Page 22 of His Curvy Obsession

“You look so intimidating right now,” I breathe, not knowing why I’m saying my thoughts aloud. “I remember how intimidated I used to be of you…back when I first started working for you. I was fresh out of grad school and you were the only person who gave me a call back. After you hired me, I realized why you were were so desperate, why you were having such a hard time finding an assistant.”

“I had a hard time finding an assistant because I have high standards,” Eric replies.

“That’s the reason you tell yourself,” I smile. “But the real reason is because you scare people off. You make it hard to help you, because you’re so intimidating to everyone you meet. People don’t understand you.”

“You do,” he says, surprising me.

I shake my head.

“I don’t think so.”

“You do,” he says.

He takes another step forward so that our bodies are pressed together, and brings his hands to cup my face.

“You understand me better than most,” he continues. “Maybe better than anyone else. Why do you think I asked you to be my wife in the first place, Rebecca?”

I blink at him.

“Do you think I would have made an offer like that to just anyone?” He continues. “To share a life together? I need someone by my side who knows me, someone I can trust. And that narrows down the number of candidates by a considerable amount.”

“Isn’t that lonely?” I ask him. “Having such a small circle? So few people you can turn to?”

I expect Eric to say no, that it’s not lonely at all.

Because surely, men like Eric Stone don’t get lonely. Men like Eric Stone are all business, all stiff suits and dense research papers and late nights at the office, all ambition, with no time for frivolous things like jokes, like happy hours and social events…

Things like real marriages and real love.

But Eric’s answer surprises me.

“It’s more lonely than you can even imagine,” he replies in a hoarse voice. “The amount of time I spend with myself…the amount of time I spend in my own head. I don’t know how to be any other way. I want something more but I can’t reach it. I can’t break through the…”

“The what?”

“The block in my mind,” he says. “It’s like I’m missing something, something that everyone else just has, the thing that makes talking to people easy and natural. Whatever that thing is, I don’t have it. Never have. I’m missing a piece.”

“No you aren’t,” I reply quickly. “Don’t say something like that, Eric. You’re not missing a piece. You’re whole. You’re just…yourself. You’re different than most, but that’s a good thing. Why would you want to be the same as everyone else? Look at all of the amazing things you can do that nobody else can!”

“Yes. But that’s work,” he replies dismissively. “I want more.”

“What do you want?” I ask.

“The same thing you do,” he says. “Love.”

He holds my face in place, pinning me to the door behind me with his body pressed against mine. I’m watching him, watching my boss bring his lips to mine and pull me into a kiss that sets my heart on fire.

Love.

He wants love. But he can’t give it to me. And prior to now, I didn’t think I’d be able to give it to him either. But in the blink of an eye, my perspective on this man has flipped upside down.

Eric isn’t the robot everyone makes him out to be.

He has feelings, he has a heart. It’s all inside of him, it’s always there. But the walls around it are tall.

Lonely.

Eric Stone is lonely.

---