Slow burn PART 2

Chapter 54

        After that hard elopement getaway it felt good being alone and away from Renzo. He clouds my mind and I'm still so confused with how he's been acting. I said I wanted a break and I am honestly trying to stick with it. There is plenty I can be doing to improve my life situation currently. 

I was actually waiting for another college packet in the mail that I had requested with information to fill out. For that reason I kept peeking out of my bay window in the living room to see if I spotted the mailman. 

The way these townhouses work is that we have a mailbox outside of the shared house. It's off slightly to the side along with a few other mailboxes from the tenants a townhouse away.

    Since I hadn't been here much recently my mail had piled up a little bit. Not enough to overfill my box, but more than usual, which obviously showed I hadn't been home. I assume that's why I saw what I saw.

When I peeked out to double check if the mail had been delivered I spotted Rylee, my new downstairs neighbor. He glanced over his shoulder and before he could glance up I dropped down. Why? I don't know.

I just suddenly hid and the next time I looked out he was touching my mailbox. I barely peeked an eye out, so he wouldn't notice me, but I wanted to see why the heck he was touching my mail.

        I could have been misreading the situation for many reasons. Maybe some of my mail accidentally went into his box. Maybe something fell and he was putting it back for me. Maybe he had noticed I hadn't been around and was going to bring my mail in and leave it at my front door for me. 

You know, friendly neighbor stuff. I stayed to carefully watch and what it looked like he did was quickly shuffle through my envelopes before putting everything back.

Okay...maybe he was expecting a piece of mail that didn't come and was just double checking that I hadn't received it by mistake. Don't be paranoid Kat. That's what the mobsters do, and with reason. Why should I be paranoid?

     I obviously waited about ten minutes to be sure Rylee wasn't around when I went downstairs to collect my mail. When I walked down I didn't see any mail that would have stood out as anything. What would he even want? I'm being silly. It's my phone bill and take out menus. It's silly.

And yet...I spent the rest of the day thinking about it. I don't know why either. Maybe I'm looking for something to focus all my attention on so I don't have to face the Renzo situation. 

I had no major reason to worry about Rylee peeking at my mail. But when I saw he was coming back from a bike ride I purposely rushed outside so I could catch him coming into the house. As I walked out he was pulling his bike up on the sidewalk.

     "Hey neighbor" he smiled kindly and acknowledged me before I could even acknowledge him. "Hey, how are you, Rylee?" I returned the kind smile. "I'm good. I was taking advantage of this weather" he responded casually. Say something to keep him here, Kat. "I'm surprised to see you in the middle of a work day. What do you do for work, Rylee?" I posed it as an entirely innocent question.

He continued to smile as he propped his bike down on the break. "I work for a medical supply company. I work from home sometimes" he pointed out why he was out in the middle of a work day. "Oh, how'd you get into that? Did you go to school for medicine?" I played dumb. 

I watched his eyes look me up and down like maybe he was checking me out. Or he's suspicious of me.

        "No, it's more like a marketing degree. When medical equipment malfunctions the company puts in an incident report and I'm the guy behind the current doing all those reports and moving things along" he answered with more detail than I expected.