Five Years Ago
"Hey! The sign says "No Smoking!"
The voice made turn, the lit cigar halfway to my lips. A girl with red hair in a high ponytail hastened towards with a stern expression, like she was gonna give an earful.
However, she tripped soon after, her glasses fell, sliding over to my shoes. Her palm pressed into the ground covered with dead leaves, and she groaned.
I tilted my head, scrutinizing this prompt disaster.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" She tapped her hand on the ground, searching for her glasses like a mindless cartoon character, pushing the leaves aside as if it did any good.
When she got close to finding them, I used my shoe to shove them beneath the bench.
She touched my shoes instead, rubbing against them as if trying to make out what it was. Then she lifted her face, and my heart stopped for a mont.
She squinted her eyes as if to make out my face, but couldn’t, and I just gaped, awed.
She’s beautiful. I don’t an the kind you see and admire as if it were normal. Hers were distinctive, or maybe it was just my brain processing sothing it had never seen before. That sharpness in her hazel eyes, brightened by the sunlight, the slight part of her plump lips, which were moist for no reason at all. And then she bit the flesh as if hurt by the light directly at her face.
If I hadn’t had my cigarette between my fingers, I would have seized her chin and pressed my thumb down her lip and watched them spread apart more.
I blinked, confused at myself for a minute. I just t her, and I’m already...!
A jolt of electricity shot through my body. A fucking chill, by what? A lip bite?
She was on her knees right in front of , and I wasn’t so sure she had the slightest idea of what this position ant. She was too busy trying to see clearly to bother about anything else.
My eyes were concealed with sunglasses, and I wore casual clothes to stay out of the spotlight. I was just as normal in any sense. It’s not like she could tell.
"Great! I lost another pair." She pressed her hand against the bench to lift herself to stand, then sat, maintaining a respectful distance between us.
She searched through her bag, murmuring sothing under her breath, and whatever frustration she had reached its limits.
"It’s not like I can’t see without them, everything’s just..." She narrowed her eyes as if to zoom in on like a cara. "...Foggy. Hopefully, it gets better. I’m not gonna spend my life squinting eyes like a fucking squirrel."
She had no idea who I was, yet she talked to as if she knew . Not many people could speak so freely in my presence; they are usually intimidated or frightened.
"You’re still smoking, aren’t you? Maybe you need glasses so that you can see the sign."
And then, the corner of my lips tipped, a smile forming, sothing I didn’t do often. I purposely brought the cigar closer to my lips and took another drag, releasing the smoke directly at her face.
Her lashes fluttered, and then she coughed harshly, waving her hand to ward it off. I used that opportunity to stand and check my Rolex. I had co here after a really bad day. The park was isolated and lonely, so I figured it was a good place to get so air, but I thought wrong.
I dropped the cigar on the floor and used my shoe on it before moving.
"Asshole."
I halted, but she kept coughing as if she hadn’t just insulted . In a span of two minutes, she yelled at , ranted, and then cursed at . Only Athena had that privilege, yet this random girl pulled that off without thinking too much about it.
"Cat!" A voice ca through, and I resud my walk.
Still, I couldn’t resist throwing a look over my shoulder. So guy ca to her and kissed her on the lips.
I turned away and neared my car; the door opened for , and I got in.
I took off my sunglasses and veered my gaze to the window where I could see her from here. The guy sat next to her, but then got up to search for her glasses.
They talked, mouth moving. She pulled so strands of hair behind her ear, giggling.
"Boss?"
I blinked away, looking at Nico, who observed through the rearview mirror. It seems he had been trying to grasp my attention for a while.
"Drive."
~☆~
One Year Later
Going through the new employee profiles, I ca across one that made pause.
It’s her.
This must be what people call fate. I never believed in things like that until now.
What are the odds that the girl who had lingered in the far corners of my mind was in my company?
I rubbed my jaw, observing her picture closely. I’m not the kind of person who gives accountants on the people I have engaged with, but she was one face that kept appearing for a bizarre reason. Always lingering at the corner of my mind that I had t soone... unique.
I scrolled down to the details of her employnt. She was hired as a low-level staff mber. She had been working rounds, and her contributions so far had been... good, in just two weeks.
She had been right under my nose the entire ti. The sa girl who kept recurring in my mind, but I dulled it, not allowing myself to... wonder.
But now seeing her picture, it altered .
I scrolled to her address, morized it, and other information I could find, but it didn’t seem enough for .
I leaned back on my leather chair, stroking my jaw in thought, unable to look away. Just like that day she had bewitched , only that this ti I wasn’t gonna resist.
And so it began.
Little steps... beca big steps. My eyes tracked her every move, observed her from a distance, until it beca a habit, a daily dose of Catherine Lane needed like a prescription.
She had lived rent-free in my head for one year, and now my eyes beca the lens I used to capture everything, and the more I did, the more I couldn’t oppose. It beca better and better.
I beca her stalker.
I won’t sugarcoat it, but I was also her boss, which made this even more pleasing. I got to watch her in office hours and ho hours. A bonus.
She reported once, but there wasn’t much she could do. She didn’t know who.
No one believed her, and after that, she didn’t co forth with it, but every night her eyes would roam as if she could discern my eyes. She was more comfortable during the dayti, as if that even mattered, when I was always across the street.
I made her neighbourhood safe. I had no idea why she would live in that kind of place to begin with, but the least I could do was keep the thugs out.
And then the ti ca.
I had enough of viewing her from a distance; I needed her closer, and fate was a funny thing. She needed a change of pace and applied for the secretary position.
I made that possible, though. I had fired my previous secretary, who was already incompetent to begin with.
~☆~
I eyed the door, which I had been doing for the last hour, waiting. A knock ca through.
I exhaled sharply. "Co in."
The door opened, but the next minute, Catherine tripped, and the files she had held scattered on the floor.
Still as clumsy.
"Shit!" She cursed quietly, adjusting her glasses.
"I-I’m sorry..." She snappily assembled them and shot to her feet in a straight posture.
She cleared her throat and fixed her skirt. When she t my eyes, she stilled, lips parting as if srized. I get that a lot, but her appeal was different, like she couldn’t decide if I was real or not.
She stood there, frozen for over a minute before she realized her mistake, and dipped her eyes.
I can’t believe she was standing right in front of . I have spent a year watching her from afar, and here she was right now. In my office, in my space.
Catherine grew nervous because I had yet to say a word. When we t, she was really chatty, but now she was like a little mouse that had retreated, unable to make eye contact with .
This should be fun.
Eager to see that side of her, she showed two years ago, I made her ti with a daily dose of hell. However, no matter how much I did, she was really keen on keeping to that professional behaviour.
Catherine thinks she’s smart, but she’s not. She had no idea I knew everything about her, and her little world orbited around .
She had no idea I had plans for her.
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