Free In My Veins by C.A. Madden

else. Especially Tiffany or my
mom. They would both freak out and make me go back home.
    I drank my coffee in my little cubical,
not being able to concentrate. I stared at the coffee and remembered Lana the
gypsy telling me I needed to be careful. Could this have been what she was
talking about? Do I still need to be careful? Will I be attacked again?
    Maybe if I go see her again she could
tell me if I would be attacked again. But James had asked me not to go…
    Maybe I could ask him if I could. I felt
so stupid having to ask permission from my boyfriend, but he seemed so opposed
of it that I would feel guilty not asking before I did. 
    I felt stupid for even wanting to see a
psychic or whatever she was.
    I stared at the blank screen on my
computer. It wasn’t totally blank, I had an inbox full of emails I had to reply
to for work but it might has well been. I could not concentrate or think to
save my life. I could just feel Jennifer’s eyes on me. She was studying me and
could probably see my inability to work. I looked up in her direction and her
eyes met with mine.
    “You look more relaxed than usual. I
noticed your new boyfriend drops you off lately. He picks you up too?”
    “Why do you care?” I snapped.
    “No need to get hostile, just curious.”
She shrugged and walked back to her desk.
    After receiving a text from James saying
he was going to pick me up a little earlier than I normally finished for some
sushi, I called it a day. My day was supposed to be over an hour ago anyway and
I promised myself I wouldn’t stay late anymore. I think that was why he asked
me out to dinner today, just another way to get me out of work earlier than I
usually do. Aside from a few other people I was the only one left in the office
so I waved goodbye to them and made my way to the elevator.
    I walked into the elevator and forced
myself not to groan when I saw that someone was already in there. Being alone
in an elevator with a stranger was not something I was looking forward to after
that attack.
    I could feel his eyes on me as I reached
to press the first floor button. Whoever he was, was going to the parking
garage below the building. I looked over to have a better look at him and was
surprised to see the familiar looking man. He smirked and nodded a hello to me.
    He was really handsome. His eyes were a piercing
shade of blue brown and were naturally smoldery. They had a piercing glare to
them that was hard to look away from and his dark hair that went barely below
his ears was styled neatly, a lot like David’s. He actually looked a lot like
David but different too. Where had I seen him before?
    “Karina right?” he asked getting me out
of my thoughts. He knows my name? “I met you a while ago at the company
get together. I was with Jennifer. Collin.”
    “Oh…hi. Jennifer’s boyfriend right? You
work here?”
    “Jennifer’s fiancé.” He corrected me, “I
work a few floors up. Law offices…” He smirked as the elevator door closed so
we could start heading down. My stomach twisted and I had a bad feeling telling
me to get away from him. I brushed it aside telling myself I was just being
paranoid. If anything, there is a security camera in the elevator and an
emergency button. And most importantly, James was waiting for me in the first
floor.
    The fiancé bit explains why I felt
uncomfortable with him. Like Tiffany would say, I could probably feel his
‘hateful aura’ so it makes me feel unwanted by him.
    He leaned back in the corner of the
elevator he was standing in and kept his eyes on me the entire ride down. I was
frozen in my spot, standing and just praying that the elevator would hurry down
so I could see James and be put at ease. My heart was racing as I stared at
where the elevator doors meet together, telling myself I would run out the
minute I could.
    I started tapping my foot on the floor
to get my mind off of Collin but it wasn’t working. I heard him chuckle as he got
off his corner and walked