Page 2 of Forced Proximity
Eugene leaned forward, acting like he was the man’s best friend when he said, “Because you’re new. And everyone likes you. They like that you’re down to earth and caring. You are this bleeding heart of a state representative that stands for all the causes that matter most to the American people.”
He kept talking to Eugene, but he allowed his eyes to roam the length of my body.
“Who are you…”
I looked away quickly, turning my back on the two men so that Eugene wouldn’t see my face and react to my presence.
I didn’t want him to know that I was here.
I needed some concrete proof that he was cheating on Daniella, or she’d never let him go.
I’d spent five hundred bucks on a last-minute ticket here, and I was not wasting that money.
Something had to give, and it needed to be Eugene.
If I just found some dirt on the man, Daniella would come to her senses. Surely.
Because if she didn’t, I’d be spending the rest of my life picking my sister up off the floor as her severe anxiety took over and held her hostage.
I knew how this would go.
Eugene would leave her. Daniella would spiral, and I’d have to deal with her stalking Eugene.
And she would stalk him.
Daniella had a disorder—obsessive love disorder.
When we were kids, it was directed at a couple of boys.
At first, everyone thought it was cute.
Then she started to fight over the boys with the little girls.
It’d only grown from there, and now when she meets a guy she likes, she hyper fixates on them.
Some guys really like it—she makes them the center of her world.
And some guys don’t.
Either way, it was always a bad thing when she obsessed over someone new.
They never worked out—and it was always them breaking up with Daniella.
Daniella would practically smother them with her love, and when they finally decided they needed to breathe, they chose to end it.
Sometimes it ended with them being cordial while Daniella secretly stalked them. And sometimes it ended with them breaking up, cutting ties, and the men moving so far away that Daniella had no choice but to let them go.
She always, always found someone new, though.
Eugene was just the newest man in a long line of men.
He wasn’t the first, and he wouldn’t be the last.
I loved my big sister.
I swear I did.
But she was a lot of work.
