Voyeur Extraordinaire(17)

As usual Bruno took his time sniffing every frigging inch of the lawn and I just wanted to get away. He always found the perfect timing…

My heart stopped beating for a second when I saw the subject of my dreams and very recently nightmares walking out of the neighbor house. It looked as if he was taking his garbage out. What an ordinary task. I wrenched at Bruno's leash but he didn't let me deter him from his sniffing mission. Why did he do this to me?

And then, as my bad luck would have it, Adrian looked my way and he must have recognized me even though I was hidden so well by my clothes. He halted in his tracks and a smirk curled his lips. And then he started walking my way with a triumphant, arrogant, devilishly sexy smirk on his face and I knew he was going to talk to me about my voyeurism. His blond hair was slightly disheveled as if he hadn’t brushed if after his sexual adventures.

No way. I bent down and grabbed Bruno, ignoring his yelps of protest, and squeezed him under my arm. Then I whirled around and walked away. Well, ran away as fast as my feet could carry me without actually running. I didn't look back to see if Adrian was following me but I hoped desperately that he wasn't.

Maybe there was some kindheartedness in him and he would forget that I was a perverted peeping Tom.

My heart was practically bursting my ribcage when I finally arrived in my apartment and closed the door behind me. I locked it twice and then backed away from it. Bruno gave me odd looks but I ignored him. It was his fault that I had almost been caught by Adrian.

It was childish of me to hide but I couldn't face him. Ever. I guess that was something I’d inherited from my father. He was a huge conflict-avoider as well.

After a moment of hesitation, I rushed over to my living room window, knelt on the sill and looked for a sign of him. But he wasn't outside. So either he'd returned to his apartment, or he'd knock at my door any second. I felt like I was going to be sick.

***

I'd evaded Adrian yesterday but today I needed to go to work. I chose to carry Bruno to his favorite place on the lawn because it was faster that way and put him down. I tapped my foot impatiently while he sniffed the ground. I really didn't have time for this. I wasn't late for work but the risk was too high that I'd meet Adrian. In a few days, when Adrian had forgotten all about the incident, I could start acting like a sane person again.

“Come on, Bruno,” I urged but he didn't let me distract him. He wagged his stubby tail once, then pushed his nose down into a particularly interesting patch of grass. Pugs were so stubborn.

The click of a door carried over to where I stood and my head whirled around. There he was again. He was following me, I was sure about it. I stared at him for a moment. He looked gorgeous in his black suit with the light blue tie. And his hair. I wanted to run my hands through it.

I looked at his face and the smile there tore me from my daydreams. He didn’t seem angry, but something about him reminded me of a predator. He was a man on a mission. Why did I suddenly feel like his prey? Just like yesterday, I grabbed Bruno. This time, however, I tried to make it look casual and didn’t quicken my pace. I wouldn’t give him reason to suspect I was actually running from him. As soon as I reached my vespa, I put Bruno into his basket and swung myself on the seat. From the corner of my eye, I could see Adrian still staring at me. He hadn’t followed me, as if he was sure he’d catch me another day. I started the engine, then I drove off at full speed without a look in the mirror. I didn't want to see him still watching me.

This situation was so very embarrassing and if it wasn't for Amy, I would have returned to my hometown by now. It wasn’t as if New York had been kind to me so far. But Amy was the best friend I've ever had and I didn't want to lose her. And I wasn’t a coward – even if recent events might hint to the opposite conclusion. I wouldn’t give up my dream of being a successful writer in New York because of a guy that had nothing better to do than banging a girl in front of his window.

I could barely concentrate on my work that day – not that it took a huge amount of skill to serve beer to rude customers, but my patience was almost non-existent and it wasn’t helping that I had been forced to take Bruno to work with me because Amy and Jared were busy all day. I could hear him barking in Jack’s office half of the evening. To make matters worse, I managed to drop two glasses, one of them filled to the brim with beer. It took me a while to mop up the mess. Luckily, Jack wasn’t in the bar – he seldom was these days. He spent most of the time in the Caribbean with his young girlfriend doing god-knows what.

Leon only gave me a kind smile when I mixed up orders and nearly dropped my third glass of the evening. He was probably the most patient guy in the world. Mona leaned against the bar next to me. “Are you okay? You seem a bit out of it today.”