Page 53 of Letters From A Stalker

She takes the usual place, then looks down at it as she sits. “I think this might be my chair now.”

“You’re allowed to have preferences.”

“That sounds dangerously close to encouragement.”

“I’ll try to be more discouraging.”

The corner of her mouth lifts, along with the spark in her green eyes.

That’s better.

I take my seat across from her and set my notepad on one knee. “How have you been since last week?”

She exhales through her nose and glances toward the window before answering.

“Better than the first eleven hours after our last session suggested I was going to be.”

“Why eleven?” She gives me a confused look and I clarify. “It’s a rather specific timeframe you’ve chosen so I’m curious as to why eleven.”

Julia bites her lip which hits me lower than my ribs this time.

“I slept for almost eleven hours on my sofa in the clothes I wore here.”

My pen pauses above the paper. I am aware of all of this but I have to ask the right questions. Watching her from the outside didn’t give me insight of what was happening inside.

“Did you eat the following morning?”

“Yes.” There is enough slight irritation in the answer that I believe her.

I nod once and let it go. “And after that?”

“Work helped.”

The answer interests me more than I expect. “How?”

She settles farther into the chair, crossing one leg over the other. “Because I’m good at it.”

There is no hesitation in the way she says it or how she’s handling herself right now. Something warm moves through my chest before I can classify it.

“Tell me about that.”

She looks mildly suspicious. “About being good at my job?”

“Yes.”

“You realize most people would simply accept the compliment and move on.”

“I’m not most people.”

“So I’ve noticed.”

I wait. Julia gives me a look that suggests she’s considering whether resisting would be worth the effort, then finally sighs.

“I work at a law firm. Mostly executive support, case coordination, client management, whatever needs doing before someone else realizes it needs doing. Half the job is making sure attorneys who bill several hundred dollars an hour remember what time their own meetings start.”

“And you enjoy it?”

“I do, actually.” She looks almost surprised by how easily the answer comes. “Not every part of it. Nobody has ever woken up excited about document management. But I like knowing what I’m doing. I like being useful there.”