You Belong to Me – 11

 

 

'You still aren’t wearing my present.'

 

Corey found the printed message slipped under his door when he got home mid-Sunday morning after his night with Renny. It would have been bad enough if it had come in the mail, like the previous one had. The fact that his stalker—and he was now beginning to believe that’s what the person was—had gotten into the building to hand deliver it did not make him the least bit happy. In fact, he was beginning to be afraid.

 

Where are you, that you can watch me without my knowing it? At the club? At the shelter?

 

He knew the shelter, with its vast turnover of clients, was a possibility. There was no way he could remember every man who came through the doors. If one of them was paying special attention to him, would he even be aware of it? Of course, the same held true for the club.

 

What Corey couldn’t figure out was why someone had decided to fixate on him. It’s not as if I’m anything special. Hell, there are men at the club who make me look like… nothing the least bit exceptional.

 

He crumpled the note and tossed it into the wastebasket, realizing as he did so that the last one was in there too since he hadn’t emptied the trash in the last week. For a moment he debated rescuing both of them. But to what end? It wasn’t as if there was anything in them to identify the sender, since—he was quite certain—they had been created on a computer. And fingerprints? I’ve probably ruined them by handling the notes.

 

He wondered what would happen if he did start wearing the watch. The idea creeped him out, but still he thought it might be worth a shot.

 

He also considered—again—calling Kerry but decided worrying his brother when there was nothing he could do but give advice wasn’t worth the stress that might ensue. If Kerry told their parents…. Corey didn’t want to think what would happen if he did. They’d descend like… like locusts.

 

Restless, a bit afraid, and definitely at loose ends, Corey briefly thought about going to noon Mass, just to kill some time. He quickly put that thought aside. When he visited his family, Mass was de rigueur. Otherwise, he tended to avoid going to church except on holidays. All things considered, he didn’t feel comfortable there, even though none of the parishioners had a clue he was gay.

 

He couldn’t fill the time cooking, as he wasn’t hungry. Renny had fixed a big breakfast for them. He wasn’t in the mood to go to a movie either. So what to do to kill time? Mondays were no problem as far as keeping busy, because that was when he did his laundry, cleaned the apartment, and went grocery shopping.

 

Groceries. I’m in desperate need of them. It’s not written in stone that I have to shop tomorrow. Going into the kitchen, he made a list of what he had to buy, then drove to the chain grocery store ten blocks from his place.