Chapter Fourteen
For the first time in a long while, Camila was stuck sitting at the office. One of the other guys had an emergency and someone needed to fill in for him for the day. She was the only one currently without a project and reachable, so she was called in. The most annoying part of it though, was that she wasn’t even really qualified to do what they wanted.
“Here you go, Camila,” one of her colleagues said, handing her some documents. “Go through those as quickly as you can, all right? The article should be five hundred words. Don’t worry if it’s not good, we’ll be checking it before it goes up, but at least include all the important info from here, okay?”
“All right,” she said, taking the documents.
The blog alone wasn’t the only source of income the company had. Aside from the main blog, that could be updated anywhere from two to five times a month, there were smaller sites that needed posts a lot faster than that. Some of them had content posted daily, so there was plenty of menial work to do at the office. Camila mostly got out of it since she was mainly a photographer and sometimes an interviewer, but rarely a writer. Her work in that department wasn’t as good, but they were desperate today.
She got down to work, reading quickly over the documents and typing up an article. It took her an hour, then she sent it where it was needed. She sat down to wait and see if there would be more. She’d already done four today, but there might still be more. Unlike when she could hand in her part of an article a week, or after two weeks, this was certainly different.
Her phone vibrated on top of the desk, and she perked up. She checked, and sure enough, it was from Samuel. Suddenly she was all smiles, even feeling the urge to giggle as she replied to his message.
“Oh?” Sandra, one of her colleagues said from behind her, making her look around. “What’s this? Camila, are you dating again? I had no idea.”
“Yeah, it’s something pretty new,” she said nonchalantly, trying to hide her excitement from before.
“Well, I’m happy for you. I hope he’s better than the last guy.”
“He is way better than Jordan,” Camila said with confidence, no one at work had been aware of Adrien, so she didn’t bother mentioning him.
Sandra handed her more papers. “You know what to do by now, right? Don’t worry. A couple more articles and you can finally leave, all right?”
Camila took the papers, ready to get down to work, though her mind was still on Samuel.
Another date on the weekend,she thought happily.
It had been a few weeks since they started going out, and she had to say things were going pretty well. She and Samuel got together a few times a week. Considering Samuel’s job, it was more time than she’d thought they’d be able to be together. She looked forward to every moment she got to be with him. He hadn’t so much as kissed her on the lips once, but a few times on the temple. It was gentle and caring, and made her feel cherished as they took their time in the relationship. Occasionally he would touch her hand, sending shivers of excitement through her as they chatted over coffee, or he’d place his hand on her back as he guided her through a door. They’d walk around the city with their arms linked often. Camila was really happy with every single moment they’d spent together so far.
Especially since she was dating a sane and normal guy, and it was a relief after putting up with Jordan’s and Adrien’s bullshit. Samuel was also nothing like Jordan, who only ever thought of sex when he wasn’t even that great at it. She’d forgotten what it could be like, dating a good guy. Or maybe she’d never known because she’d never really dated someone like Samuel before. Was that why she’d fallen for Adrien’s bullshit time and time again? She’d gotten so used to being treated badly that she hadn’t known better?
But Samuel was so considerate. He opened car doors for her. He offered her his coat last week when they went for a walk and it was chilly out. He sent her flowers with handwritten notes that showed he’d actually gone to the florist himself and not just sent his assistant.
They texted on and off throughout the day. Funny texts. Sweet texts. This morning she’d woken up to one that read: Did you sleep well, beautiful? I dreamed of you all night. Can’t wait to see you later.
As she left work, bouncing a bit with her hands in her pockets, she felt her phone vibrate again. She grinned to herself as she pulled her phone out and opened up the message. Only, she didn’t check to see who it was from first because she was in the street, so she was taken aback to read the message.
At first, the words didn’t register to her. But then she gasped, her eyes widening as she reread the message, her other hand flying up to cover her mouth.
The text was from Adrien.
He had been texting her ever since she stopped picking up his calls, but she usually ignored them. She didn’t even open them to delete them, just in case she might glance at something and read it. Now that she had, though, she regretted not doing so before.
What the hell…
She swiped the screen to go up the length of the chat to the first message. The messages above were sweet, because it was around the time they were getting together and dating. The first time he pissed her off, he didn’t try to text or call her, just showed up physically, so there was a gap in between the messages. They turned sweet again, then apologetic.
Then, the words got angry because apparently he was furious at her for ignoring him. Camila read on with growing horror as the messages actually started to become threatening. And scary. In one message, he even stated clearly that he knew where she worked, where she lived, and where she went, so she couldn’t hide from him.
Wait a second…
The gears turned and finally it all clicked into place—this was what had been niggling at the edge of her mind for ages. When she’d worried about seeing him outside her house and office building… How had he known where she lived? And worked? When they were together, they only ever met outside and nowhere near where her home or work place, or the places she frequented were. But somehow, he knew to appear across from the building her office was at. He also knew to appear across from the grocery store she always went to, that was only a block away from her house.
How exactly did he know how to find her?
“Shit,” she muttered, her breathing and heart beat picking up. “Shit!”
In a panic, she looked around wildly. Was he around right now? Could he see her and she couldn’t see him? Was he having her followed? Different scenarios rushed through her mind in a short moment, all of them frightening.