Our Way

* * *

“Nathan Mercer!” Elliot calls me into his room.

“Hello.” I nod as I walk past him and fall into his leather chair.

This is my third visit in ten days.

Elliot smiles warmly. He’s a calming force. I feel better just by being here, knowing that I have someone to talk to about this.

“How are you, Nathan?”

“I’m okay.”

“Really? Are you?”

I nod.

He sits back and crosses his leg

s as he assesses me. “If that were so, why did you need an emergency appointment today?”

I exhale heavily, my cover well and truly blown. “Eliza went on a date last night.”

“I see. And how did that make you feel?”

“Like I wanted to kill him.”

“What happened?”

“I followed them.”

He frowns.

“I watched him pick her up, and then…” I pause.

“And then?”

“I left, and I went and saw Stephanie.” I swallow the lump in my throat.

“How did that go?”

“I don’t know. I drove to her house and sat out the front in the car. Eliza was all I could think about, so I didn’t go in. I left and went back to wait out the front of Eliza’s apartment so I knew she got home safe.”

He frowns. “What happened?”

I stare into space as I get a vision of her with him in the car. “He tried to kiss her and she turned her head. She didn’t want to kiss him.”

“That’s good then?”

My eyes meet his. “I don’t know, is it?”

“Did they see you?”

“No. I was standing in the alleyway across the road.”

He stays silent.

“She knows,” I say. “That I’m curious. She found the porn I’ve been watching.”