Intimate Stranger

Kansas City investment broker Karen Reese has had a long history of bad relationships with men. Her marriage to John Reese was short-lived because of John's controlling nature. It nonetheless resulted in a child, Karen who has custody of now nine year old Justin. John is largely out of Justin's life, which bothers Karen if only because of Justin's want for his father to be truly a father figure. Karen just broke up with her latest boyfriend Randy Stroud for many of the same reasons she broke up with John before him. Karen's sister, Donna Eckhart, believes Karen sabotages many of her relationships out of fear. Karen's boss, Alex, is interested in her romantically, but she believes he is too young for her despite his devotion. When Karen meets venture capital consultant Denis Teague, who is Karen's brother-in-law Lenny Eckhart's new work colleague, Karen thinks that her long streak of bad relationships may have come to an end. Denis is handsome and attentive. And after a rocky start more from someone else trying to take his father's place, Justin becomes attached to Denis as that missing adult male figure in his life. Denis, too, is falling for Karen, he who has also had a history of bad relationships. Shortly before Karen and Denis started dating, strange occurrences started happening around Karen, such as weird sounds coming out from the attic of her house, which she attributes to squirrels, and three "hang up" telephone calls daily from a private number, which she believes is Randy stalking her. Regardless, Karen ultimately decides to call things off with Denis, because she believes he is moving too fast, and is a little too attentive for her comfort, he doing things to meet her every need even before she asks. These strange occurrences increase after Karen and Denis' break-up. Is the timing of these strange occurrences coincidental to meeting and then breaking up with Denis, or is Denis somehow involved? Written by Huggo