Page 77 of Don't Leave Me

“Do you think that we’re moving too fast?” I questioned, overhearing her and Billie’s conversation started to make me doubt myself a little bit.

Emily looked over at me sadly. “I think that you should do whatever you want to do, Han. I know that you two are passionately in love and that doesn’t come very often,” she assured me, her tone serious and earnest.

I sighed and smiled. It was true – I had never felt this way about anyone, and maybe we did fall hard and fast but it all just feltso right.

Two hours later, I had packed up almost all of my clothes, most of my books, and my favorite records when there was knocking on the front door.

“I’ll get it!” Emily called out cheerfully, already bored with helping me and flipping through a magazine in the living room; luckily, Billie went off to work so Emily was in a significantly better mood.

I heard Michael’s voice when Emily opened the front door and I excitedly skipped out to the living room. Michael gave me a big smile once he saw me; a genuine, sweet smile that made my heart race, and his hair was a wet, curly mess from the rain outside.

“Hi,” I smiled, quickly walking up to him and putting my arms around his shoulders.

“Hi,” he smiled back, then looked over at Emily quickly then back at me. “Can we talk?”

Uh oh.He suddenly looked nervous and anxious. I nodded quickly. “Yeah,” I breathed.

I looked at Emily nervously as I followed Michael into my room, then he shut the door behind us.

“You’ve got a lot of things packed. I’ll hire some movers to bring everything over in the morning,” he said as he observed my messy room.

I eased up a little –okay, this has nothing to do with me moving in with him.

“Okay,” I nodded, nervously playing with my hands as I watched him. “What’s wrong?”

He turned to look at me with wide eyes. “Jack was loitering outside your building,” he explained, a look of disgust on his face.

Fuck. What the hell is Jack thinking?I shook my head with a mixture of annoyance and guilt.

“Great,” I mused with sarcasm. “He was waiting outside of work too,” I admitted, sighing as I sat down on the bed.

Michael scoffed. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked angrily – I’m not sure if it was towards me or Jack.

“Because I just ignored him and came home! It was nothing,” I shrugged nonchalantly.

Michael sighed heavily. “This isn’t nothing, Hana. He’s basically stalking you now,” he hissed; I realized his anger was towards Jack.

I didn’t realize it until he said it, but Michael was right;I rejected him at work, and then he decided to hang out outside of my work and my home?No right-minded person would think this was acceptable behavior.

“What do I do?”

Michael seemed to be in deep thought as he stared down at the floor with his hands on his hips.

“This is just another benefit of you staying with me. He won’t know where you live now. If he continues coming to our work, we’ll press charges,” he said intently, nodding.

I nodded back instinctively. “What did you say to him? Downstairs?”Or did he give him another black eye?

Michael looked up at me sinisterly. “I took care of it,” he said quietly.

Holy crap.I didn’t want to know any more.

He turned to open the door and looked back at me. “Let’s go home.”

We all headed downstairs, Michael carrying my essential bags, and we took the J train to Manhattan. We stopped at the Essex Street station, I kissed Emily goodbye, and Michael and I walked hand-in-hand toourplace.

I shrugged off my coat as we walked in, hanging it on the coat rack, when Michael took my hand and smiled shyly.

“I have something for you,” he said eagerly.

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