Your number 1 fan

Stalker Or Love Interest

MAYA POV

"Do you still have my shoes?" I ask Andrea once I'm sat down. Carina had sat down very close to me but started to move away as I spoke. Andrea looked incredibly uncomfortable too, he was trying to make eye contact with his sister to gage what reaction he should have.

"Do you?" I ask again, trying to see if my intuition was right and I hadn't just accused him of something.

"Yeah, that was me" He finally admits while looking down at his hands. The way he was sitting made him look like a little boy being told off by the principle.

"Why did you never tell me?" I point my question towards Carina, she's been acting weird for a while now. I think she realised that she might have revealed about that high school meet.

"I know you were there" I reveal as she drinks her wine... chokes on her wine.

"How?" she looks bewildered as she asks.

"You told me your brother went to that high school, I thought I'd seen someone like you on the day and wanted to see if there were any pictures. Turns out there's a picture of your brother and a really blurry one that could be you. So, were you there?" I speak.

"Yes, but I swear I'm not a stalker" Carina jumps to a conclusion I hadn't even considered. But as she finished her sentence, her brother scoffed loudly. I'm sure I looked confused, and Carina looked like she wanted to tell her brother off.

"Did you ever go to any of my other races, Carina?" I capitalise on her name, as I finish my question.

Silences ensues the living room, her brother gives Carina an encouraging look and Carina chugs the rest of her wine. Wine is not a drink to chug!

"Yes, I was there at the Olympics for your races" Carina whispers and avoids eye contact with me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask, I'm slightly shocked but the Olympics is a big event so I can't really accuse her of stalking me. "Were you a fan of mine?" I ask her.

"I didn't want you to know I was a fan, that I watched you train and saw how strict your dad was. I didn't want to tell you that you went to a bar one night, and I was there. I didn't want to tell you that I'd shouted at my dad in the middle of the street in Italian and you had looked over. I didn't want you to know that I still am a fan, that I still follow fan pages because I like to see parts of your life that you haven't revealed yet" she blurts out as if she's chasing her words to stop them from escaping her mouth. I shift slightly away from her.

"So, you have been a bit like a stalker, an obsessive fan. You watched me train? I knew I'd seen your face. Fuck" I whisper more to myself than anyone else in the room. "I need to go" I say as I stand and walk towards the door of Carina's apartment. I hear her sigh and Andrea walk into the kitchen to give us privacy.

"Please don't think I have been stalking you. I didn't move to Seattle because of you" she begs as I grasp the door handle and start to twist it.

"You could have told me. I don't think you are a proper stalker, but it is still weird to me. I need to think, okay?" I say while making eye contact with her.

CARINA POV

So, she knows, she knows that I saw her at that race. She also now knows that I had stalked her and followed her from the Olympics, I don't know if she realised that Andrea was a student at that high school. For all I know, she could think that I had gone to that high school just to see her... I did but not in a way that could break a law if there is one.

She had left last night and there's been radio silence between us. I can't message her, I'm sure it would just make it worse. It would remind her that I know more of her past than she'd probably ever share with me or anyone. I know she's working today as we had plans tonight to cook at her house, the house that she'd probably never let me come to again.

-

"Jo, I need those scans now" I say in an exasperated tone, not looking up from the Tablet in front of me.

"On it, Carina" she says and happily walks down to radiation. There's a patient we've been attending to for some time, she can't get pregnant and has a weird mass in her uterus, so a lot of scans have been needed. With her out of sight, I walk back to my office to relax for a while. I think I've been at a high level of anxiety since the moment the blonde beauty left. The blonde that had plagued my mind for several years at this point, the blonde who I felt I had known personally before even meeting her.

MAYA POV

"I know you hate me, but you have been my person when I need advice. Can I talk to you about a situation?" I cautiously ask Andy. She hates me with a passion but she's starting to listen to my orders so that's something. She huffs at my question but signals for me to lead her back to my office.

"What's happening?" she plops down in the chair opposite my side of the desk, placing both of her feet onto the desk. It's hard for me to not say something about her position.

"I've been seeing a woman for a little while now. Turns out she was a fan of mine and had been to two of the races I'd run competitively. Sure, one was the Olympics but the other was a random high school. Her brother got some of his shoes signed by me, were they for him or her? She snuck into the stadiums to watch me train, she was a bar one night. I remember all of the moments I thought I'd seen someone like her. And it's fucking been her all along. I don't know what to do" I decide to just say everything in a rapid fire type of way.

"You're spinning a little. Well, with her being a stalker you can now skip the awkward part of her getting to know you at least" Andy makes a sarcastic remark, the type of sarcasm I miss and I can't help but smile.

"I don't know if she is a stalker, it's weird though. What am I meant to do with someone who knows so much about me. Is there even a boundary there or do I need to put one there? I found all of it out last night and I know she hasn't messaged me since. I like her but do I like her or the version she knows that Olympic Maya Bishop would like?" I spew words out without much thought put into them.

"Okay, she's not a stalker but she's a fan. She's a doctor, right? She wouldn't have moved to Seattle because you're here. So, she went to the Olympics, so did a lot of people. You said her brother was at that meet, did he look high school age? Maybe he went to that school, and he'd invited his sister a long with him. I wouldn't jump to any conclusions" She advices me.

"I never said she was a doctor, are you stalking me too now?" I tease and she rolls her eyes with a small smile on her face. I've missed this type of dynamic with her, it was always so easy.

"You know, I do keep up with your life on the down low. Anyway, I don't think there's anything to worry about. I'd have a conversation with her about it all, or just talk to her brother, he probably knows more and would speak more freely" That advice is what I needed all along.

CARINA POV
Well, that was something. The patient has a tumour the size of a child's basketball in her abdomen. It's surprisingly not causing her any harm to other organs other than her uterus which is a God send. We've referred her to Oncology, and they'll take the case from there.

While working with that patient, I had a few seconds of relief from the thought plaguing my brain. I need to reach out to Maya; I need to show her I'm not a stalker but talking to her? That sounds stupid now that I think of it. How long do you leave it before communicating with someone that you admitted you stalked for a while? Is there a timeline? Does wiki have any advice? More stupid questions plaguing my brain until my phone beeps in my pocket.

ANDREA [Maya just turned up and wants to speak to me about you. Don't panic] 10:15am

ME [How can I not panic? Should I come over?] 10:18am

ANDREA [No, I'll let you know how it goes. I'll try to stop Chernobyl from happening between you two] 10:22am

ME [Hasn't Chernobyl already happened?] 10:25am

My final message was left on read, I guess I focused on the wrong part of the message. I can't really think straight, why would she ask to talk to my brother? Does she feel safer now with my brother? Why did I have to blurt everything out to her last night. I've probably scared her off. Those thoughts single-handedly caused me to go onto all of my social media and get rid of anything to do with her, to do with her before we actually met a few weeks ago.