3

VIVIANNE

He nodded and walked out of the room. I stood outside the room and waited for them to bring in my things. I was now sitting on a furry stool outside the door with a scarf covering my face. The elevator stopped on my floor, and instinctively, I turned my head in that direction.

A man exited the elevator with his head bowed as he typed away on his phone. He passed by me without saying so much as a Hello. I followed his movement until he stopped in front of his apartment, which was adjacent to mine. Oh great, I had a snobbish neighbour.

He typed in his passcode and I watched his face, suddenly looking familiar to me. He turned his eyes briefly in my direction, perhaps feeling my gaze on him. He looked at me with a condescending look before he pulled his door open and disappeared behind it.

Rolling my eyes at his now closed door, I tried to shrug off the feeling of familiarity but the feeling wouldn't go away. Then it clicked. It was him! The paparazzi!

Just then, the elevator stopped again, but it was the movers.

When the movers had finished moving my properties, I walked into the apartment closing the door behind me. 

I sent a message to Shania explaining to her how the stalker was staying in the same apartment as me and even directly opposite me. She was typing when my doorbell rang. With a sigh, I stood up, grabbed my scarf, and wore it on my head such that it covered half my face. Now, which of my neighbours are extremely nosy?

"Who is it?"

"Hi. I think your package got delivered to me." A baritone voice came back in response that made my toes curl. 

With a small smile on my face, I pushed the door open almost hitting him in the process. The man stood there clad in a black shirt and pants, with home slippers on his feet. The first three buttons of his shirt were open and his toned chest was peeking out, begging to be seen. And of course, I did.

I've seen many bare chests, even the hairy ones as much as it disgusted me, in the modelling agency. I've had male model partners who had to show only pants, so they walked out bare-chested or with a flimsy cloth covering their top. But this man's? Oh lord, I wanted to run my hands over it over and over again. I wanted to lick it, suck his nipples, lay my head-

He cleared his throat, cutting off my dirty thoughts, and I squeaked, realising that since I had opened the door, I'd been staring shamelessly at his chest. I blushed bright red before looking up at his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I apologized immediately bowing my head. The scarf fell off my nose and sat on my neckline when I raised my head up to look at his face. He looked away from the white furry slippers that sat on my leg and up at my face and I blinked, not once, not twice. I frowned recognising his face.

"Of course it's you again," I said in an annoyed tone.

He looked behind him, then sized me up and down before he looked back at my face, a small brown box sitting on his arm which he handled effortlessly. 

"Are you referring to me?" He asked pointing to himself.

"Yes well, I don't see someone else. Coming to my former house wasn't enough, now you're at my new apartment and you even managed to get yourself an apartment directly opposite mine. Gosh, reporters will go to any length to ruin you. What news agency do you work with? Who's your superior? Where's your ID card? You know what? Forget it. I'll make sure I find out who you are and I'll ruin you."

"What the hell are you blabbing about?" He asked, staring down at me like I was running mental. Rolling my eyes at his fake cover that has been blown, I positioned myself well leaning against the door frame. I was so pissed.

"How did my package get to you? Did you intercept the rider?" 

"Why would I need to do that? I don't waste my time on nonsense. My time is very precious, though I can't say the same for you, seeing as you have the time to stand here and chat aimlessly." He replied in a curt tone. It infuriated me even more.

"'Cause you'd rather be out there taking pictures of celebrities unaware, right? Even invading their homes. So you can publish it with a blasphemous topic."

He sighed and pinched his nose bridge, perhaps annoyed by me.

"Well, it was obviously a mistake coming here. A total waste of time." He muttered.

"But I wouldn't be here if one idiot hadn't given my home address rather than hers. And then spewing absolute rubbish when I try to politely return it to her. Gosh, they're just getting bolder and bolder each day. It's almost like 5 of your brain cells are all that's left and those 5 aren't currently functioning." He said boldly, staring straight in my face, never blinking for once as he said it, looking directly into my eyes.

"Fucking gold-diggers doing anything for the attention." He finalized before shaking his head.

Did he just call me, an A-list Model, a GOLD DIGGER?! 

I opened my mouth to abuse him, asking how I was a Gold Digger when he was a mere reporter, not even a journalist. What Gold did he have for me to dig? Asshole.

He dropped the package at my feet and, without another word, he turned around and left. I watched his broad back walk away from me before disappearing into his door. I was fuming mad. I walked into my room, not taking the package with me. Taking my phone, I ignored all the messages from Shania and called her instead.

"Come with the Police on your way here. I fucking hate that man." I huffed pushing my hair backwards.

"Whoa! Did he come to your doorstep?"

"I'll fill you in when you get here," I replied simply. 

"Alright. See you in a jiffy."

"Hm."

 The doorbell rang after I had calmed myself down with Chamomile Tea. I jumped up and ran to the door. Standing there with two police officers was Shania.

"Hi."

"Spare me the greetings. Where's that asshole's apartment?" She asked nodding her head at me.

"Over there, " I replied, pointing at the door adjacent to mine. 

"You say this man came to your doorstep to harass you?" The police officer confirmed staring at me. Well, he didn't exactly harass me. Then I remembered he called me a gold digger and someone with 5 working brain cells.

"Yes, Officer! He did. He met me at my old apartment and I suspect he's a Stalker."

"Can you stay here while we approach him to hear his side of the story? Can you do that for us?"

"Sure. We can do that." Shania said pulling me to her side. We both stood at the door as we watched the Police Officers ring the doorbell. A few minutes later, he stepped out with a cup of wine in his hands. 

The Officers greeted him and started talking about our accusations of him stalking me. His eyes flickered over to me and I shivered, my toes curling. His eyes were glazed over, in an ice-cold death stare. I suddenly felt uncomfortable and looked anywhere but his face.

I looked at Shania to see the look on her face if she was also intimidated by his look, or if it was just me. However, she stared at him with confusion on her face and bit her lip like she did when she was thinking deeply about something.

"What's it?" I asked.

"I've seen him before. Where have I seen him before?" She muttered. I raised a brow at her.

"You can't possibly-"

"It's Him!" She yelled so loudly that the officers looked away from speaking to the Stalker.

"Him, who?" I hadn't finished my question when she rushed forward putting herself between the Police and the stalker. I raised my brow at her, what was wrong with that girl?

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry for this mistake and misunderstanding! This was a huge huge mistake. We have the wrong person. It wasn't him. He didn't do anything; in fact, he helped her from her ex, who was trying to kill her. If anyone, you should arrest the ex. " Shania ranted and I got even more confused.

What was she saying?

"You can be on your way now, Officers." She said with a smile.

"Be on their way? Let the Officers do their Jobs. You called them, did you not?" He spoke for the first time since the Officers arrived.

"Mr. Richardson. I'm really sorry for the mistake. You can go and enjoy your time." She said bowing.

He glared at me one more time before he stepped back into his apartment. The police, too, went their way, but Shania stood in front of his apartment as if atoning for whatever. Pissed, I stormed to her asking her why she let him go so easily.

"And give me one good reason why you just let that man go so easily after saying you'd show him hell on earth?" I asked glaring at her. 

She looked at me with a defeated look.

"We might be fucked.", was all she said.

"Why?"

"Did you know who that was?" She asked gesturing at his door.

"My stalker."

"He definitely has better things to do than stalking you. That, my dear friend, is the CEO of the biggest gaming company in Europe. Mr. Russell Richardson."