With nothing to do until Friday, Izzy and I did a man on the street segment on Thursday that was a lot of fun. We asked people for good date ideas and found a bunch of fun things to do. I was new to the city, and it wasn't like she had been allowed out by Jeremy, so we were clueless about where to go. Now, we had a bunch of ideas for things to do over the break we had.

On Friday we took it a step further, and had Amy and Leila join us for a man on the beach segment instead. With those two around in their skimpy bikinis, we attracted quite the crowd in no time. So instead of doing interviews, we all had sandcastle contests and goofed around for fun. It wasn't my normal show, but it was so much fun that I didn't think anyone would care.

And then of course, because life had been going too well, Max appeared.

I never noticed him approaching, he'd just appeared as though he were a part of the crowd, and I gasped out loud when I saw him. Amy and Leila were in the sand, being buried by a bunch of kids and weren't paying any attention, but Izzy was with me as my recorder, and instantly knew what was up because I'd shown her his pictures.

"Trish, so nice to see you!" he said jovially while flashing his famous smile. A smile that I didn't trust in the least. Anyone that knew him wouldn't trust it either. 

"You're in violation of your restraining order," I replied. I had no interest in dealing with him, and I was glad I was wearing jean shorts with a canister of pepper spray tucked into them. Not that I thought he'd do anything in public, but it made me feel better.

"Oh, come on, you're going to make a big deal over me running into you on the beach?" he complained in a little mock whine. "Pure coincidence!"

"Just running into me, huh? After you tried to track me down in San Francisco? Yes, I am going to make a big deal about it. You're already tried to kill me once, and I don't want to be anywhere. near you if I can help it," I replied with my own fake smile.

He lost his grin and took a step towards me before I nodded to Izzy, who still had the phone out in front of her face. He noticed the phone pointed at him and came to an abrupt halt. "Trish, come on! Just drop the lawsuit!" he held his arms out in frustration. "It's a joke, and you know it!"

I should have known. This wasn't revenge, it was all about money. Yes, I'd sued the estate of Juliette after she tried to kill me. The estate was worth over $50 million, but I was only asking for $2 million. She tried to kill me after all, as had Max. Had Lylah been even five minutes later it might have worked. His mom and he had ruined a relationship and then tried to kill me in order to gain YouTube subscribers, but I was the bad guy? Was I being greedy? Maybe. But honestly, Max hadn't been punished at all, and I wanted a little payback for the slice in my leg and the shit I'd had to put up with. At this point the only person who thought it was an evil thing to do was Max, and I didn't care what he thought in the least.

"You already told the court that she did everything the suit alleges, why on earth would I drop it? Just settle and it's over and we don't have to go to court so the world can hear the truth about what happened. Your mom wasn't underwater Max, and you can try that bullshit 'the knife slipped' story again but nobody believed it then and they won't believe it now. You're still walking away with a ton of money."

"It's all mine!" he snarled.

"Only if the jury thinks so!" I reminded him. "And with all this on tape, I'm pretty sure you just made my case!"

Now he made a step towards Izzy, which made my heart race in panic, but at the same time sirens were heard in the distance. "Those sirens are for you Max!" Izzy called over to him. "I called 911 a while ago, so you might want to start running!"

A look of panic crossed his face, and then he did. He ran as fast as he could, his feet kicking up sand on people who screamed at him in protest. He was quickly lost in the crowd again, and Izzy immediately was next to me in the sand, her arms around me. "I got you Trish."

"I hate him!" I sobbed. "I can't believe how much hatred I have in my body for that man!"

"He's all gone, you're safe now." She leaned in, pressing a kiss to my temple and squeezing me tight. Maybe the police would catch him, and we'd be done with Max and Jeremy at the same time. Granted, violating a restraining order might not get him much, but it would be a start.

"Thanks Izzy. I'm glad you were with me for that. And thanks for calling 911 too!" My heart was still pounding, and I knew I wouldn't calm down any time soon. It might not put me in the best mood for the wing woman trip tonight!

"I didn't call 911, I was bluffing. I just heard the sirens and told him that!" she admitted. "I was more concerned with getting the video because I didn't think he'd do anything in public. I guess I should have known better!"

I kissed her soundly, making her eyes fly open as I did, then released her when she moaned lightly into my mouth. "Never be sorry Izzy. You did great! Maybe he'll be too scared to do anything now."

"Well, I'll send you the video, and you can give it to your lawyer. Maybe the cops can pay him a visit after that."

"Yeah, that is definitely going straight to the lawyer! I just want that case to be over with!"

Amy and Leila were both surprised to see our frazzled state when they returned from a quick dip in the water to wash all the sand from their bodies. Luckily, Izzy and I had the excuse of needing to get ready for our night out with Erin, and we packed everything up and headed to the car. It was hard not to be paranoid now, constantly looking in every direction to see if Max would appear, and I was happy to feel the bulge of the pepper spray canister in my pocket.

We loaded everything into the trunk, and then rolled down the windows to let the breeze ruffle our hair while we drove home with the music blasting. Well, that was the plan anyway. Almost as soon as I pulled out of the parking lot, I saw that same damned matte black truck with tinted windows from San Fran pull out from a nearby restaurant and start following us. Son of a bitch.

"Izzy, Max is following us in his truck," I told her while keeping an eye on him in my rear view mirror. "Big black truck maybe half a block back."

She turned in her seat and then snickered. "Not exactly conspicuous, is he?" She quickly took a few pictures of him following us to add to the evidence.

"Nope. He sure isn't" I switched lanes and he followed right after me. "Can you pull up the GPS and find the nearest police station? We're going to go and park there and that should make him leave."

Ten minutes later, we pulled into the station, and as expected Max just drove right on past us. We only stayed and parked for a few minutes though, we really did have a deadline. Erin needed us!

"Is there any chance he knows your car? He couldn't have followed us from the beach and then moved his truck in time to follow us, could he?" Izzy wondered as we got back on the road.

I thought about that for a moment. He'd seen my car before, but in a big city like this it would be hard to find one nondescript Honda Civic. But still, maybe he got lucky. Or maybe he wasn't alone, shit. "He could have had pretty much any kid off the street follow us and give him directions. Or he could have another helper that I don't know. But it could be a good excuse to buy a new car too, so he doesn't recognize it!"

Izzy nodded sagely. "That makes more sense than randomly finding your car."

I didn't like that thought at all. If he had someone else, then I needed more defense. I was going to have to introduce Izzy to Casey. Hopefully she had more ideas of things we could do to protect us from Max and whoever else he might have with him.

Well, after we did the night with Erin of course.