Watching him was like watching a movie. Every emotion that he could possibly have played across his face as he thought. His jaw was clenched and his eyes were scared. He was, though, quite attractive. Brown curly hair that hung just below his jaw, freckles placed in a scattered design across his cheeks and nose, eyes a deep blue.Not thinking, I stood up on my toes and kissed his cheek. I watched as his face went blank. I sat back down where I had been sitting. I blankly stared at the seat across from me. What did I just do?! Why did I just kiss him? Even though it was on the cheeks, it was still a kiss.

           We both just stayed there in our own thoughts trying to understand what our emotions were trying to tell us. But he finally walked over to me. He sat across from me like before. “You shouldn’t have done that.” He said. “You shouldn’t be trying to get so close to me.”

           “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” I looked down at my hands that were clasped in my lap. “It must be the weather.”

           “Joanne… You should know something. A couple years back I met this girl. She was an amazing girl. Smart, pretty, whole life ahead of her. I fell in love with her and she fell in love with me. We were constantly together, then one day when I got home from work, she was dead on my living room floor.” He looked into my eyes. His were filled with pain and hinted at slight anger. “He lets me get close to people before he kills them. It hurts more when he does it that way.”

           I stared at him with a blank expression as I tried to understand what he had just said. “So if you get close to me, then I’ll die?”

           “Yes. I only got the job at your shop so that I could pay for my house, I didn’t realize he’d target you. And now that you’re here… he has probably already made a plan.” He watched my face turn to horror as I realized that my life was probably over.

           I didn’t deserve this to happen to me. I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve even tried staying away from men. So they throw one in my face and let me take the bait then later on tell me I’m going to die. I cussed under my breath. I got up and paced the room. “This is just great! I didn’t even want to like a guy and the first one that seems to be okay for me turns out to have a killer after him! And now I’m going to die.”

           He sighed. He got up, walked over to me and grabbed my shoulders, stopping my pacing. I heard then, that the rain had stopped. I sighed with relief. “Oh…”

           He walked toward his kitchen. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”

           My stomach grumbled in response. He went to the stove and grabbed a pan. Then walked to the fridge and rummaged through it in search of something to cook. He reappeared with bacon and some eggs. He grabbed a spatula and began working on cooking the food. I watched as he, contently, cooked for me. Without thinking I grinned. He was cute. I forgot all about “the killer” for the moment and imagined what life would be like with this man. By the time he turned around, I was grinning like a crazy woman.

           “You must be pretty hungry.” He commented. My smile dropped to a straight face as I watched him bring over the food. He handed me a plate and sat across from me. I took a bite of the eggs and sighed with relief. Food was a good thing to have during stressful situations. “Joanne, I have this plan.”

           I looked up from my food to look at him. “What plan?”

           “Well… since you are in danger of getting murdered by a man who hates me, I think I should keep a close eye on you from now on to make sure that he doesn’t get you.” He said. Was he saying he wants to live with me?

           “What do you mean? How are you going to be able to keep a close eye on me?” I asked with slight nervousness.

           “Well…” He paused for a second, looking a bit nervous himself, “You could stay with me for a few days, take my bed and I’d take the couch or… maybe at your house.”

           “Rook that seems like a good idea, except what if you get too close to me and then he finds a way to get me?” I countered hoping that he wouldn’t give up and have a clever plan to make it work.

           “I can make sure that doesn’t happen. As long as I keep a close eye on you, this should work. If it rains, we both come straight back and lock up.” He replied with a bit more confidence than before.

           I smiled. “Okay. I’ll do it. However, I would prefer to stay at my house. I have a guest bedroom where you can sleep. But for tonight, we should probably stay here.”

           He nodded. He got up and double checked to make sure that the house was locked up completely and showed me to his bedroom where he grabbed a spare blanket and pillow and left the room. I looked at the bed. So this is where tall dark and handsome sleeps at night. Not bad. Silk sheets, black warm blanket, smells nice. I crawled under the covers and drifted off into sleep.