Chapter 4
To my surprise, Leopold was actually up on Monday morning.
"Let me give you a ride to work," he offered.
"It's fine. I'm riding with a coworker," I said.
When I was heading out the door, he trailed after me. "Come on, let me take you. No need to bother your coworker."
"It's really no trouble. I pay my coworker for the ride," I replied.
Back when Leopold first got his car, he was happy to drive me to work. But after a while, he started complaining it was too much of a detour and told me to take the subway.
Luckily, one of my coworkers lived nearby, so I would give him six bucks a day for a lift. It was way more convenient than the subway.
When I got to the office, Leopold texted me: [Is your coworker a guy or a girl?]
I replied: [A guy.]
Leopold wrote: [Stop riding with him. I'll drive you instead.]
I replied: [I've already paid him.]
He wrote: [Jessica, are you doing this on purpose? I don't care. I'm taking you to work every day from now on.]
I didn't respond.
Leopold became like a whole new person.
He started picking me up from work right on time every day, stopped hanging out with his usual crowd, and insisted on cooking at home.
I told him I was too busy studying for my certification exam to cook, but he said he'd take care of it.
I always thought he couldn't cook, but it turned out that he was actually pretty good at it.
After dinner, he wouldn't let me touch the dishes and kept urging me to hit the books.
But every so often, he'd pop in and ask if I wanted some water or fruit.
He was so distracting that I couldn't concentrate, so I ended up telling him I was working overtime and stayed at the office until eight before heading home.
One day, the office lost power, so I went to the café across the street to work on practice questions.
At eight, as I stepped outside, Leopold pulled up right on cue.
He stayed silent the entire drive home.
As soon as we got home, he suddenly said, "You haven't really been working overtime these past few days, have you?"
I froze for a moment. "Yeah."
He said, "I've been waiting downstairs at your office every day at six-thirty, for an hour and a half each time.
"Today, I arrived when the power went out, and I saw you head over to the café across the street and stay there until eight."
He looked at me. "Jessica, would you really rather stay out somewhere else than come home to see me?"
I said while setting my bag down, "Since you brought it up, let's talk."
He interrupted me, "I'm leaving for a business trip tomorrow.
"We'll talk after I get back."
I looked him in the eye and nodded.