“Who’s not?” asked Madison.
“My doc…” I stopped mid-sentence when I saw what Madison was wearing. She had changed into a floral pantsuit, pulled her hair into a tight bun, and drawn a beard on herself with a marker.
She struck a manly power pose.
“What the hell am I looking at?” asked Chastity.
“I’m ready to take one for the team and cut my hair to see how short it can get before you can no longer put it in a bun.”
“So why the suit and beard?” I asked.
“I had to get in character.”
“Did you though?”
“Well I have good news,” said Chastity. “Ash has a date with her doctor, so now Tanner is all mine.”
“Whoa whoa whoa. No way. If Tanner is my stalker then I still have dibs. No way I’m giving up a billionaire for a pervy doctor.”Not that he was the pervy one. That was clearly all me. And he was pretty hot…
Chastity pouted. “Not fair.”
“What’s not fair is that Joe and Sierra are officially an item.” I pulled out my cellphone to show them. I cringed as the two of them stared down at my worst nightmare. Joe moving on with his life. While I just stalked people and acted rude to nice handsome doctors.
Chastity gave me a big hug. “I’m sorry. The good news is that there’s no way it will last.”
“Why do you say that?” I wasn’t sure why that made me so hopeful. But I just so badly wanted Joe to be more miserable than me.
“Come on…why would a girl who looks like Sierra be with Joe? Clearly she just wants his money.”
“You think so?” I asked. Wait, was that a burn on me?
Chastity nodded. “I know so. You’re definitely going to find love, Ash. You deserve it.”
“So I can have Tanner?” I asked.
“Ha, nice try. Tell you what…tomorrow is Thursday.”
“So?”
“So that’s when you always see your stalker. And when the Society dates are. So either you’ll have a date with him, or we’ll kidnap him outside One57 and make him tell us everything.”
“Or maybe just approach him and ask him nicely?”
Chastity shrugged. “Not quite as fun, but okay.”
My heart started beating faster. I had been so distracted trying to figure out if Tanner and Ryder were the same person that I’d forgotten all about going on another Society date tomorrow. When would the card appear? What would the date be? And most importantly…would Ryder be there?
Stalker Problems - Chapter 24 - Clause Fourteen
Thursday – April 13, 2023
My second day of work got off to a better start than the first. I didn’t flash anyone on the elevator, and I was wearing normal clothes. But the actual work part was unbearable because I couldn’t seem to focus.
Every five minutes I kept checking my phone for a Society invitation. And then I’d look over my shoulder to see if Tanner had arrived. And then I’d hop on Facebook to see if Joe and Sierra had switched their Facebook statuses back to SINGLE (spoiler alert - they hadn’t). And then I’d check again for a Society invitation. And then…well, you get the idea.
Before I knew it, it was already lunchtime.
“So what’s the plan for tonight?” asked Chastity as she tore into some Chinese takeout.
