Chapter 11: CHANGED MY ROUTINE AND HE STILL KNOWS?

MIA

The coffee was waiting again.

For the fourth morning in a row.

I picked it up and looked down the hallway but it was empty with no sign of Dante and I hadn't even heard the sound of his door closing.

I went back inside and texted him: Thank you for the coffee.

His response came immediately: You're welcome. Have a good day.

"You look happy."

Yuna was sitting across from me at the café we'd been meeting at for years. The one near her apartment that I used to visit twice a week. Now it had been almost two weeks since we'd done this.

"I am happy."

"Because of him."

"Because of a lot of things."

"Mia." She set down her cup. "He knows your schedule better than I do. And I'm your best friend."

"He lives across the hall. He notices when I leave."

"Every single day? At the exact right time?"

I didn't have an answer for that. Or I did but I didn't want to say it out loud that maybe she was right and it was strange how perfectly he timed everything.

"He's just attentive," I said instead.

"This is something else."

"What is it then?"

She looked at me for a long moment. "I don't know. But it feels like he's everywhere."

She wasn't wrong. Last night I'd come home late from a shoot and he'd been in the hallway. Two nights ago we'd run into each other at the grocery store even though it was past ten. This morning he'd texted asking if I wanted to grab lunch and I'd said yes.

He was everywhere. But I liked that he was everywhere.

"Maybe I like having someone who pays attention," I said.

"Or maybe you're getting used to someone controlling when and where you see them."

The comparison to Ren was implicit but clear. I felt it hit like a punch.

"That's not fair."

"Isn't it?" She softened. "Look, I'm not trying to ruin this for you. I'm really not. But you mentioned loving fresh flowers in passing and the next day they appeared outside your door. You didn't tell him which flowers. How did he know peonies?"

I'd been trying not to think about that.

"Lucky guess."

"Mia."

"What do you want me to say? That I'm scared? That I've noticed all the same things you're noticing and I'm choosing to ignore them because for the first time in months I feel like someone actually sees me?"

The words came out harsher than I meant them to. Yuna sat back, surprised.

"I just want you to be careful," she said quietly.

"I am being careful."

"Are you?"

I didn't answer. We finished our coffee in a tense, heavy silence and when we said goodbye on the street I hugged her and felt the distance between us.

She was worried. I was defensive. And neither of us knew how to bridge that gap.

By the end of the week we had a stable routine outside sessions since that had ended for now.

We'd have morning coffee and evening hallway conversations then on tuesday and Thursday we’d cooked dinner together, alternating apartments. On wednesday he'd texted asking if I wanted company on my grocery run and I'd said yes even though I usually went alone.

On Friday night we stayed up until two in the morning talking about nothing important. Childhood pets and favorite movies and the first time we'd gotten drunk. It was almost magical.

When I finally went back to my apartment I stood in my kitchen and realized I was happy. Actually, genuinely happy in a way I hadn't been since before Ren.

That scared me more than anything Yuna had said.

Because what happened when this ended? When Dante decided he was bored or found someone else or I did something that made him leave?

I'd gotten dependent on him unintentionally. I had let him become part of my routine so seamlessly that I couldn't imagine the days without him in them.

Saturday morning I decided to test something.

I set my alarm for five AM. An hour earlier than usual. I got dressed quietly and packed my camera bag then walked to the door.

If he wasn't in the hallway when I left, that proved it was all coincidence and that he just happened to wake up at the same time I did.

When i opened my door, Dante was standing in the hallway with a coffee in his hand,s taring right at my door.

"You're up early," he said casually.

My heart stopped.

What the hell?

Even if he wanted to drop off a coffee like usual, it wouldn't be an hour before my regular time if not it would get cold. He knew that I would get up early today even though I hadn't said it to him.

"I have a shoot," I said slowly.

"This early on a Saturday?"

"The light's better at sunrise."

He held out the coffee. "I was just making some then heard you moving around and thought you might want one."

"How did you know I'd be leaving now?"

"I didn't." His smile didn't waver. "I heard you in the shower and figured you were either leaving early or couldn't sleep. Either way, coffee seemed like a good idea."

That was a reasonable response but… I had made sure to be very quiet so I didn't wake up anyone.

"These walls are thin," he added. Like he knew what I was thinking. "I can hear everything. Your shower, your footsteps and sometimes your music when you're editing late."

"Right."

I took the coffee because refusing it would have been stranger than accepting it. Then walked toward the elevator with him beside me asking about the shoot and making conversation that should have felt normal.

It didn't feel normal.

It felt like he'd been waiting because he’d known I'd try to test him and had been ready.

We rode down to the lobby together and he held the door for me when we reached the street.

"Good luck with the shoot," he said.

"Thanks."

I walked three blocks before I let myself look back but he was gone and the street was empty.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, somewhere, he was still watching.