When I got home, I had this sense of urgency overtaking me. I needed to read those diary entries and I needed to read them fast. The faster I read them, the closer I could get to Eleanor and God, did I want to be close to her. I wanted to get inside...
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I didn't follow Eleanor home or anything like that, like I said... This is a love story. Nothing else. I'd never lie to you, dear reader.
I stopped following her once she looked behind herself at one point and we nearly made eye contact. I got scared so I turned around at the last second and started walking the other way so she wouldn't see me, but before that, I managed to see her full face, so beautiful and her skin so shiny and dewy. I bet it was the softest skin I'd ever feel, which I know now is true.
I imagined that she took good care of herself, that she pampered herself after every shower, exfoliating, putting on all types of creams and lotions. That's what it looked like, anyway.
I went home that day and spent the whole afternoon thinking about her. I spent the whole night thinking about her too but, I'll spare the details on that. I'm sure you can picture what I was doing.
The next day, I headed to the same coffee shop as I did yesterday, the day I met her. Well, the day I first saw her, I should say.
I had no clear plan, I just thought maybe I would be lucky enough to see her again, maybe on her same route. It was a long shot but I was feeling a little desperate. Or, perhaps curious is a better word to use.
So there I was, sitting in the same spot, after having ordered the same coffee I always did, as I'm a man of routine, taking small sips to make it last, just waiting.
I hadn't even gone on my phone that time. I just sat there, staring outside. People do that, right? I didn't look weird, right? I didn't think so. My mind was scrambling and naturally I was overthinking everything that I was doing.
I'd steal glances of my surroundings every once in a while and luckily, nobody was ever looking at me. Everyone was too engrossed in their phones, their laptops, their books.
"Did you hear about that girl that was found dead last week? How fucked up is that?" I heard a nearby conversation at the table just behind me. "Insane. I can't believe we're walking around living our lives with psychos nearby."
If I hadn't been so focused on seeing her again, I would have been listening in harder on their conversation as I'm quite a nosy person, but I couldn't. I needed to see the cute girl walking her dogs again. It felt like I would spontaneously combust if I didn't.
Like clockwork, she passed by again. She did the same thing, she stopped and let the dogs smell around while she gave one of them head scratches. Though, they were three different dogs this time.
I remember I had let out a soft hum and waited until she picked up the dog's waste, tossed it in the bin, checked her phone, then walked off before I pulled my phone out. I was intrigued by this point, even more so than the day before.
I searched up dog walking services offered in the city and was surprised to see that there were over sixty search results. I sighed. Lots of dog walking companies in this damn city. I didn't even know there were that many. Why is there that many? Does every young person looking for an easy business to run think that this city possibly needs another dog walking company? I thought this was going to be simple but clearly I had been mistaken.
