Whispered Curses

I tried to tell myself it wasn't stalking. I certainly wasn't looking up Eden's home address. Or where she went to school. Did she work as well? I didn't even know.

Standing up and walking to the window, I looked out across the city. The five-year-old part of me loved being higher than most of the other buildings. It made me feel like a superhero. Like somebody who was in control.

Most parts of my life had been fairly controlled. There had been a plan, steps had taken place, and there was an end result. Things almost always worked out. Sure, sometimes there would be added steps in the middle, or something unexpected would happen. But the target was always acquired. The goal was always reached. It was extremely rare that any project in my life was completely abandoned.

I didn't have a lot of experience at failing. I would just try again and again in new and different ways until I got the result I wanted. Or at least something fairly close. This gave me a feeling of power that admittedly, was pretty terrific most of the time

Now I was faced with a challenge that made me feel weak. I didn't know what I'd do if I couldn't find her.

Grabbing my phone, I called up my notes. The things I was jotting down would have made me sick had I seen another guy do it.

Private investigator. Call up security photos from my condo lobby to get her photo. Find a hacker who could figure out her full name and address from her phone number.

Honestly, I didn't want to do any of those things. It was extremely creepy. If she found out I did something like that, Eden would freak out, and she would be right to do so. I couldn't start a relationship with her like that. It wasn't right.

She was so pure. So full of light. I wanted us to start dating in a nice, normal way. Dinner and a movie. Bowling. One of those escape room adventures.

Unable to stand being awake any longer, I went to bed early, getting up at six am to hit the gym hard. I need to burn out this frustration. I needed my muscles to ache more than my heart did.

I finally dragged myself back up to my condo for a shower and to get dressed for the day. Then I picked out a red tie the exact shade of Eden's dress from Saturday night, just so I could feel like I had a tiny connection to her.

I had officially become sappy.

I went to my office and had a nice, normal morning, even though I couldn't quite distract myself from my misery.

At a quarter to noon, Patricia came in with some paperwork, my second coffee, and a gigantic smile. The first two things were normal. The third was exceedingly rare.

After setting down the coffee and dropping folders full of contracts on my desk, she waved to a sheet of paper on top. "Names and addresses of twenty-three places that serve a Blue Hawaiian or a Blue Lagoon, just in case you were mistaken." Patricia pointed to the name of a pub that was in bold at the top. "And the one place in the city that has a drink called a Blue Beach."

I blinked hard, feeling absolutely paralyzed for several heartbeats.

“Thank you," I said quietly. "Please tell the interns thank you as well. And give them each a three hundred dollar bonus."

"Dare I ask what this is about?” she asked.

Looking up at my assistant, I knew she was about to laugh at me, and that I deserved it. What the hell. "It's to help me find the girl of my dreams," I said frankly.

Her mouth actually fell open. Then she snapped it shut and shook her head. "Well. Damn. I wasn't expecting that."

I shrugged. "I wasn't expecting to find my gorgeous perfect dream girl last Saturday night, but here we are."

She smiled warmly. "Best of luck, sir," she said, turning on her heel and leaving quickly.

Glancing at the list, I turned to my computer and instantly searched the Renaissance Pub. It was in a quieter neighborhood, and seemed to be a low-key local bar.

Their social media pages had lots of photos of nice, normal people enjoying a drink after work. There were photos of big birthday parties, and smiling bartenders waving cocktail shakers. In one photo, a bartender was pouring a bright blue drink for two young ladies at the bar.

One of them was my Eden.

~ Chapter 9 ~ Eden ~

* Language *

By Thursday, I would have thought that I could put Eric out of my mind for more than ten seconds. But it was impossible.

After finishing my classes for the day, I tried to get ahead of some of my reading but couldn't focus. I heard my phone beep, and almost burst into tears. I couldn't believe that Eric hadn't given up by now. Having a man that wonderful, who obviously liked me, was an incredible gift.

Yet I could not take the chance that something bad would happen to either of us. I could never live with myself if Eric was suddenly hit by a car because of the curse. If something happened to him and not me, I would be devastated. Naturally, I didn't want to be injured either. It just wasn't a chance that I could logically take.