1
Daniel
She. Is. Mine.
The new tenant in the unit next to mine.
And because we live in the two units occupying an interior corner of the building I have a front row seat right into her unit, her life.
Who needs Netflix when I know her schedule…know to have the popcorn ready and to sit back far enough from the blinds that she can’t see me.
Watching her. Every. Move.
Little did I know that every move I’d made in my own life had prepared me for this encounter with her.
Protector. Provider. Older man who suddenly realized what had been missing his entire life…
A younger woman to take care of, make her mine in all ways.
It’s what she needs whether she knows it or not.
Even though I haven’t heard her voice yet, and I don’t know her name, I know she’s got a helluva fight in her.
Give up the fight, baby girl. Let Daddy wash all those worries away.
Hell, she doesn’t look a day over twenty and she’s living in one of the poorest areas in the city, where we’re packed in like sardines.
I have stacks of cash, but I live here too, temporarily at least, for reasons of my own.
I know how to survive, and I can take away the flight or flight she must experience every single night walking home from her shift at the diner in the dark.
It makes my blood boil just thinking she works her fingers to the bone only to have a beyond sketchy walk awaiting her after she finishes her twelve to sixteen hour shifts at a diner frequented by guys whose conversations revolve more around illicit activities than Disney movies.
And Disney movies are her thing. I know. I see the shirts she wears each and every day, each day a colorful one with a different Disney character, although likely purchased at the bootleg shop in our neighborhood.
No way she can afford the real thing. Heck, I can’t even spot a single piece of furniture in her apartment.
Does she sleep on the floor? The same floor that not ten feet over in my own apartment I found two cockroaches last week?
She belongs here, with me, in my arms and in my bed, and not just for sexual reasons either.
I need her close, to keep her safe and fulfill this new, paternal need, that has made itself known since her arrival exactly one week ago today.
My eyes narrow as I keep my distance, staying back in the shadows as we navigate an unnamed alley, winding our way to our apartments.
I feel like we’re together already, although she has no idea I’m trailing her tonight, just like every night…here in case she needs me.