The Love Interest

Landing a recurring role in the “Young and the Restless” was a dream come true for actress Tonya Curtz, as well as the beginning of a living nightmare. Only days after her initial appearance on the show, she began noticing a man at too many places during her day for it to be a coincidence, and was concerned she had a stalker.

The man looked to be in his mid-twenties, her age, with intense dark eyes that seemed too wide open to be a natural expression. It was almost as if the stare was intended to frighten her. Was he just a star-fixated fan with too much time on his hands or something else? People on the set were sympathetic, but couldn’t offer much useful advice.

That evening, as Tonya closed up her second floor apartment before bed, she glanced out a front window and was startled to see the man standing across the street in the shadows just beyond the glow of the street lamp, staring up at her. This is too much, she thought to herself, and called 911.

A half-hour later, there was a knock at her door. Assuming it was the police, she rushed to answer it, but instinctively looked through the peephole. For an instant she stared into the bulbous black eyes of her stalker, then yelped and jumped back.

“Go away,” she screamed. “The police are on their way.”

Tonya barricaded herself in her bedroom and called the police again. Ten anxious minutes later there were more knocks on her front door, but she could hear the police announcing themselves and sighed with relief.  They hadn’t seen anyone, but would patrol the area more often than usual throughout the evening.

Tired and surly, Tonya walked through the backstage area of the set to make up the next morning. Candi had her sit in a chair and began transforming Tonya into her pampered rich girl character, Eve Corbett, while telling sleep-inducing stories of her love life. Candi was working on her closed eyes when Tonya heard the voice of one of the shows producers, Paul Conklin.

“Tonya, I’d like you to meet our newest cast member and your new love interest on the show, Thomas Volker.”

Tonya opened her eyes and found herself staring at the smiling face of her stalker.

“A pleasure to finally meet you,” he said.