Blood Moon

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇ: ᴀᴘᴀʀᴛ

Ransom hasn't even been gone for 24 hours and you already don't know what to do with yourself. You felt a little pathetic when you woke up this morning. Your first reflex was to reach behind you for Ransom.

How can you be so attached to him already? Attached to the point where you can barely remember what you did before he walked into your life. You knew that spending every waking moment with him would come back to bite you in the ass and today was that day. You can't see him, you can't talk to him. It's not even 2pm and you've lost count of how many times you've picked up your phone to text him only to remember that he didn't have his phone with him. Maybe this week apart will do you some good, clearly you've developed a very unhealthy attachment to him and it needs to stop.

You're an adult for crying out loud, not a love sick teenager. Adults in relationships can be apart, they can spend hours and sometimes even days without the other and be fine so why couldn't you do the same? Maybe it's because it's been so long since you've had the undivided attention of a man. The last boyfriend you had broke up with you years ago and between him and Ransom, there had been nobody. You've been so focused on your restaurant that you forgot to bond with actual people that aren't your employees. That's why you feel empty now that Ransom's away.

Not because you're in love or because of how well he takes care of you.

Oh god.

You're in love with Ransom.

''I need to get out of here.'' You mutter under your breath as you stand up from the couch.

You need to keep yourself busy and stop thinking about Ransom freaking Drysdale. You can't really go anywhere though, because of the giant handprint on your face and you took a week off from work.

Work. Yes! That's perfect. It's not like Ransom will know that you went back to work after only a day.

At least not until he comes back.

You rush upstairs to your room and change your clothes to put on your uniform. Aiden is managing the floor this week, so you'll just do some work in your office. You have plenty of paperwork waiting for you there to keep you busy for a few days. You hope.

You walk back downstairs and put on your coat and boots, you take your keys and your phone, then step outside. As you turn around to close the door and lock it, you frown.

You've noticed lately that there's always a car parked on the street. It's never the same one, but what is weird is that before then there were never cars parked anywhere. Everyone has big enough driveways to park their cars, unless they had a bunch of guests over but it's always just the one car.

It's too far away for you to see, but you are almost certain that there's always someone sitting in it.

You shake your head and walk down the few steps from your porch and unlock your car.

You really need to start keeping your mind busy, your imagination is running wild. You're probably just on edge because of what happened two days ago and the fact that Ransom is gone.

Arg. Again with Ransom.

You take a seat behind the wheel and close the door. You grab your seatbelt to put it on.

''You need help, my friend.'' You speak to yourself out loud.

Ten minutes later you are parking your car in your assigned space. You get out, locking the doors and you walk around the building to the front door.

There were still a few customers left from the lunch shift, but not enough to be able to blend in with everyone and disappear into your office without anyone seeing you.