Page 151 of Texting Dr. Stalker

Stomping to the letterbox, I wrenched up the roof of the gingerbread house and scowled inside. A glint of flower-printed porcelain made me want to scream.

“Screw you, X.Screw you.”

With anger-shaking hands, I scooped out my washed plate that used to hold a chocolate cake. A Post-it Note stuck to it.

This was delicious but not as delicious as you. I know I’ve made you hate me, and I have no right to say this, but… I can’t get you out of my mind. You don’t need me anymore and, just as I suspected, I need you with every fibre of my being.

I’m sorry. Forgive me. Be safe and happy. X

“Everything okay?”

I jumped a foot and clutched the plate to my chest. “Zander.” Squinting in the sun, I blinked back stinging tears. “Yes…yes, I’m fine. A-Are you?”

His face looked drawn and fatigued, his black-framed glasses ringing eyes full of sleepless shadows. Even his tall frame looked a little thinner and washed out as if he hadn’t had a proper meal in weeks.

That reminds me. I still need to bake him a cake for giving me Peng.

“Not really.” He shrugged. “But that’s life.”

“Is there anything I can help with?” Stepping toward him, I did my best to put aside my grief and anger over X. I also braced myself against Milton’s awful voice, daring him to call me a slut for caring about Zander’s well-being.

He was hurting for some reason. And I was his friend who should help.

I prepared to suffer through the phantom pain of my hair being ripped out or my body being kicked, but…nothing happened.

The only ache I felt was the one for my childhood friend who looked utterly exhausted.

“That’s kind but no.” He forced a smile, his eyes tightening as he looked at the plate in my arms. “I better let you go inside.” His car pinged as it cooled down, hinting he’d just returned from work. With a sigh, he turned to walk up the pathway to his front door.

“Wait.” My heart pinched at the thought of him leaving. I didn’t like seeing him like this. So low, so…un-him. “Are you truly okay?”

His smile widened but didn’t reach his eyes. “Of course. I should be the one asking you that.” He cocked his head. “How are you doing with everything? Honestly?”

Honestly.

That word again.

I’d been brutally truthful with X, and while it’d been healing, it’d also left a wound inside me with his disappearance. Could I be brave enough to open myself that wide again? Did I have the strength to scare another man off with the truth?

Zander can’t disappear.

I knew where he lived. I knew his name, his birthday, his star sign, and numerous other random facts that might not be true now that he was an adult. I knew more than I should about him as a teenage boy. I knew he didn’t like breakfast and preferred older people to kids his own age. I knew he used to read a lot because I’d observed him devour book after book by torchlight when his grandparents thought he was asleep in bed.

I used to watch him from my window as I did the same, reading covertly when I’d been told to go to sleep. He never knew we shared a nightly ritual of reading together, but it was one of my favourite memories of coming here for visits.

So…tell him. Be his friend. He looks like he could use one.

“What books were you reading? When you were younger?”

“Excuse me?” He scowled as if utterly confused.

Stepping closer, I drank him in, my skin tingling with heat. “I used to read with you…by torchlight. You never knew that we had the same habit of not going to bed when we were told. I read fantasies and romance. I got pretty good at hiding my book and faking sleep if I heard anyone walk outside my bedroom. You did the same.”

He balled his hands. “You watched me?”

“Hard not to when I had a crush on you.”

He sagged and swiped a hand through his hair. He looked as if he’d say something. His jaw worked; his green eyes glowed. Tripping sideways, he took a step toward his house as if he needed to get away from me, but then he turned and marched in my direction.

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