Page 11 of His Obsession

“Come on,” he laughs. “I’ll keep my hands to myself.” I sigh and nod. We wave Laura off before I turn and start jogging again.

“What’s wrong?” he asks after a minute.

“You,” I reply simply.

“Me? What did I do?” he asks, laughing. I stop and turn to him with my eyes narrowed. “Not sleep well?”

“Slept fine actually,” I say. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just curious is all,” he says.

“Did you expect me to not sleep well?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Thought I’d ask,” he says.

“Hey, guys,” Bradley Jenkins says. Bradley lives on the other side of Lucian and is the one who seems to dislike me the most, other than Carol. He has never spoken a word to me until now.

“Hi,” I say with a warm smile.

“Hey, man,” Lucian says, and then turns to me. “This is Bradley.”

“I know,” I smirk.

“Oh?” he says, raising an eyebrow.

“Mhmm. Hacked Carol’s computer and memorized everyone’s names,” I say coolly.

“I’m sorry. You did what?” Lucian asks, shocked. Bradley laughs when I shake my head at him with a smile.

“Everyone has their names on the mailboxes, dipshit,” I laugh. “I run five miles a day. I’m bound to pick up on a few things.”

“You have a smart mouth, Elise,” Lucian says, narrowing his eyes at me.

“Mmm. Don’t ya wish you knew how to make it stop?” I ask.

“I could think of a few ways,” he grumbles.

“Keep telling yourself that, Luci. Maybe it will come true one day,” I say sweetly.

“You annoy me,” he frowns.

“Ah, see… if you left me alone, maybe you wouldn’t get annoyed,” I suggest.

“I mean… she’s not wrong,” Bradley laughs. “It’s refreshing to see someone take you down a notch.”

“Tell me something, Bradley,” I say. “How would you like it if every time you turned around, there was someone you had repeatedly told to go away just… watching you?”

“Depends,” he says.

“On what?” I ask.

“Well… Do I like the attention? Do I feel safe? Why am I telling them to go away?” he lists. “Most importantly though… am I actually resistant to them as a person or to the idea that someone wants to be near me? Maybe I have abandonment issues, so I reject everyone to avoid getting hurt.”

“And here I thought you were on my side,” I say and Lucian laughs.

“Face it, Elise,” Bradley says. “You say you want him to go away, but you don’t actually mean it. It’s a reflex you learned a long time ago because it kept you from getting attached.”

“Ah, yes,” I say. “Because when I do, they die of cancer without telling me anything about who I am.”

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