Page 24 of Perfect
When Bailey and Dylan get home, I’m sitting on the couch with Miles’ head in my lap as he sleeps, Biscuit curled up at his feet, and a nature documentary playing on mute in the background. Dylan takes Miles up to bed, and Bailey pulls out some cash.
“Thanks so much for doing this, Alex. We haven’t had a real date since our old babysitter went to college,” she says, pulling an exasperated face.
“Yeah, anytime. Miles is great.”
She beams. “We like him. Let me drive you home, okay?” I shake my head quickly. I don’t want to walk home this late, but I donotwant Bailey to see where I live. I suspect that the women at work pity me a little, and I have no interest in fostering that.
“It’s fine, I can walk.” She shoots me a shocked look.
“Alex, it’s eleven-thirty at night.”
I shrug. “I live close, don’t worry.” I don’t, but I’m not telling her that.
Bailey presses me for a while, talking about a true crime book she’s reading to scare me, but she finally relents when I promise to call her in ten minutes when I get home. I hug her goodbye and leave, putting my headphones on and starting my audiobook ofAnna Karenina.
It’s dark out, with the moon barely a sliver and the streetlights in this part of town few and far between. I walk quickly, a little bothered by what Bailey was saying about the book she’s reading. I don’t know how she stands reading that stuff.
Real life is hard enough without focusing on the things that make it bad.
10
THEO
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
“Um, I’ll see you later?” Alex says, smiling up at me hopefully. She seems as excited as I am by that prospect, and I grin.
“Looking forward to it,” I say, forcing myself to turn away and walk out the door, nodding at Catherine briefly, ignoring her raised eyebrows.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket, slip in my headphones, and log into the camera software. As well as the rootkit on her work computer, I placed a few cameras in her office while she was on lunch. One shows the reception area, another is tucked in the corner bookshelf behind her desk, and another shows the kitchen area.
I’m absolutely going to save the video of her pulling up a blank email and typing a string of words to look busy while sneaking looks at me. I watched her do it while I was sitting there, and it was hard not to laugh.
She’s so fucking cute.
I watch her brief conversation with Catherine, which is slightly concerning. Catherine knows who I am and knows why I was in prison, but she didn’t say anything about it to Alex. I know Alex knows my name now, but I’ll do what I can to ensure her computer crashes if she searches for me.
I’m sure she’ll understand why I was in prison when I tell her.
“I’m not really dating right now, anyway,” Alex says to Catherine, sounding dejected. I smile and slip my phone into my back pocket as I approach my house.
That’ll change soon enough.
***
I drop the paperwork from Catherine at home and grab a backpack, shoving in a few more cameras and a swimsuit before I head to the rec center. I sign up for a day pass and take the facilities tour, surreptitiously checking all the rooms for any surveillance system, grateful that there’s none. The group fitness classes are held in a room off the main hall, and I head back to the room after the tour. The next class isn’t for another hour, and the rec center is relatively empty anyway, so I can quickly place a camera without being seen. I swim a few laps to kill time and make it look like I came to use the rec center, and then I leave and drive over to Alex’s place.
She’s not off work for a few more hours, so I have time. I need to charge the cameras, but mostly I want to be close to her, to smell her perfume lingering on her clothes and her pillow, to layin her small bed and look at the art on her walls, to flip through the books she’s reading and see if she’s underlined anything else.
I turn on her TV and scroll through her recently watched movies and shows, smiling. Alex issucha romantic. She’s a big Nora Ephron fan and seems to like romantic comedies in general, as well as dating shows. This is precisely the kind of thing I need to know about her. I want to pursue her in a way that feels good to her and makes her feel adored and desired, and my next move is so simple now.
I’ll start running into her more, not so much that she’s suspicious but enough that I’m on her mind. I don’t need more help from Catherine right now, so I’ll start running into her at the coffee shop, or join trivia, or take one of her exercise classes. However I do it, I’ll become a fixture in her life and take every opportunity to make her feel wanted. I’ll ask her out as soon as possible, I’ll let her get to know me better, let her see for herself how great we are together, and then she’ll feel our connection for herself.
I think I’m the only one who can feel it right now. I felt fire race through me the second our fingers touched, but she didn’t seem to register it.
I need to be okay with the fact that pursuing her like this might take a while. Icanbe patient, even if I hate it, but I don’t think this will take that long.
Based on how seeing her today went, I’m positive I could have just asked her out right then. I would have, but she pretended like she forgot my name, and I’m not going to reinforce bullshit games like that.
