of days, it felt like a relief and a welcome distraction to George. This was just what he needed to get his mind off the other text messages. And he was more than happy to hear from Melinda again. It meant she was missing him too. And it worked like a charm. The other messages started to fade to the back of George’s mind more and more as contact with Melinda picked up steam. But then something happened that put everything right back in his mind again. And he was definitely not happy about the way it was all happening. In the middle of the night, George was awoken by a loud pounding on the front door. He was instantly awake and very clear of mind. “Could it be her? Was she not going to stick with messages this time…?” But no. That couldn’t be right. Maybe Melinda had changed her mind about staying away so long. He nervously walked to the front door. He knew he should have probably ignored it and stayed in bed, but the temptation was simply too great for George. He just had to know once and for all what was going on. He got downstairs and, after taking a deep breath, slowly opened the door. But to his surprise, there was nobody there. Had he been worrying for nothing? Maybe he had imagined the whole thing or it was just a bunch of kids playing tricks on him. Maybe it had been the remnants of a dream. Still a bit shaky on his legs, he went upstairs again to go to bed. When he got into his room, the first thing he did was close his bedroom window. It was getting way too cold for him. And strangely enough, he didn’t even remember leaving it open in the first place. He must really still be very sleepy. But no matter what else he was tired and ready to head back to bed. George was trying to get back to sleep but for some reason he was having a lot of trouble with it. Usually he would be back to sleep in no time but tonight it was proving difficult. Maybe it was because he had been woken up so rudely and was a bit shaken about it. Or maybe it was that strange feeling that he was being watched that he just couldn’t get rid of. Whatever it was he did finally manage to get to sleep. And he woke up feeling refreshed without a care in the world. He wasn’t thinking about what had happened the night before but was thinking about the sun shining, birds singing, and all the happy things around him. Of course, he also had his first text of the day from Melinda, but it felt good. The entire morning he continued to text Melinda. Their relationship really did seem to be going in the right direction and he was quite optimistic. But there was something going on that he had no idea about. Was it going to change everything including his happy mood? Or would things be okay in the end? Ever since they had started talking again, Melinda would send George a picture of herself on vacation. She was very consistent about it and he was actually starting to get a little bit jealous of it. After all, each of those pictures was proof that he was stuck here, not having the time of his life like she was. She was having a great time in the sun and he was stuck here in the cold. Still, he tried not to think about it too much because as jealous as he was he did want Melinda to have a good time. So maybe he could try to be a little more supportive. And anyway, Melinda had a great idea to help him feel a little less out of the fun. Melinda had the idea that George should send her vacation photos just like she was sending him. He could send images of his ‘vacation house even though it was actually just the regular house. That way he would feel like he was doing something special too. Of course, he knew it was just an excuse to get pictures of him, but at least it was something, right? George decided to have fun with it though. He started taking some fun selfies around the house to send to her. Some were just fun, some were silly, and some were a little bit revealing. But it really was a good idea because he was enjoying himself with this one. And he didn’t feel so out of the loop. But things weren’t quite what he might have thought. Once he was done taking all the pictures he sent them to Melinda all at once and flopped down in front of the TV. The game was about to start and as fun as taking the pictures had been he wasn’t about to miss any of it. Besides, he’d taken enough photos. He didn’t even look at them before he sent them off, though that was a mistake. George had expected Melinda to send back a message with emojis and maybe some playful or happy comments. He definitely wasn’t prepared for the messages that he got in response to those photos. Not in the least. How could he have known what Melinda would see in the pictures? After all, he’d just snapped a few random images. While flipping through the pictures apparently Melinda had immediately zeroed in on one picture in particular. That picture was of George in the bedroom. And she seemed to be very worried about just what she saw in there. When he saw her message and flipped back to the photo himself in the bedroom he saw what the problem was. In the background of his picture was something sticking out from under the bed. In fact, not just something. It appeared to be hair sticking out from under the bed and now George was concerned. In fact, if he was honest with himself he was freaked that someone could be in the house with him. He set his phone down on the table and rose up on shaky legs. He was going to have to investigate and he wasn’t so sure about that. In fact, he had a really bad feeling that there really might be someone there. Could that be the answer for everything he’d noticed so far? And what was he going to do? George started thinking hard as he headed up the stairs. This couldn’t be it, right? He and Melinda had to be mistaken. But then he also wondered if all of his fears had actually been correct. Could it be possible that his irrational fears were actually not so irrational after all? Could it all be right there in front of him? The messages he’d received. The knock on the door in the middle of the night. The open window. Things were all starting to add up and as he continued up the stairs he became even more certain. She had to be here. She had to be right there in the house, right now. But where could she be? As quietly as possible George crept up the stairs and down the hall. Then he slammed the bedroom door open, looking under the bed where the hair was visible in the photo. But there was nothing there. No hair sticking out from under the bed. Nothing at all really and he even got down on his hands and knees to check. His heart was pounding as he glanced under the bed again. Nothing was there. But there was nothing else that could account for what he and Melinda had seen in the photo either. That meant he had to be right. She had to be here somewhere. He just had to figure out where she had gone to. It wasn’t under the bed. But where could it be? He started scouring the entire room, looking in the closet, behind the doors, and even the dresser. He looked everywhere for a sign of her, but there was nothing. As he continued to look he heard his phone downstairs. Melinda was probably calling and frantic that she couldn’t get ahold of him right now. So he headed down the stairs. George was rushing down the stairs to grab his phone when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Someone else had already picked up his phone and was standing there with it. His instinct had been right all along. There really was someone in the house with him. And now he was staring right at them. Before George and Melinda had gotten together he had been dating another girl named Tamica. She was a nice enough girl overall, but she was way too clingy and controlling. He had ultimately broken it off with her and then later met Melinda. The two had started dating from then on. But things hadn’t just ended there. Tamica had never actually forgiven George or Melinda. She was still very much in love with him and for years after their breakup she had continued to stalk him. She had refused to leave him alone and he had been forced to deal with her on numerous occasions after the breakup, but that wasn’t all. In fact, George had been forced to get a restraining order against Tamica because he just couldn’t get her to leave him alone. He’d tried to keep all of this from Melinda, but obviously things weren’t going to be quite that easy. Tamica was right now standing in his living room talking to Melinda on the phone. Telling her to stay away from ‘her boyfriend.’ George managed to get the phone away from her and ordered her to leave. He even told her that he would call the police if she didn’t go right now. Thankfully she agreed to go. But she insisted that she would be back and that the two of them would end up together in the end. She said there was no way to stop fate. Quickly, George called Melinda back and told her everything. He told her about Tamica being in the house and about the stalking that he had been hiding and about the restraining order. She was shocked about all of it and how he had hidden it. She had known about Tamica, of course, but had never had any idea this was going on. Ultimately, George and Melinda chose to move to another state. It seemed to be the end of Tamica’s stalking since she had no money to continue to follow them that far. Instead, they seemed like they were finally able to live a normal life and enjoy themselves again. There was no more worry. At least, they were pretty sure things were going to be okay from now on. Other than having to deal with Tamica the whole experience of having a vacation apart seemed to have done good things for them. In fact, they felt pretty good about the way things had gone and how they were doing as a couple as well. The two were happier than ever and they were even planning to get married soon.