Nothing Personal [*Complete*]

18

Lacy and Colin helped me move into the apartment on the floor below Mr. Emery's. It was a large one bedroom and it wasn't until they all left that I really felt alone. The decorator was fast, I did take Mr. Emery up on the offer and ended up with a place filled with furniture that completely contrasted with the cold modern concrete walls the Emporia offered.

Sleeping alone in my new bed proved difficult. More often than not I spent the night staring at the ceiling and wondering what Mr. Emery was doing two floors above me.

He never took Natasha as a submissive. No my near-doppelganger didn't make it past the fundraiser. I couldn't help but wonder who ended it? Was it her refusing to be a stand-in for what he wanted? Or was it him realizing that no matter how hard he tried to see it she wasn't me. I liked to believe it was the latter, call me vain.

Even the morning of the Christmas party a week or so after leaving the penthouse taking my meds without the stupid fake vitamin pack seemed so odd. Instead I got them out of their orange bottles in my bathroom first thing in the morning.

I brushed my teeth and took the elevator down for a run and to my surprise in Mr. Emery was in the car. Our gazes locked, but for whatever reason I didn't enter until the doors started to close.

"Do you like your new place?" he cut through the silence with those all too cordial words.

"It's nice."

"If you need anything..."

"I know." I flashed him a smile and put my headphones in and he did the same stealing glances at me.

We took off for our runs in separate directions. We'd come across each other before but that was the first time he'd asked about my new place. For some reason he was at the forefront of all my thoughts as I continued my run. He lingered in my mind even as I entered the building out of breath and practically flirting with the beginning of a runner's high.

In my partially lucid state I didn't notice him as I entered the elevator. Oh I knew someone stood in the corner but I didn't register it was him initially. When it finally sank in that it was him I might have gasped if I had the air to—I didn't. Jealousy seeped into my every fiber as I watched him in the many mirrors not even out of breath in the slightest. If not for the wetness around his ankles from the now I wouldn't have even guessed that he'd gone for a run. I watched him as I bent over trying to catch my breath.

"Here." He guided my hands to rest at the back of your neck as his other hand trailed up my spine so I stood. "Your lungs can expand more if you're not hunched over."

"Thanks." The doors opened at my floor. Forgot for a moment that I was supposed to get out there and I stood staring at the still somewhat foreign hallway. Ultimately I left, forcing myself to stare forward as I went to my apartment and unlocked it.

Stepping into the quiet emptiness I shook my head. As my breath slowly returned I went about showering and reading for work. For the day I chose my navy wrap dress and it wasn't until I was on my way out the door that I realize it was the only dress of mine he approved of. I even wore it to my interview what seemed like forever ago though in actually it only happened that July.

Out in the hall again, I hit the button for the elevator. When the doors opened there he was, looking amazing as always. The charcoal gray heavy wool pea coat paired with the black scarf wrapped around that long throat of his made him seem ethereal like some modern mythological incarnation of winter. Compared to him I couldn't shake the feeling that I was the ugly duckling. My coat came from the thrift store years ago, it was brown and cinched in at the waist enough to show off my figure, it also had a large hood that I could pull up and practically hide myself under if I was in the mood to not be noticed.