Shadowed Obsession

by Evelyn Leigh

Mi abuela always says, “If you want respect, never let anyone mispronounce your name. Correct them every time.”

A twinge in my right arm grabs my attention, and I instinctively graze the area. My fingers dampen at the contact. My body stills at the realization, and she stares at me expectantly. She fucking shot me.

“I should get checked out. I’ll say I came home late, scared mi beba, and you greeted me with a gun like a good girl,” I add with a wink, but she isn’t amused. “It’s Texas. This shit happens all the time. Buenas noches, Deirdre Klarke,”

Let that be a lesson: you can’t laugh yourself out of a death sentence.

What do I even say? My girlf—subject shot me?

It’s safe to say the dark romance novels I’ve been reading have fucked with my logical thinking. Either that or the bar is in hell. It’s definitely in hell.

She’s likely searching for her phone. She loses it several times a day, and it’s never more than six feet away from her every time.

Lol I feel attacked

I’m not a stalker, I’m a licensed professional. If anything, I am legally allowed to stalk for a purpose.

What is the saying? Time flies when you’re reading smut or something like that?

Deirdre squints at her iPad, scrolling with her knuckles as she follows a recipe online for sancocho. Sancocho? Is she trying to seduce or poison me? Maybe both.

“Gracias.” “I could teach you better Spanish than that, but you’d have to be a good girl, and you’re not,” he teases, booping my nose. “I could show you what a good girl I am, but you’d have to stop breaking into my house and you won’t,” I mock.

“I know. Now, please let me read my smut,” he says, splaying his hand on my lower back and pushing me closer. He kills me. Now it’s his smut?

Lol

Because through my own fieldwork, I’ve learned that Regina Delvecchio is one of Emiliano’s current legal clients. Yeah, this motherfucker’s brother is the head of the Cartel, and he’s a fucking attorney. Que jodienda.

“And what do you know about me?” I tease. “Everything I could learn without asking.” “What do you wish you knew?" “What you taste like,"

If I die tonight, I want you to know that you’re an idiot and I love you.