{Toby}

A couple days later, Emily stopped wearing her brace to work. I thought it was strange but I guess the wound wasn't really as serious as I thought it was. Even still as soon as I got off work I followed her around but I made sure to stay out of sight. I was kind of surprised when I saw her go into this state of the arch building. I was even more surprised when I saw that the building was for a gun range made up of humanlike robots!

Is this what the letter meant by saying who and what she is? I thought.

Apparently, I wasn't as out of sight as I thought I was because Anna noticed me watching her and Emily from the shadows and she approached me. "Hey, Mr. Anakin, if I didn't know any better I'd say you have a thing for Emily!"

I felt my face turn red and I looked away for a moment. "Uh… No, that's not it."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that? Because I've seen you following her around a lot lately."

I looked back at her. "What? I thought I was staying out of sight!"

"Well you're staying out of sight of Emily," said Anna. "But that doesn't mean you've been staying out of my sight. Hmm, Emily's getting ready to start playing with guns soon. Why don't you come and watch with me? Don't worry, the observation deck has a two-way mirror, she can't see us but we can see her. You can come watch but be gone by the time she's done. And don't worry your secret will be safe with me as long as you don't tell anyone about what goes on here, do we have a deal?"

I thought about it and then I nodded and shook Anna's hand. "Deal!"

She grabbed my hand practically shoved me into the observation deck and after closing the door she switched on the two-way mirror. My eyes went wide in horror when I saw Emily standing in the middle of the humanlike robots with a gun in her hand. "Is she crazy? What the hell?"

I was getting ready to go stop whatever craziness Emily was getting ready to do when Anna grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. "Mr. Anakin, chill out! Emily knows what she's doing just watch her, this is going to be a good show!"

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. Then I turned to watch what Emily was doing. My jaw dropped when I saw her give a wicked smile and nod in Anna's direction.

"That's the signal!" Anna said with excitement a little too much excitement if you ask me. "It's go time!"

She pressed a green button on the remote she held in her left hand. All I did was blink and when I opened my eyes, Emily was gone. What the hell?

I heard gunshots and a couple of the robots got hit and destroyed in the process. I was trying to figure out where Emily was when I heard Anna laughing, "It's hard to keep up with her you know. She's faster than the average human because a normal human would've been dead by now in this type of gunfight! That's why I watch her with this."

"Huh?" I said. Anna pointed to a small Tv sitting on a stand beside her. When I looked at the Tv once again my jaw dropped. A small human figure that looked like Emily ran amongst the gunfire and dodged just about every single bullet that was fired at her and when she returned fire she hit every single bullet.

Anna grinned when I looked at her. "She's fast, I know. She's faster than any human I know of!"

I nodded. I watched the Tv fascinated by what I saw. Emily dodged just about every bullet fired at her and returned fire with her own gun. She stopped to take cover a couple of times just to reload her gun. It looked like she was having fun with this gunfight. "She's having waaay too much fun with this isn't she?"

Anna laughed and nodded. "Yup! She loves gunfights especially when the gun fire is directed at her! I mean the woman gets excited if you point a gun at her!"

"Okay this confirms it! My assistant is crazy!" I exclaimed.

Anna snorted. "Yup! She is crazy and that's the best part about her. She's crazy so she's not afraid to take risks if it's needed."

"Is this why she showed up with a brace on her foot at work a couple of days ago?" I asked.

She nodded. "Mhm." Then she looked at the nearby clock sitting next to the Tv and sighed, "Well it looks like I better go stop her because she's been at this for a half hour now. I make sure the max amount of time she goes at it is a half hour and nothing more. I think she needs to save her energy for a real gunfight and not wear it out on a fake one. Which means you need to get going before Emily sees you. Remember your secret is safe with me. I'll make sure Emily doesn't see you when you're um, 'following' her around."

I nodded. "Alright then, I'll see you later."

I left the observation deck wondering how Emily was fast enough to dodge a bullet.

***

{Emily}

I didn't want the gunfight to end as usual but then Anna pressed the button and the robots stopped moving. I whined, "That's not fair! You always spoil the fun! Can't you just-"

"No," Anna said after she shook her head. "I still think you need to save your energy for a real gunfight and not a pretend one. And, how many times did you get hit this time?"

I looked myself over to discover that I didn't get hit as much as I did the last time I played with guns. I smiled when I saw that I only got hit four times in my right hand. I held my hand up. "Looks like I only got hit in my hand this time."

"You know what? You're crazy," Anna chuckled. "But you wouldn't be Emily if you were sane."

I nodded. "Exactly."

"Alright let's go get your wounds taken care of as always," Anna said.

"Fine," I said. "You do realize you don't have to be there when I take out the bullets right?"

"Actually I have to because I need to figure out-" Anna started.

I shook my head. "Nope. I'm fine and I don't need a babysitter for that. I only need you to watch Red when I'm gone so he doesn't destroy the apartment."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"What, he's just so cute when he chews up a pillow!" Anna said, "Maybe I'll just buy him a pillow so he can chew those up?"

"As long as it's not one of my pillows then fine," I said.

Anna didn't say anything else, she went and cleaned up the gun range and we went back to my apartment.

***

{Toby}

When I got to my place I called my friend Jason to tell him what happened and tell him about the threatening letter.

"This isn't good. Maybe Maria was right when said not to get involved with Emily?" Jason said.

"Well it's too late now!" I exclaimed, "I'm already stalking her and I've received a threatening letter. It's safe to say that whoever's threatening Emily is doing the same thing to me now. This person probably knows where I live now."

Jason smirked and I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You like her don't you?" Jason teased.

I felt myself blush at that statement and when I composed myself I said, "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"First of all, most of the time an employer wouldn't go the lengths you've gone just to protect an employee," Jason stated. "The most an employer would do is increase security and watch that person like a hawk when they're at work. They don't stalk their employees like you do."

"Hey you're the one that suggested I stalk her like I did with that other girl that I was-" I paused.

"I only suggested it because I knew you had a thing for Emily before this shit started happening!" Jason said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked.

Jason rolled his eyes. "Oh please! I've seen the way you act around someone when you like them!"

"And how do I act?" I questioned.

"You start paying more attention to your love interest's butt," Jason said. "And then you talk about them non stop."

"When have I ever-" I started.

"The last few weeks when I've visited your office I've seen stare at her butt every time she leaves the office. Not to mention you've been making up excuses to call her into the office in general," Jason replied. "You did ask her to get coffee with you the other day."

"I never did that!" I responded.

"Wow now you're gaslighting me!" Jason chuckled, "Nice."

I blinked. Then I thought about it and sighed, "You know what? I did ask her to go for coffee but that was because I wanted to get to know her better. That way I could figure out how to protect her more."

I paused and thought. Yeah that's dumb!

"Aww that's so cute!" Jason teased, "You're in denial so bad it's hilarious!"

"Yes I'm still trying to do that. But that's not as serious as what's going on with Emily!" I said.

"And another thing, every time someone asks you about your feelings your red turns beat red!" Jason kept teasing.

"It does not turn red!" I declared. "And you're acting like a teenager teasing me about this shit!"

He gave me a mischievous smile. "Aww am I pissing you off Toby?"

I shifted my gaze and lied, "No you're not."

"Uh-huh sure, keep talking," said Jason. "Your face is beat red even now!"

"That's because you're getting on my nerves!" I growled.

"You know you're a really bad liar because the look on your face says it all!" Jason laughed.

"That's not funny!"

"Yes it is!"

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"Okay that's it!" I growled, "If you say yes it's funny one more time…"

Jason put his hands up to say he surrendered. "Okay, okay I'll stop teasing you, for now. But seriously if you really want to get to know the girl maybe ask to go to see a movie with you or something? That way you can be a knight in shining armor if someone comes after her. Or you can follow her to the gun range and make your presence known this time?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea," I said. "What if that makes her nervous when she's practicing? Or what if she thinks I'm going to fire her because of how she practices?"

"You've already watched her before, does that make you want to fire her?" Jason asked.

I shook my head. "No, it doesn't."

"Exactly, so if you reveal your presence at the gun range, just tell her that you won't fire her for it," Jason said.

"Huh," I said. I nodded because I knew if I did make my presence known it might put Emily on edge. But if I told her she won't get fired that might help matters. After seeing what I saw her do at the gun range I couldn't help but admire her. As far as looks go she's drop dead gorgeous! The way she carries herself confidently makes her even sexier. At that moment I knew exactly what I was going to do.

***

{Emily}

I blinked and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Toby smiled at me. "No you're not going crazy, I want to go see a movie with you."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well I just want to get to know you better," Toby said, "that's all."

I raised an eyebrow and then gave him a wary look. "Why do you want to?"

"Ms. Key, how many years have you worked for me?" Toby asked.

"Five years," I answered. "Why?"

"How many company dinners have you attended?"

"Zero, what are you saying?"

"Well we've been working together as boss and assistant and I still don't really know anything about you other than what's in your file," Toby said. "You don't have to see this movie alone with me, you can bring a friend with you. I'm thinking about my friend Jason because it's a movie he's been wanting to see anyway."

"Alright then, I'll go," I said. "What's the movie?"

"It's called The Swamp Monster," Toby said.

I snorted. "A horror movie huh? Just whatever you do, don't run out of the theater just because you're scared."

Toby gave me an amused look. "I take it you've seen somebody do that before?"

I nodded. "Oh yeah, one of Anna's friends asked me to go see a movie with him. Halfway through the movie there was a jump scare and the guy ran out of the theater as if there was fire!"

Toby was doubled over in laughter when he heard that. He composed himself, "I can assure you that I won't run out of the theater. I've watched plenty of horror movies and I've been to 'haunted houses' before so don't worry about me."

I laughed, "Alrighty then, so when are we going to go see it?"

"On Saturday at 6pm," Toby answered.

I nodded. "Okay cool. So is there anything else you need me to do while I'm still here?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to talk to you about going to the movie together," Toby said.

"Alright then, I'll be going now," I said. Toby nodded and I turned around and left.

***

{Toby}

I couldn't help but jump for joy when Emily said yes to going to see a movie. A bonus was that it was the same movie Jason's been wanting to see for a while so I could bring him along with me. I called Jason and he agreed to go with me.

"Well at least you got her to go with you," Jason said. He and I were talking on facetime. "That's a lot better than constantly stalking her." He paused. "Let me guess, you're still going to stalk her aren't you?"

I laughed and then nodded. "Well duh! Of course I am, I can't keep her attached to my hip at all times you know."

"When you think about it, in a sense she kind of is attached to your hip when you stalk her," Jason said.

"Yeah I disagree because I don't always follow her right into where she's going," I said defensively. "I just watch from the shadows. That's all."

Jason snorted. "Uh-huh sure, keep talking." He looked at his clock after his phone alarm went off. "Well it looks like it's time for me to hit the hay. So goodnight!"

"Goodnight!" I said. I turned off facetime and sat on my bed, grabbed the book on my nightstand and read another chapter. As I was reading I came up with a plan to protect Emily other than stalking and making up excuses to go out with her. I knew for a fact that I wouldn't stop asking her out on dates and make it look like it's not a date. Not just to protect her because I knew no matter how many times I denied it, Jason might be right. I might have feelings for Emily.