AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Is that the employee schedule?”
She looked up to see Ben’s chiseled jawline flexing as he spoke to her. His voice was deep and brash, almost commanding.
“Yes,” she said sheepishly.
“Hmm,” he murmured, nodding.
He walked around the desk and entered her area. She felt her heartbeat quicken. Should she stop him? What was he doing? Normally he walked past and barely acknowledged the employees.
He ripped the schedule off the wall and looked at it, scanning the document for something. She caught a whiff of his cologne as he brushed by her. Teakwood and fir.
“Hey!” she said, her voice in a lower tone. He turned slowly, looking at her with questions and irritation.
“You can’t do that. You don’t work here,” she said firmly.
He chuckled, his teeth white as snow. “Sweetheart,” he said, holding his arms out to the sides, holding the schedule. “I can do whatever I want.”
Liz stood to meet his gaze, her shoulders squaring up to meet his. “And that’s your problem,” she said intensely. She swore she caught a flicker of surprise in his eyes before he nodded stoically and handed the schedule back to her.
“Thanks,” he said, passing the document back to her. She took it and brushed his fingers. His hands were large, and she could see the veins running up his toned forearms. She felt electricity with the touch, but she remained serious as he exited her work area.
She watched him walk to the benches as she placed the schedule back on the wall. She scanned over it, trying to figure out what he was searching for. As she did, her manager walked back out into the front area.
“Liz!” he exclaimed, annoyed.
“I’m on it, sir!” she chirped back as she sat at her computer. She began typing away, casting out the thoughts in her mind of Ben.
Did he find out about the blackmail? Was he thinking of working here? That was ridiculous. She shook her head. She didn’t need to worry about that. She needed to email Susan.
Was he trying to contact one of the employees? “Thank you for your direction,”she typed half-heartedly. She shook her head and rolled her eyes, correcting it to “dedication.”
She glanced at the weight station. She watched Ben’s back muscles flex with each lift. He was staring at himself in the mirror until his eyes flickered over to her. He smiled slyly, sending a wave of discomfort through Liz’s core.
The next few hours were filled with emails, phone calls, and subtle looks in Ben’s direction. Each time she glanced at him, he seemed to be watching her. Her heart fluttered when she thought maybe he was trying to impress her. The second thought ... maybe he was trying to intimidate her ... eradicated the fluttering and brought fear to her chest instead.
He exited the gym shortly before closing time, winking at her as he walked by. Stunned by confusion, she shook her head and focused on sending out her last email. Telling her manager about Ben’s weird act today was an option, but she didn’t want to cause a scene.
The sun began to set, and Liz wandered to the break room to grab her bag. Stuffing her laptop into it, she sighed. It had been a long day, and she was ready for a hot shower and Netflix.
“Goodnight!” she called to her manager, who responded with a silent nod. She had never met someone so prickly.
She pulled out her phone and began scrolling through her Instagram as she walked out of the gym. She smiled at a picture of her friends, who were drinking margaritas at a nearby bar. They might have the time for fun, but she needed to get her head back on her studies.
She put her phone in her pocket and walked along the tall buildings. With no money for gas, she was walking for now. She had counted almost every brick walking to and from work. She had little landmarks that let her know how far she was from home. The clocktower meant thirty minutes. The corner store twenty. The blind pedestrian sign was five.
She passed the clocktower looking up at the bright light illuminating the streets. She sighed as she thought of the time it would take her to get back home, the time wasted when she could be reading her books.
A heavy weight sank onto her shoulders, and she knew her bag wasn’t that heavy. She’d had this sensation only a few times before ... she was being watched. She took her keys out of her bag and placed them between her fingers. She thought of the pepper spray she saw at the store the other day. She would have bought it, but she couldn’t afford it.
She turned to see an empty sidewalk behind her. Cars passed by slowly on the street, no one stopping to look at her. She looked at the sidewalk on the other side of the road. She saw a dark figure walking in the shadows. Turning back to her side of the road, she kept watching with her peripheral vision.
Worst-case scenarios flashed through her mind. Would she be robbed? Raped? Killed? The city was safe in these parts, but that didn’t mean the crime rate was below the state average, which, compared to the rest of the country, was pretty high.
She heard stories of people being kidnapped in the area, but the police department had said it was a hoax. The people who were kidnapped had planned it themselves. The whole town was up in arms after that story, and many said it was some sort of cover-up.
She glanced at the far sidewalk again to find no sight of the figure. She took a deep breath. Her mom’s voice rang in her head, telling her she was prone to overreacting.
“Hi, Sam!” she said cheerily to the man outside the corner store. He smiled and bowed his head.
