Control Me

16

Emiko 22,

The days leading up to the weekend have completely and utterly drained me. Between finishing up on the Belmont wedding dress, going through the new shipment of fabrics I ordered last month, restocking the backroom and dealing with the influx of brides to be, my mind hasn't had time to reset.

Proper sleep has evaded me like the plague and attempting to get any form of rest has turned out to be a big failure. I barely get four hours of sleep before I'm waking up from a stress induced nightmare. Or I find it impossible to turn off my brain long enough to relax and because of this I've barely had a proper meal in days.

I'm running on fumes at this point and all I want to do is crawl in bed and pass out until someone quite literally peels me off of my mattress.

I needed a break...

Taking a step back from work is well needed. Other than the sleepless nights and drowning myself in work, my wrist has swollen up and it's been a pain in the ass to work with.

With Isla, one of my employees well versed in manning the shop, I'd be taking off indefinitely. Obviously I'll still be stopping by just to make sure the place isn't burned down, and functioning as per usual. I trust Isla and the girls, Raven, Karissa and Claudine to take care of everything while I am gone.

They had more than proved themselves capable on multiple occasions and I promised them that if my shop wasn't in ruins by the time I returned, they'd be rewarded with a hefty pay raise. They deserved it regardless. If it wasn't for them I'd be drowning in work and trying to play catch-up with all of the new clientele I've gotten.

Besides work I've also been having this weird feeling lately that I'm being watched. Daddy had always told me to trust my instincts. That the gut feeling you experience was just your intuition trying to keep you alive he'd say. Since then I've been carrying some protection on me. I keep my head on a swivel and try to make sure that I switch up my schedule just in case.

The feeling has kind of simmered down but there have been a bunch of other strange occurrences that has been happening.

The second set of keys to my house has gone missing. I assumed I misplaced them even though I remember throwing it in the little compartment attached to my jewelry box. I tend to move stuff around when I clean so it could've easily been misplaced.

I asked Akeno if he's seen them anywhere and he told me no. I planned on giving them to him because I got tired of letting him in. He usually left in the mornings to God knows where and woke me up to lock the door, at night he'd usually come in around ten. And although I had a hard time falling asleep, I hated the constant back and forth up and down the stairs.

Along with the keys going missing I'd also notice stuff being moved around or just completely disappearing without a trace. Lotion bottles, brushes, a couple of panties and perfumes. Again, I brushed it off as me misplacing them and asked Akeno if he moved my stuff around but he looked at me like I had lost my mind.

To be fair I was vague, and he was hardly ever home so I couldn't blame him. I think he was trying to give me space after all of his confessions. He wasn't planning on leaving me alone, he had every intention on chasing me to the ends of the earth.

Still, because of all the coincidences I've definitely been a little on edge. I couldn't tell if I was going crazy from all the stress, lack of sleep or if things really were going missing and I was being stupid by blowing it off. But who in their right mind would try to steal from me when I had someone like Akeno living with me.

Clancy would.

He was the first person I had thought of. I hadn't heard or seen him since the surprise gender reveal party. Assuming he got the hint, not only from me but the same man that had wrenched his hands off me. He hasn't contacted me since and it had been a nice relief until I had to break the silence.