Page 75 of Total Exposure

Watching her struggle with her decision for the next two hours would be kinda fun if it wasn’t so depressing.

She finds the notebook I left her on the kitchen counter and writes in it for a while, even though I never asked her for another story.

I think I’m way too involved in this thing right now.

But I’m really fucking hoping she goes to see Jordan. Because I need to get the hell out of this house for a while. This place might be huge. Way too big for one person and her stalker living in two spaces so far apart, they might as well have different addresses. But the walls are closing in on me. As someone who likes to bail at every opportunity and just… fucking leave everything behind, being forced to stay put in this goddamned room is starting to take its toll.

I get dressed, just in case she surprises me, and then pull up Jordan’s contact and press it.

“What now?” he asks. But he still answers on the first ring. Which kinda makes me smile.

“I’m fucking bored.”

He sighs. I can just picture him running his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Ixion, I do not have time for you today. I have court in three minutes.”

“Wanna have lunch?”

He scoffs. “No. I gotta go.”

“Why?” I ask. “Why did you really come looking for me?”

“I don’t have time.”

“You know the answer,” I say. “So just say it.”

“Ix—“

“That was always your problem, ya know that? You want things and when you don’t get them, you tear the world apart.” Just like Evangeline, I want to add. But he won’t get it. And I can’t explain it. And fuck it.

“Fuck you.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Fuck me.”

He hangs up without saying goodbye. Leaving me to stare at the phone as the call fades to the home screen.

They’re made for each other, I realize. Jordan and Evangeline. Both a couple of spoiled fucking rich people who think sadness is a badge of honor and chaos is something you hand out like spare change to a homeless person.

“How do I get there?”

Evangeline’s question snaps me back to the job. She’s looking up at the grand foyer camera, standing in the middle of the stairs so she’s more or less eye level.

There’s no intercom in the foyer. Which is weird, I think. But whatever. Not my stupid design. So when I press the button and talk to her, it comes from every speaker in the house. The closest must be the office, because her head darts in that direction.

“There’s a computer down in the basement office. Pull up a fucking map.”

“Dick,” she says. “You know what? The only reason I’m going is to get away from you.”

“I’ll be there too, Evangeline. You can’t get rid of me.”

“Watching,” she snaps. “Like a creepy stalker.”

“Yup,” I say.

I follow her on camera as she finds the basement stairs, descends, and then wanders around looking at the games and the TV, then finally settles in front of the computer and starts typing. A few minutes later she’s printing something and then she snatches it up and stomps up the stairs, leaving the notebook behind.

I should follow her on the cameras, but I don’t. I’m too busy wondering what she wrote in that notebook instead. I want to grab it, but I can’t.

Movement on the camera catches my eye. Evangeline is walking back down the grand foyer stairs, completely dressed. I’m talking hat, gloves, coat, sunglasses, scarf. The whole deal.