Chapter 4He Thinks He's the Other Man

I started running into Liam everywhere. Grabbing my morning coffee at the shop next to my office, there he was. Eating lunch with colleagues at the cafe downstairs, I’d see him at a table across the room. One evening, I even saw him on the subway heading home.

If he hadn’t gotten off at a different stop, I would have sworn he was following me.

Didn’t he own a car? Why was he taking the subway? To reduce his carbon footprint? And his office was on the other side of the city. What was he doing over here all the time?

Whatever. The private life of my ex was a book I had no desire to read.

But I never expected to run into him on a Saturday, at a drone technology expo of all places.

This time, however, he spoke to me.

“Audrey,” he said, and his voice was startlingly close. “Can you help me out? I just put a deposit down on a drone, but my phone died before I could pay the balance. Could you cover it for me? I’ll transfer the money to you the second I get home.”

He looked genuinely embarrassed, a flush creeping up his neck. I’d never seen him look so flustered. It was… interesting. I nodded.

Liam let out a breath of relief. “Great. Can you unblock me on Venmo, then? I’ll send it to you when I get back.”

I waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Consider it payback for that purse you bought me last year.”

Liam’s expression didn’t change. “The drone is three thousand, eight hundred dollars.”

“…”

“You know what, I’ll just unblock you right now.”

As I was tapping my card, I thought I saw the corner of his mouth twitch into a smile, but when I looked back, his face was the same stoic mask as always.

After the payment went through, he just… followed me, holding the giant box.

“The transaction is done. Why are you still here?” I asked.

He looked a little helpless. “My phone is dead. I can’t call an Uber.”

Fine. In for a penny, in for a pound. I pulled out my phone to call him a car. But the address he gave me was completely different from his old one. This new place was less than a mile from my apartment.

I shot him a suspicious look. He cleared his throat. “I switched firms. My new office is over here, so I moved.”

That explained all the recent sightings.

A little while after I got home, my phone pinged. A Venmo notification from Liam for four thousand dollars.

[Liam]: The extra is for the Uber. For your records: this is a voluntary gift.

I thought about it for a whole second.

[Me]: Okay.

I hit ‘accept.’ Not bad. A weekend trip to an expo and I’d made a hundred and fifty-six dollars.

As I was admiring my new balance, another notification popped up. A text message from Liam with a picture attached. The photo showed a hand—his hand, with long, artistic fingers—arranging a container filled with perfectly cooked shrimp, calamari, and scallops in some kind of marinade.

[Liam]: Don’t block me again just yet. I made a batch of my spicy garlic shrimp. Want me to bring some over?