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M y eyes followed Waverly across the busy New York street as she locked her store’s front door and pulled on it to double-check it was secure. I really needed to have a long talk with her about walking these city streets alone at night. I guess she really hadn’t been doing it alone for a little less than a year now.

As soon as I’d created my personas online, I’d picked up and moved across the damn country. My friends thought I had lost my mind. All for a woman I’d never met.

I knew she was the one.

Watching over her this last year had been enlightening. My little hermit of a bookworm. She was amazing though. Beautiful and gorgeous too. She spent most of her time at her little bookstore, her apartment, or her friend Sara’s place.

Men watched her though, and she was completely oblivious to it. Especially the scumbag that frequented her store, sniffing after her. I swear to God my fingers itched to end him, but I held myself back. There were still a few lines I wasn’t ready to cross yet. But it was coming.

Making people disappear was mine and my friends’ speciality. If anyone was worth doing that for it was my little muse.

Following her from across the street, I wove through the throngs of people as she made her way home. At least she knew to put her phone in her bag and pay attention to her surroundings. Although, I knew she had nothing in it for safety.

I’d learned that when I’d followed her to a coffee shop one day and peeked inside her bag when she’d been distracted by a conversation some stranger had struck up with her.

The thought of ending him had also passed my mind briefly.

I watched as her curvy figure approached the building she lived in and she made it safely inside. Fingers clenching, I turned and walked into my own apartment building across the street.

We both needed to get some sleep.