Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
KAT
Another full week passes with no sign of the stalker.
I can only hope that whoever it is has found something better to do.
Ellie comes home humming with the most delicious-looking chocolate cake from the coffee shop, and it feels like I can breathe again.
I’m on the sofa with my laptop and a cold cup of tea, and I look at her over the screen and raise an eyebrow.
‘Don’t,’ she says, unwinding her scarf.
‘I haven’t said anything.’
‘You were about to.’
‘I was about to say you look nice,’ I say. ‘Which you do.’
She drops onto the sofa beside me after grabbing two forks, opening the plastic cake box and putting it between us. ‘I think I might be falling for Sam.’
‘What do you think it is about him that’s suckered you in?’
I still can’t see it, and it also kills me that I’m hiding my own relationship, but how do you tell your best friend you’re dating a masked man who likes to track you?
‘He’s so sweet. And he doesn’t pressure me like most guys do. We haven’t even slept together yet, because he says he wants to take it slow.’
I love sex far too much to imagine that being a pro in a relationship.
‘And you’re okay with that?’
‘It can be a bit frustrating sometimes. But we lie on the sofa and make out for hours sometimes, and it’s kind of nice that it gives me the same excitement I felt when I was still a teenager.
When sex was off the table, and we poured all that horniness into just learning each other’s bodies and minds. ’
I love making out as much as the next woman, but I don’t know how she isn’t ripping her hair out.
‘Isn’t it frustrating?’ I ask.
There’s a bit of hesitation in her face that belies her enthusiasm. ‘Sometimes. But it’s different, and that’s exciting. My vibrators are just getting a heck of a lot more attention. It’s nice to feel like he’s not just in it to fuck, though. I’ve had my fair share of those.’
‘True.’ I’d heard it plenty through the bedroom wall in the past.
‘He’s a bit quiet,’ she says between bites of cake. ‘I spend ninety-five percent of the conversation talking. And I guess he’s not the most forthcoming about himself. But he hangs on every word I say, and it feels validating after so many years of being told I’m too much.’
‘You’re not too much. They’re just idiots,’ I say.
‘Exactly.’ She points her fork at me to emphasise the point, and I take a forkful of cake. Goddamn, it really is bloody delicious.
She studies me until I wipe my face, thinking I must be wearing the cake. ‘You seem better lately. More relaxed. These past few weeks. Did you get your essay done?’
Lord no, my essay has taken a back seat to everything else that I can’t tell her about.
‘I’m good,’ I say with a smile.
‘Not thinking someone’s breaking in and giving you stones in the night?’ she asks with a raise of her brows.
‘No.’ I know that happened, now.
We finish off the cake and make some fresh tea, putting on a house-hunting show and chilling together. It seems like so long since we’ve both been home long enough to just relax together the way we used to. I’ve missed it. Long afternoons with nowhere to be, and essays to ignore.
This week’s been a return to normality in a way.
The notes have stopped. Liam’s not seen any more of the man who hung around the alley. We spend most evenings together while Ellie works, and he’s even stayed over more while she’s been at Sam’s house. The threat hasn’t disappeared entirely, but it has become more distant.
A life I could get used to. Until university ends. And then what?
Sighing, I let myself enjoy it. I’ve spent enough years worrying about the past catching up, and the future my parents demand looming ahead. Living in the moment brings a peace that I’ve sorely needed.
‘He asks about my family a lot. More than most guys. I think family must be really important to him. Yet, he never really talks about his. That’s a bit weird.’
‘Maybe his family are shit? I can’t say I lead relationship conversations by talking about my parents.’
‘True, but he asks a lot about my brother. That’s weird, right? Like, what guy cares about his girlfriend’s brother?’
‘Maybe he’s hoping they’ll be friends?’
Ellie laughs. ‘I can’t imagine that. Will is a bit of a lone wolf, and I really don’t think Sam would be his vibe.’
I put my feet up on the sofa and lean my head back.
Chatting guys with Ellie is a welcome reprieve, and I vow to tell her about Liam as soon as I can introduce him without his goddamned mask.
My thighs clench when I think about him in it.
There’s a small part of me, mainly between my legs, that will miss being fucked by a masked man.
Maybe I can convince him to keep it.