Obsessed

“We do that once a case is opened. You’ll have to fill out a report and give a statement. Hold on, I’ll let you in.”

A deafening buzz ricochets through my brain and off the walls around me before the door beside the intercom automatically unlocks. I push it open and step into the station.

It’s a large, spacious room with beige cinder block walls. Benches are lined up along the walls and desks are scattered around the center. More glass doors in the back appear to lead to an office.

The voice I’d been speaking to on the intercom turns out to be a human woman, not a robot, who waves me over to her desk. I must’ve caught the graveyard shift in full tilt, because it looks like there’s only one other person in the station right now.

The woman hands me a form to fill out before I can even take my seat. I don’t know what I expected. A hug? For the cavalry to jump into action and get the bad guy? I guess respect for procedure is a good enough reaction under the circumstances, and I fill out the first few boxes. My mind is racing through the events that brought me here.

What if they don’t take me seriously?

I hear that ear-splitting buzz again and the echoing click of the door. I look over my shoulder, nerves still on edge but happy to take a break from procedure. Curious to see what fresh crime needs reporting.

The pen drops from my numb fingers.

Because it’s Peter. Peter is in the police station. My Peter. Standing right in front of me.

The woman is saying something to me, but I can’t hear it. She’s nothing more than background noise to me.

His eyes meet mine, and he freezes in place.

All this time I’ve been worried that he’s forgotten me, or that he won’t recognize me now that I’m ten years older. All that doubt is swept aside by the way he’s looking at me, like I’m a diamond necklace he misplaced and finally found.

Relief, humor, and amazement are all mixed in his expression.

“Emily?” The sound of his voice takes me back ten years, to the purest happiness I’ve ever known.

Peter is here. And for whatever reason, I’m filled with a certainty that everything is going to be okay.

Chapter Four

Peter

Emily is sitting in my station. Emily. She has a form in front of her that she must have gotten from Clarice. My brain doesn’t know how to process it.

The Emily I remember was a kid who used to follow me around, badgering me with questions. This Emily is not a kid. Not at all.

Her hair looks soft and falls in loose waves around her shoulders. Her face is the same, but different. There are smooth cheekbones where baby fat used to be. Her breasts are…Hell, should I be looking at her breasts?

I snap my gaze back to her face.

“Peter,” she says. “Oh my God, Peter, I’ve missed you so much!”

I take a step forward, and then another. Before I’ve thought through what I’m doing, I sweep her into my arms and hold her against me. Her hair smells like lilacs. She feels like coming home.

It takes me a second, but I finally realize that she probably didn’t come here for me. I let her go reluctantly and step back. “What are you doing here?”

From how close I am to her now, I can see that her eyes are puffy and her nose is red. I swallow the uneasiness that rises up at the thought of her crying.

“Filing a report,” she says. “A stalker showed up at my apartment.”

My heart drops. Of all the things I could’ve walked into tonight, this didn’t figure into my wildest dreams.

“Come with me.” I lead her back to my office. Her small, slender hand is trembling in mine.

I close the door behind us and motion for her to take a chair. Damnit, I couldn’t have tidied up before I left? I push the piles of paperwork aside and lean against the edge of my desk. “Tell me what happened.”

Emily sits down in the chair that’s been occupied by so many other people who’ve come to see me. Her shoulders slump. “I don’t know who it is. Someone called my name on campus today. Yelled that they loved me. I thought it was a prank.”