EPISODE ONE:  "Mt. Vernon Square"

    It's a warm Spring day in the late afternoon and Brooke is looking out of the window of her third floor Mt. Vernon Square apartment.  The birds are chirping and neighborhood folks are walking their dogs in the Square down below.  Brooke sits on the window sill and looks up and down the street.  She can see the hustle of traffic moving around Mt. Vernon's Washington Monument and can hear the horns of cars and the engines of buses.  As she smiles, a loud pop startles her.  She loses her balance on the sill and falls back into the apartment and onto the floor.  She looks up and over at Catrina, sitting on a chair in the living room, and the both of them start laughing.

    "I thought someone was shooting at me," she says about the noise, chuckling a few more times.  "That would be just my luck to get shot a week before I'm supposed to marry Kyle and all of the wedding preparations have been made and paid for already."

    Catrina gets a serious look on her face and her eyes open wide.  "Maybe it's Mister Spooky Secret Admirer Man trying to tell you that he won't let you marry Kyle.  Maybe it wasn't a bus backfiring at all.  Maybe he's outside watching your every move even as we speak."  Catrina starts laughing.

    Brooke feigns a laugh and stands up and turns to the window.  Still pretending to be amused by Catrina's idea and giggling, Brooke turns and looks out of the window again, this time leaning against the wall and not directly in front of the window.  Her face is as white as a sheet and she says softly, "Yeah, maybe that's it.  Maybe it's him." 

    Catrina looks up at Brooke as she stares silently through the window, almost in tears.  "Has he been calling you again, Brooke?  Has he sent you more gifts?"  Brooke looks at her and gives a silent, frightened stare.

     Later that evening, just a few blocks away, in Baltimore's downtown area, Scott is sitting in his office on the telephone.  Obviously angered by the person on the other end of the line, he screams, "You're under contract to us and I'll make sure there won't be another book deal and your career will be over!"  He throws the telephone onto the desk and walks over to the bar and fixes himself a drink.  He quickly slams the drink down his throat and fixes another.  There is a knock at his office door.

    Valerie peeps her head around the door and questions Scott about the racket she could hear from her desk just outside his office.  "The deal fell through and there isn't going to be a book now.  He's going with one of the big names in New York," he tells her.  Valerie opens the door the rest of the way and walks over to Scott.  "I wouldn't worry about it too much.  You'll find someone else.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there looking for their big opportunity and one of them is surely the next Stephen King or John Grisham."  She smiles at him and he puts his hand on her shoulder.  "Thanks, Val.  You know I would have never made it through the last month if you hadn't been here helping me keep it together."

    Valerie returns the smile and then turns to walk out of the office.  "If you don't need anything else this evening, I would kind of like to head out.  I'm meeting some of the gang at The Brew."  She stops and turns to him.  "You know you could come if you wanted to.  The invitation is an open one."  He smiles again and thanks her, "You know I appreciate that, but I've got a special evening planned for Catrina.  She has been giving me grief for working so much lately so I thought I would take her to dinner at the Prime Rib.  Maybe we'll meet up with everyone at The Brew later.  Are Brooke and Kyle going to be there?"

    As Valerie walks out of his office she yells to Scott, "Yes, both of them!"  Scott finishes his drink and pours another one and looks toward the door, where he could still hear an unseen Valerie rustling with her things rushing to leave.  As he hears the elevator doors close and Valerie's one last faint good-bye, he turns and walks around his desk to his chair.  "I hate you Kyle Fletcher.  I hate you so much."

   Meanwhile, in Mt. Vernon, just a few blocks north of Scott's office and on Baltimore's main artery North Charles Street, Kyle and Alex Fletcher, brothers and co-owners of The Brew, were serving drinks to an early happy hour crowd.  The Brew sits in the middle of Baltimore's historic Mt. Vernon neighborhood, just two blocks north of Mt. Vernon Square.  It is a cozy corner bar with two levels.  The first is a video bar with a long narrow oak bar to the left of the door.  Along the right side of the pub's main room, tables line the tinted windows and allow patrons to watch the hustle and bustle of North Charles Street and Mt. Vernon.  The second level is a restaurant that is often used as a banquet room for parties and other community events.  Kyle and Alex have owned and operated The Brew for several years now, a business inherited after the mysterious death of its previous owner, and their father, Ronald Fletcher.  Anyway, The Brew is the favorite hang-out for the residents of nearby Mt. Vernon Square.

    "So what time is everyone going to be here this evening?" Kyle asks Alex as he is wiping off the bar.  Alex serves a patron a drink and turns to Kyle, "I guess anytime.  Valerie called just a few minutes ago from her cell phone and said she was walking out of the building."

    "Is Scott coming this evening?" Kyle inquires.  Alex takes money from the bar and begins ringing a customer on the cash register.  "No, she said he was already drinking because he lost a potentially big money author.  I guess it's better if he doesn't come after what happened last time," he answers, turning to give the customer his change.  The customer motions with his hand for Alex to keep the change.  "Thanks, man.  Much appreciated."  The customer turns and walks to one of the tables.  Kyle stops wiping the bar again and looks up and around the room.  "Yeah, I suppose it is better if he stays away for a while."

    It's three months ago at The Brew.  It was a Friday night and the bar was crowded with happy hour leftovers and the late night crowd.  Brooke strolls into the door and walks to the bar and wraps her arms around Kyle's neck, stretching across the bar to reach him.  She kisses him and smiles.  "Are you ready for the big announcement, honey?"  She looks to the other side of the bar and sees Catrina, Scott, Valerie, Alex, and all of their other friends crowded in a small cluster by the tables, drinking and fairly rowdy.  "It looks like everyone's here so should be get their attention?"  Kyle smiles back at Brooke and looks over at their friends.  He glances back at Brooke, pecks her again on the cheek.  "An announcement I've been waiting my whole life to make.  Let's get to it!"

    Kyle and Brooke walk over their group of friends.  Kyle motions to one of barbacks and the barback cuts the music.  A large roar fills the room and Kyle begins to speak.  "I know, I know.  The music will be on again in just a few minutes but I wanted to make an announcement while all of the people closest to me are here together."  Everyone stops their separate conversations and turns attention to Kyle.  Kyle takes Brooke by the arm and walks to the end of the bar by the steps to the restaurant upstairs.  He and Brooke climb to the second step and he begins, "As you all know, Brooke and I have been together for almost two years now.  Ever since that fateful day when I backed into Brooke's car at Eddie's Supermarket, I knew she was the one,"  Brooke rolls her eyes in embarassment and everyone laughs and Kyle goes on, "and now I've asked Brooke to marry me and she's said 'Yes,' and so we're getting married this Spring."  The group of friends, except Scott, all cheer and raise their glasses to toast the newly engaged couple.  The barback turns the music on again and Kyle and Brooke walk to the crowd and exchange congratulations, thank you's, and hugs with everyone.

    Brooke walks to Scott, who is in the corner away from the crowd and slamming his drink down his throat.  He turns and looks at Brooke and slurringly bites, "I guess it's true that the guy who has everything always gets the girl, eh?"  Brooke looks at Scott in confusion as he continues, just as Kyle walks up behind her..  "I hope the two of you live your wonderful little fairy tale for a long time, or at least until you realize what a loser Kyle really is and that if it wasn't for his daddy's money, he would just be another Joe Schmoe working at the local Jiffy Lube."  Scott puts his empty glass on the bar and grabs his coat.  "I'm outta here," he slurs. "I think that's probably the best thing for you right now, Scott," Kyle snaps in a threatening voice.  As Scott pulls his keys from his pocket he drops them on the floor.  Brooke and Kyle watch him try to pick them up until Brooke calls out for Catrina, who is standing among the other half of the group several feet away.  "Cat, could you take Scott home?" she asks.  "I think he celebrated a little much for us this evening," Kyle interjects.  Catrina  grabs her coat and takes the keys from the wobbly Scott.  "Brooke, I'll call you tomorrow.  And congrats to both of you.  I'm so excited for you guys!"  She kisses both of them on the check, locks arms with Scott, and heads toward the door

    As Catrina and Scott exit through the front door, Brooke looks up at Kyle.  "What was that all about?"  "I don't know, Brooke.  Of all people to happy for us, I expected Scott to be the most excited."  As Kyle and Brooke watch Catrina and Scott cross the street to the parking lot through the front windows of The Brew, Holly walks over to the couple.  "How about a celebratory shot for the whole group?" she asks.  Kyle agrees and heads to the bar to make the drinks.  Holly rejoins the group.

    Jamie, among the group of friends, walks over to Brooke.  "Someone isn't so happy for you guy, is he?"  Brooke looks at her and then turns again to Catrina and Scott's car pulling onto North Charles Street.  "No," Brooke says, "no, he's not at all."

    Kyle's flash to that night is interrupted by someone's cold hands on the back of his neck.  He shivers and moves away from the source of the cold.  Valerie laughs.  "I'd offer a penny for your thoughts, but by that look on your face, they are probably worth a hell of a lot more," she jokes.  Kyle says his hellos and Valerie walks to the end of the bar. 

    Alex walks over to her and gives her a lifting hug and a long kiss.  "Hello my love.  How are you tonight?" he asks.  "Well, it's been a long week and I'm ready to unwind," she ways  to him while running her finger across his cheek.  "What time are you going to get out of this place tonight?"  Alex responds with an embarassing giggle. "Probably not until after two.  I have a feeling it's going to be a busy night and Kyle has some last minute things to do early tomorrow morning to prep for the wedding next week, so I told him I would close tonight."  Valerie sits on a nearby bar stool and gives Alex a pouty, dissatisfied look.  She quickly looks around and then with a perky tone says, "I guess, as always, I'm the first one here.  Hmmm.  First one at the bar everytime.  What do you think that says about my character?"

    By this time, Alex's attention has gone from Valerie to the front door.  Holly and Paul have arrived.  Alex walks away from Valerie as if she weren't even there and says his hellos to the couple just entering.  "What will it be to start the weekend?" he asked them, placing napkins in front of the two of them, now standing on the opposite side of the bar.  Valerie watches from the other end of the bar and clears her throat loudly enough that they all can hear. 

    Alex pulls a beer from the ice box and takes it down to Valerie.  Paul removes his jacket and walks over to Valerie and hugs her and brushes her cheek with a kiss.  "How are you darlin'?"  She smiles a hello to Paul and looks beyond him at Holly, still at the other end of the bar, talking to Kyle--the two of them laughing.  She quickly excuses herself to the ladies room, glancing back at Holly and Kyle once while walking to the back of the bar to the restrooms.  Alex looks at Paul.  "So what it's gonna be tonight, my man?"  Paul responds and Alex mixes a cocktail and places it on the bar in front of him.

    In the ladies' room at The Brew, Valerie leans against the sink, held up by both of her arms.  She looks at herself in the mirror.  "Get it together, Val.  She isn't a threat to you.  Alex loves you.  You have to believe that."  Valerie pulls lipstick from her purse and begins to apply it.  She stops after only applying lipstick to half of her mouth and lets out a loud sigh.  She turns away from the mirror and leans against the sink, a bead of sweat slides down her forehead.  She opens her bag and pulls out a prescription bottle of bills.  She turns around and faces the mirror again and pops the pill in her mouth.  She turns on the faucet and cups her hand under the running water and gulps the it from her hand.  She turns off the water and continues applying her make-up.

    Just southeast of Mt. Vernon in the Baltimore community of Butcher's Hill, Jamie walks into the front doorof her brick rowhouse.  "Bret?  Bret?" she calls out as she hangs her jacket on the coat hook by the front door.  "I'm in the bathroom," a voice calls out from the back part of the one bedroom apartment.  Jamie makes her way into the living room, thumbing momentarily through the mail on the table, and down the hallway to the bathroom door.  Bret is standing there in a towel with shaving cream covering his face.  He looks at Jamie standing behind him in the mirror.  "I'll be ready to go in just a few minutes."  Jamie just sighs very impatiently and heads into the bedroom.

    "So how did the job search go today?" she asks aloud, finishing under her breath and sarcastically with, "Obviously really well since you are just now getting a shower and shaving."  Jamie begins to get undressed, taking off her shoes and her blouse.  "What was that Jamie?  I can't hear you."

    Jamie ignores Bret's request to repeat what she said and continues to change into a more casual outfit.  As she is pulling her sweater over her head, she heads up the hallway toward the bathroom.  "Why didn't you look today?  You're not ever going to find anything if you're sitting around here on your ass all day," she repremands.  "I'm not going to support you forever, you know.  When you lost your job, I said you could move in here temporarily and that was almost six months ago."

    Bret stops shaving and lays his razor on the sink.  He turns to Jamie and kisses the end of her nose.  "I did some internet searching today and found a few leads."  Jamie looks at him in disbelief and then looks at the floor.  "I have four interviews set up for the first part of next week."  She looks at him again with surprise. "That's wonderful, Bret.  So with which companies do you have interviews set?"  Brett wipes the shaving cream from Jamie's nose and then turns around to the mirror and begins shaving again.  "I'd rather not say.  I want to see how they go first before I talk about them too much and get overly excited."  He watches out of the corner of his eye at the reflection in the mirror of Jamie heading out of the bathroom and up the hallway to the living room.  He stops shaving and just stares at himself in the mirror.  "Come on, we have to go.  We're already late," Jamie calls from the living room.  Kyle just continues to stare at himself in the mirror.

    That same evening, about 200 miles north of Baltimore in New York City, Baltimore native Ashley Redmond is in her kitchen preparing dinner when her husband John comes in the front door.  Ashley quickly runs to the table, already set with her best china and silver, and lights the two candlesticks in the table's center.  She walks to the door leading to the apartment's living room and twists the dimmer switch to reduce the light in the dining room.  She steps back to the table and turns to face the doorway.  

    John walks into the dining room and extinguishes the flame on the candles with one quick breath of air.  Ashley's smile turns to a frown.  "John, I thought tonight we could have a romantic candlelight dinner and talk.  Just like we used to before we moved to New York"  She reaches over to John and puts her hand on his chest.  "Just the two of us.  We can talk and have some wine and maybe even forget about all of our problems--you know, no talk about work, about bills, or anything. Just us."  John grabs Ashley's arm and pushes her away and as he walks down the hall toward the bedroom, he calls out, "I'm not hungry.  I'm going out with the guys from work."

    Ashley watches him walk down the hall and go into the bedroom.  She turns to the table and relights the candles and then makes her way down the hall toward the bedroom.  Once inside the room, she sees John rummaging through the closet, ripping her dresses and shirts off of their hangers and throwing them about the floor of the bedroom.  "John, what is it?  What did I do?  Please talk to me."  

    John stops rummaging through the clothes and turns and looks at Ashley.  "Why do you have so many damned clothes?  You don't need all of this stuff.  It's not like you have any friends or need to go anywhere dressed up in this stuff.  None of it looks good on you anyway and I'm the one who works my ass off to make you money so you can buy this crap."  Ashley stands across the room from John with a frightened look on her face.  He walks over to her and backhands her across the cheek, knocking her to the floor.  As she starts crying and screaming for him to stop, he picks her up by her hair and throws her through the bedroom doorway and into the hallway.  Ashley, trying to get away from him, starts crawling toward the dining room, still crying and begging John to stop.

    Once in the dining room, Ashley looks up and John is standing over her.  "Please John.  I'm sorry.  I just wanted to make you a nice dinner and make things better for us."  John, again, picks Ashley up by her hair and pulls her up from the floor.  He makes a fist and punches her in the face, throwing her back and across the dining room table.  The table collapses and Ashley curls into a fetal position, bleeding from the mouth and the nose.

    "I don't want your food.  I told you I'm going out.  I expect you'll have this mess cleaned up by the time I get home."  John turns and walks into the living room.  Ashley, still curled up on the floor, hears him yelling from the living room.  "And don't forget to clean up the mess in the bedroom too.  I don't know when I'll be home."  With that, Ashley hears the front door close and knows John is gone.  She reaches up to her her lip and wipes the blood with her hand. When she looks at her hand and sees the blood, she screams out, "Noooooo.  Nooooo," sobbing between screams.

TO BE CONTINUED..... 

Look for Episode Two:  Til Death Due Us Part by January 21, 2001

Disclaimer:  All characters and situations in this story are completely fictitious and any similarities to real people or situations are completely coincidental.  The characters and storylines have been created by and are the property of Craig Kile.  Please contact the author at CraigKile@aol.com.