Chapter 5

Peter waited outside your work until you finished. You'd noticed him for the final half an hour, awkwardly across the street, looking through the windows and waving at you, then looking up and down the street. It made you and the other girls giggle every five minutes.

Once you'd closed up the shop and waved the others off, you crossed the street to Peter.

"You could have waited inside, you know." You mused.

"I didn't want to interrupt your sales or anything, just standing by the counter being a creep." He laughed as you both started walking off towards your flat.

"I mean, you wouldn't be wildly out of place. We get some creeps sometimes."

"Very funny."

"So, what's the latest?" You asked. He looked around quickly and then leaned closer to you.

"Spotted her last night, after I texted you, obviously, because I hadn't spotted her by the time I texted you, otherwise I would have told you then that-"

"Peter, move on!" You laughed.

"Right, okay sorry." He ran a hand through his hair. "So I spotted her, she was with some friends and I heard them call her name so Ned started-"

"Whoa." You stopped walking suddenly and held a hand up. "Ned? Ned knows?"

"Yeah." He said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He's my guy in the chair. Anyway," He continued, putting a hand on your back and urging you forward. "Ned looked into it, and there were a few Jamie's in the Queens area, but he managed to find the right one. And uhh..." He looked at you with a worried expression. "She doesn't work with Adam."

You felt a dull stab in your heart. You quickly looked at the floor as you kept walking.

"Well...that's okay. She might be a friend." You reasoned. "Just because she doesn't work in the same firm doesn't mean anything." You looked back up at him. "Did they talk about any boyfriends or anything?" Peter shook his head. "Well, at least we have a starting point."

"She posted a lot about the gym round the corner, so I figured we could start with a good old fashioned stakeout." He smiled at you.

"I suppose." You huffed. He put his hand on your elbow, making you stop and turn to him.

"What's wrong?"

"I just..." You shrugged your shoulders. "It feels a bit stalkerish. You followed her, now we're gonna be watching her. It feels-"

"Okay I didn't...I didn't follow her. I just overheard. And as soon as we know who she is or isn't, we'll stop. It's not a big deal Luka. It's either this, or you ask him first. And you said you didn't wanna ask him without proof."

He didn't explain that he was used to doing stakeouts, as part of his job, because you didn't know about his real job. But in that moment, he almost told you. He wanted you to find out the truth.

"Yeah, I know. I know." You rubbed your hands over your face. "You're right. You're right!" You blew out a breath. "Okay, yeah. As soon as we find out who she is in relation to Adam though, we stop. We're done, agree?"

You held out your pinkie finger to him, and he wanted to smile at the childish gesture. He linked his pinkie with yours.

"Agree." He said back to you. "Now, let's get going, cos I'm hungry."

The two of you went back to yours so that you could change out of your work clothes, and grab your car, which you made Peter drive because...well because you simply didn't want to drive. You grabbed Delmar's on the way, and parked across the street from the gym that she supposedly kept posting about, eating your sandwiches and completely not paying attention to the task at hand.

"I'm not saying that Darth Vader was a good person, I'm just saying that I understand why he was so mad!" You explained.

"Luka he's literally one of the worst villains in cinematic history!" Peter argued back.

"Again, not saying he's a good person - but if I had been on a power trip, just choked out the person I loved and THEN had all my limbs cut off, I'd be pretty pissed off too!"

"A power trip? A POWER-" Peter cut himself off as he tried to collect himself. "He killed children, how do you justify killing all those children?"

"Well he didn't exactly have the best teacher, did he? Palpatine isn't an ideal-"

"I actually cannot believe you are defending Darth Vader." He shook his head in disbelief and you laughed.

"Not defending, I never said defending, I'm just saying that I get-"

"GET DOWN!" He hissed, suddenly slumping down in his seat and trying to drag you with him.

"Peter!" You shouted back as you spilled half your sandwich contents all over the tray in your lap in the chaos.

He lifted his head up slightly, looking out of his window, then started slapping you on the arm.

"What Peter?!" You snapped, and he whipped his head to you with an apologetic look, then pointed back out of the window. You put the tray holding your sad, disassembled sandwich onto the dash, and leaned over, resting your chest on his shoulder as you carefully peered through the window as well, putting your hand on the car door for support.

Across the street, outside the gym, was this girl, Jamie. She was in workout clothes, her hair tied up, definitely looking as though she was going to the gym.

She was also talking to your boyfriend.

An ice cold feeling ran through your veins, as though your blood was freezing over, your heart suddenly feeling heavy and sluggish as it beat dully in your chest.

"That's..Luka that's-"

"Yes Peter, I can see that my boyfriend is speaking to her." You hissed back, making him stop talking immediately. "Well that...I mean they're talking. Outside a gym. They clearly both go there so maybe she's a gym buddy?"

"Has he ever mentioned a gym buddy?"

"I..well I haven't exactly asked so..." You trailed off as they both went inside the gym. There was nothing untoward between them. They weren't touchy feely. They didn't seem like they were particularly intimate. It just looked like two people having a conversation, before going to the gym. But you didn't think it was a coincidence that Peter had seen Adam with this girl at the weekend, and a few days later they were together again, was it? Adam had never mentioned anyone called Jamie before, and he usually mentions when he meets someone new.

Was it because it was a girl? Is that why he hadn't told you about meeting her?

"What do you wanna do?" Peter whispered, and you refocused into the real world to see him staring down at you. His face was very close to yours. You were still leaning over his shoulder.

Has Peter always been this attractive?

You saw his eyes look away from yours as you heard yourself breathe. His tongue peeked out of his mouth ever so slightly to wet his bottom lip before he snapped his jaw shut, and his eyes moved back up to yours.

There was suddenly a wave of warmth rushing through your face. You cleared your throat and moved back into your own seat.

"They obviously know each other, and I suppose they go to the gym together. So umm.." You said hurriedly as you started fixing things that weren't even out of place; your hair, your clothes, running a hand across your mouth as though you had food on there still (even though you knew you didn't).

You heard him clear his own throat, and peeked to the side to see him sitting up in his seat, his left hand going to his steering wheel, his right hand turning the keys.

"I think we should see what else she's put online." He muttered, pulling out into the road and driving off. You nodded in agreement, thinking over your weird little moment.

Was it a weird moment? Maybe you had just never been that close to his face before. You shook it out of your head and asked him instead for the girl's surname, so that you could start looking through facebook.

By the time you got back to your apartment, the weird moment had been forgotten, by you at least. Peter had definitely not forgotten. But he focused on sitting next to you on your sofa, you on your phone and him on your laptop, looking through her social media pages for any additional information on this girl.

Ned joined in via video chat, and after a couple of hours, you pretty much had no new information. Basically, she worked at a local clothes shop, not at Adam's work, which Ned had already found out. She lived in Queens, and went to the same gym as Adam, but other than that, there wasn't a lot of information that you could gather. She hadn't posted any pictures of Adam, or any of his friends, so you didn't think they were in similar friendship circles. The only thing that you found out was that she was a romantic, like a sickeningly over the top romantic.

"I think I'm actually going to throw my phone across the room if I have to read another post about 'My baby boo!'" You scoffed, letting your phone fall into your lap as you rubbed your hands over your face. You'd ended up on opposite ends of the sofa, your legs over each others in the middle.

"You don't like that?" Peter said as he smiled at you over the top of your laptop. "Baby boo? Darling lover? Or what about..." He looked down at the laptop for another nickname. "Cutie patootie?"

"Oh please don't tell me she posted Cutie Patootie?!"

"She says she will always be his cutie patootie." He clarified. "Sweet cheeks?"

"No!"

"Oh, here's a good one."

"Peter stop."

"I think it's from a song lyric."

"No, please!" You laughed, starting to move your legs so you could move over to him.

"'My boy says I'm so sweet that he calls me Sugar.'" He said as he tried his best to stifle his laughter. You put your face in your hands and groaned loudly in protest. He closed the laptop and shifted closer to you, pulling your hands from your face. You could still see him trying to contain himself.

"Luka, you're my Sugar." He managed to spit out before bursting into laughter.

"God that made my skin crawl!" You cried, pushing him away. "I actually feel nauseous."

"Come on, Sugar ain't that bad! It could be ...southern?"

"Stop, please just stop."

"I'm definitely calling you Sugar from now on." He said, still laughing, as he got off your sofa and headed to the kitchen, filling up a glass of water.

"I beg you not to."

"Sorry, this is happening. I can do Sugar, or Cutie Patootie. Or maybe Honeypie?"

"No!" You cried as you stomped over to him, grabbing the glass out of his hand and putting it down. "Nope. That's it, I'm finished now." You moved behind him and started pushing him towards the door. "You're leaving now, and I will never see you again."

"You will see me again. And I will be calling you one of these nicknames. Might do some research into some more cringeworthy ones." He chuckled as he let you push him to the door. You opened the door, and gestured to it as he turned to you.

"Goodbye Peter." You said pointedly. He suddenly snapped his fingers and pointed at you.

"Boo-boo." He said triumphantly. You rolled your eyes and shoved him out the door. "See you later Boo-Boo Sugar Pie!" He called out as you shut the door on him, shaking your head as you couldn't control the smile on your face.