To Follow you or To Lose you

Chapter 3: Ice cream for lunatics

It'd been five days, three hours and twenty-seven minutes without seeing her.

I didn't understand why my mind decided to give her importance, but I couldn't do anything about it. My mind was full of calculations, and my calculations were full of Camila.

I tried to write my new book during my off hours, but Sarah's personal problems were no longer important. I knew I'd probably have to scrap my nearly finished work and start over.

I tried to read my twenty pages a day of the book I had recently bought, which was entitled "Six Days of Isolation". It had been written by my favorite modern author, Adam. B. Collins, the pseudonym of a faceless man with a mind I envied.

Even so, although it was my favorite new book in the world, I couldn't finish even the smallest paragraph. My mind was busy remembering over and over that couple of slaps.

I decided to go for a walk in the park at that time. Counting the steps always helped me to clear my mind.

When I left, it was 5:30, and by the time I finished checking the locks, ten minutes had passed.

"Lauren!" I heard Daniel call me. I stopped the elevator for five seconds so he could get in.

Daniel was attractive. Tall, with a beautiful smile, green eyes and hair so dark that I found it interesting. I'd been in love with him since I was a teenager, but I never allowed myself to start anything serious. My life was already complicated enough and the addition of someone else wouldn't help me.

Of course, from time to time I had a few adventures: Nights of drinks in which I forgot to count, fleeting encounters in a cheap hotel, blind dates that Dinah organized for me...

Yes, I had the mania to control my life and anyone who didn't understand me would've called me crazy, but I was human. I enjoyed sex like everyone else, but I wasn't encouraged to find a specific guy with whom to practice it every Saturday, the day that I allowed me to indulge in lust, the most beloved of all capital sins.

"I'm sorry about days ago. I didn't think you were in such a hurry."

I accepted his apology, because I knew it was difficult to understand me. He didn't know my routine or my free time. We were just neighbors who liked each other and maybe that's how our story should continue.

The changes were among my worst fears.

"I wanted to ask you if you wanted to have lunch with me at the Body Rock Café on Friday at noon." My mind took care of the calculations. It was four days away "...I know it's your spare time, so I'd love to join you and get to know you a little bit. We've been neighbors since we were kids, but we've never really talked, and I want to believe that you know how much I like you."

I didn't blush at his words or get my heart racing, maybe because my head was analyzing the idea of having a date and maybe letting him into my life for a while.

No, definitely not. I'd take the date, but I wouldn't let it go any further.

Changing my routine for him wasn't an option.

"I will see you at twelve o'clock. Be punctual" And I almost begged him for the latter, because the lack of timeliness often gave me anxiety.

"I'll be there" He promised with a wink, and just at that moment the elevator doors opened.

He came out, but I said I had forgotten something. I actually had everything, but if I didn't check it, the panic would attack me.

I went back down and up again, the tranquility finally coming to my thoughts. Everything was fine, at least until that moment.