Park kept the box of pictures. He said they would be useful in finding prints, possibly even patterns and habits of the stalker. My mind was numb to his words, so I just waved him off as he spoke. I made my way to my room and fell into a deep sleep. I didn't even hear when King knocked on the door for dinner.
***
A week and a half passed without any other incidents from the stalker. However, Jasper had managed to try and invite me out almost whenever I saw him. I couldn't tell if he was actually into me or not. He came on strong enough though. King was back to normal and constantly yelled at me, Madison was enjoying her stay-- at least she got along pretty well with Park.
Park and I had come to a silent agreement that it was better to keep distance. I didn't function well knowing he was always there, and he didn't like my "ingratitude" as he called it. So we managed to speak minimally and rarely even look at each other. I had almost forgotten there was a reason that I needed Park. People around the office had their own theories about my relationship with the guy. It was almost hilarious if not for the fact that we pretty much found one another insufferable. I listened, on a rather sunny Tuesday afternoon before we went on our ski vacation, to a conversation at the water cooler.
"...illegitimate child?" Dhalia Wright had her powdered nose high in the air as she spoke. She looked down at Julie as she gossiped. David Graham, Sam Forge, and Jean Woods were listening intently.
"No way! They don't even look alike in the slightest," Graham shook his head in disbelief.
"There's no way that man is completely Asian," Woods agreed with Wright.
"That's impossible. I think they're secretly dating," Julie said.
"Dating?" Graham leaned in curiously.
"Them? No way, they hate each other," Forge shook his head in disbelief.
"Obviously! You never noticed how he does little things for her? Like hold open the door? When she doesn't notice he's looking at her with this...protective look on his face," Julie sighed romantically.
"Preposterous. That man has class, why date Simmons?" Wright dissed me.
"Oh don't be that way!" Forge defended. At that point, I walked away from the water cooler, suddenly not as thirsty as I was before. If only they really knew about our relationship. It was safe to say that we only tolerated each other at this point. I had only known him for two weeks and it clearly wasn't turning out well. The days continued to slowly creep by without incident. It wasn't until the day before our big ski trip that things started to take a bad turn.
"What are you doing in here?" Jasper's voice broke me out of my thoughts. I was in the mail room a few floors down, trying to find a letter that a foreign stockholder had apparently sent.
"Oh, I was just looking for something. I can't tell what's what in here," I said in aggravation. The mailroom was messy and had no organization to it whatsoever. If it was my own mess maybe I wouldn't have been as sensitive to it, but because it wasn't mine, I was angry. I should've been able to run down here, grab the letter, then leave. Jasper dropped a slip of white paper into a mailbox and came to my side.
"You look stressed," he said and squeezed my shoulder. "And look at how tense you are!" He commented. He put two hands on my shoulder and forced me to sit down on a desk.
"Huh? No I'm okay, I just need to find this letter," I said as I tried to wriggle out of his touch. I was pretty small, so everything hurt, a lot. Getting massages just felt downright weird and even a professional touch caused me pain later.
"Oh but you should relax," Jasper said in my ear in a low voice. I felt a chill run down my back.
"But I really need to find the-" I tried to speak but Jasper started to apply a force to my shoulder that made me cry out in pain. "Ow! No, it's okay, I don't really want a massage!" I turned slightly to push Jasper away, but he refused to budge.
