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“What’s up?” I moved in closer but didn’t touch her. There was an energy bouncing from her I couldn’t read.
One I’d never felt from her.
I had a bad feeling she’d pull away, and I didn’t think I could survive it.
“I found this,” she whispered when I stood in front of her, so softly my heart felt like it swooped to the floor. Her hand extended, and mine automatically met hers. My eyes dropped down to her palm. A little black camera rested there.
A camera I was familiar with because I’d bought it and installed it and four others in her house.
“I went home early today because I wasn’t feeling well.”
“You weren’t?” My head spun.
“I think the cafeteria food didn’t settle well.”
“Why are you eating from the cafeteria?” She rolled her eyes.
“I woke up late because I stayed up too late talking to someone on the phone,” she reminded me. I bit away the need to grin like the cat who ate the canary.
We stayed up late alright. Video-chatting made this long-distance crap a little easier. Watching her come had been fucking great. “Anyhow, I didn’t have time to make anything, and lunch left me a little queasy, so I went home.”
“Okay,” I said slowly. My eyes dropped to the camera in the palm of my hand. I tried like hell to mask the fear I felt at being discovered. Does she know what it is? Does she know it was me who has been watching her without her consent?
“I went to put on a movie and bumped into the table that holds that big plant I told you I had propagated a bunch of times?”
“Right.” I nodded, masking everything I felt.
“I bumped the table it was on, and the whole thing came down. When I picked it up, that was on the floor.” She pointed at the camera in my hand. I didn’t miss the slight tremble to her voice.
She was trying really hard not to freak out.
“And you came here?” A morbid curiosity came over me.
“Yes. Well, no, not immediately. First, I looked around my house and found these.” There were two more she pulled from her pocket. There were still two more cams left in her place she had somehow missed. “Red.” Her eyes rose up to mine, wide and filled with fear she didn’t try to mask. “Red, I think someone’s been watching me.” I tried not to breathe out a visible sigh of relief.
She doesn't know it's me.
“Okay.” I froze with a reaction. She didn’t know it was me. She’d come to me because I made her feel safe.
“Red!” she clipped, and I couldn’t help myself. I hadn’t seen her in person for two weeks. I pulled her toward me and tilted her head back with the tips of my fingers.
“Breathe,” I ordered. I wasn’t sure if I was telling her or both of us. She came to my place because I made her feel safe. Fuck, that was an addicting and humbling feeling.
“First things first, you’re going to take a couple days off work,” I stated, and she stared at me like I was crazy.
“I can’t just?—"
“You can. We both know you never take your time off or even your sick days,” I pointed out. I could tell she wanted to argue, but when her eyes skated down to the cameras in my hand, she shivered.
She was scared, and it was all my fault. I couldn’t very well tell her it was me, though. At least not in the moment.
Or ever, a voice perked up. If she ever finds out it was you and all the things you’ve done, she’ll run away quicker than you can blink. I shook the thought away, and my hand moved up and stroked the apple of her cheek, relishing the softness of her skin.
“You’re going to stay here,” I said like it was law. Then, because I was real bastard, I kept talking. “We’re going to find out who the hell put those in your place.” I had no idea how I managed to say that calmly.
I knew exactly who had installed them in her house. I was a fucking psycho when it came to my ladybug. Her stalker. Now I was making it worse by making it seem like I was her fucking Prince Charming. Her bottom lip wobbled, and her eyes filled with tears I knew she was trying to hold back. "Everything is going to be okay."
You did this, the somewhat still sane part of me whispered.
