Page 33 of Creep

Even I knew that thought was a lie. I shook my head and moved over to the table to clear it. He left the sleeve of the coffee cup behind.

He threw away his coffee cup, but left this here?

Why?

I frowned as I picked it up. That didn’t make any sense. I was about to throw it away when a flash of black caught my eye. I stopped and looked at the sleeve.

My eyes honed in on the row of numbers written in neat, masculine writing. My heart pounded in my chest in a quick, unrhythmic procession. His number.

He left his number behind.

For me?

Why?

It seemed I was filled with questions and no answers.

I told myself to throw it away. My life was too complicated right now for anything as sweet as the blossoming of a new romance—at least, I thought that was what he wanted.

I walked over to the trash can, my hand gripping the sleeve and crumbling it up as I tried to throw it away. Just throw it away.

It was easy. I knew it. I just had to let go of the sleeve first. I could do it.

I—

I let out a small sigh, wondering why I was even having this argument with myself. I tucked the sleeve into the pocket of my apron and got back to work, its weight heavy and noticeable throughout the entirety of my shift.

* * *

It was quite possiblythe longest shift of my entire life. And my day wasn’t even done yet.

There was still one more thing left to do.

I pulled my car up to the huge house standing in the corner of a gated community. It wasn’t soin-your-facethat I would have felt uncomfortable bringing my friends over on the weekend, but it wasn’t small by any means. It was certainly much more spacious than two people required, and now that I had moved out, only my dad was left.

I wondered many times if he ever felt lonely living in this house by himself, but I was sure he spent more time at the company than he did here to actually notice all the space around him and no one to share it with.

I’d entertained the idea of moving back home, but I liked my apartment… or at least, Ihadliked it. Now that a strange man had access to it…

I didn’t want to think about it.

I knew it was stupid to not want to think about it, but he hadn’t shown up in weeks, and I just wanted to bury my head in the sand for a little while longer. I might just have to move back home soon.

But for now, I was back at my childhood home, just for the night. I had dinner plans with Dad and Leo.

I’m sure they would help me if I spoke up, but there was a part of me that didn’t want to say anything yet. I didn’t know what I was waiting for.

For the situation to escalate?

I shook my head and let myself into the house. I could hear Dad and Leo talking and laughing in the kitchen, the sound a familiar one I had heard many times growing up.

I slowly walked through the living room, lingering over the hundreds of pictures Dad had up, mostly of Caden and me, some of Dad with Leo, a few of my mom, and even fewer ones of our family together.

I stopped at the picture of my mom with her arm wrapped around me on one side and holding onto baby Caden on her other side. The three of us were smiling at our dad, who had taken this photo. I didn’t remember the moment so much as I remembered looking at this picture so many times growing up that I recognized every little detail of it—the brown teddy bear I was hugging, the red floral design on Mom’s shirt, and even the fact that Caden only had two front teeth at the time.

I let my eyes focus on my mom’s smiling face. I had her eyes. Sad eyes, I always thought. Even when she was smiling brightly like this, there was just something about her eyes that broke my heart.

My mom passed away from a car accident when I was little.

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