Obsession With My EX-wife

Chapter 24: Leonard Crosses A Line

Leonard was no longer in Catherine's office when she returned after having not eaten lunch in the cafeteria. Catherine looked around the room, pausing on the place where he'd been sitting. If he was actually serious about wooing me – she thought – he wouldn't have given up so easily… The thing that made rejecting Leonard hard was that she still cared about him.

Leonard had left the lunch he'd brought for her, and there was a note on the bag. She sat down behind her desk and picked it up. It said, “I had to get back to work, but I will pick you up this afternoon.”

Catherine looked at the food, and her stomach growled. She was still hungry, so she heated it and ate it while she reviewed patient files. Then, when Leonard returned, he saw the empty dishes, and he was delighted to see that she'd eaten the food he'd prepared. And when he saw the satisfied look on Catherine's face, he thought – If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, it must be the way to a woman's heart as well! As long as she doesn't reject my cooking, I have a chance.

When Catherine heard a knock at her door, she suspected that Leonard was standing in her office doorway, and she pretended not to hear him. Unfortunately for her, Leonard was not easily deterred. He walked in, uninvited, and sat in the seat across from her. “I see that you ate the food I brought for you,” he said. “You must have really liked it!”

Catherine smirked and said, “I threw it in the garbage.”

Leonard's smile turned into a frown. No one had ever shamed him in this way before! “I just cooked these dishes!” he exclaimed. “They weren't even cold when I brought them. I can retrieve them, though, heat them, and then you can eat them!” 

Catherine looked at the garbage disdainfully and said, “No, thank you.”

Leonard: “Don't worry. It is no trouble.”

Catherine: “Be that as it may, I am not interested. I am not a Garbage Eater. Anyway, I need you to leave now. Your presence is having a negative impact on my job performance.”

Leonard stared at Catherine expressionlessly. He tried to find evidence on her face that would tell him that she was not telling him the truth, but he did not find any. From what he could tell, she was telling the truth. “Fine,” he said. “In the future, I will have Jim bring you your meals.”

Catherine thought about this for a moment, and then she said, “If you insist. It is unnecessary, though. After all, I am not a child. I can take care of myself.”

Leonard sighed, and he began to clear away the dishes on the desk. He was just about done when Catherine jumped to her feet and glared at Leonard. She jabbed him in the chest with her forefinger and middle finger and shouted, “How dare you fiddle with my files?!?!?!?” 

Leonard pushed Catherine's hand away, crossed his arms over his chest, and refused to reply. His insolence only made Catherine angrier. She stood akimbo with her fists at her hips, and with a firm tone of voice, she said, “I want you to get out of my office. Right Now. And from now on, you are never to enter my office again. If you do, I will be forced to call security.”

Only then, when Catherine threatened to call security, did Leonard realized he had crossed a line. 

Once Leonard was gone, the office was quiet again, which was how Catherine liked it. She ambled over to the files so that she could undo the damage Leonard had done, but when she got there, she realized that what he'd done was organize them – and she couldn't have done a better job herself.

Catherine ran her hand through her hair and uttered a sigh of frustration. She could feel a headache coming on, and she suspected that it would be a bad one. Catherine thought that she might owe Leonard am apology, but because it was Leonard, she decided against it. She knew that if she apologized to him, he would read more into it than she intended, and things between them would be worse than ever. “Better if he thinks he's done something wrong,” she muttered. “Better if he thinks that I'm angry with him.”

Regardless of how much easier he had made things for her, he had still technically crossed a line. After all, he had infringed on her patients' confidentiality, and that was a criminal offense. And, at the very least, he should have talked to her before he touched anything in her office. 

Catherine looked at the clock on the wall and realized that her shift had ended, so she closed her office door and changed into her casual clothes. She grabbed her coat and bag, and when she opened the door, she was surprised to find Leonard waiting for her. He looked embarrassed, and his head hung low. “What do you want?” she asked.

“Just to apologize,” Leonard replied. “I should not have tidied your files without your consent.”

Catherine gasped. This was a side of Leonard she had never seen: The Penitent Man. He was like a total stranger to her. She was so surprised and caught off guard that she forgave him, and then he offered to drive her home. She declined his offer, though, and insisted on taking a taxi home.

Of course, Leonard was not put off so easily, and he followed her taxi all the way to her apartment, and he didn't leave until she was safely inside. From there, he went to work. He had spent half the day cooking for Catherine, and had neglected his other duties, but they could only be put off for so long. 

***

Once Catherine was in her apartment, she went to the window and stared at the place where Leonard had parked his car. She had seen him talking on the phone, and she wondered if he had been talking to a girl. 

Catherine tried to put Leonard out of her mind and focus on Ryan's situation. Mrs. Brown came up from behind her and said, “A penny for your thoughts?”

Catherine smiled and said, “Oh, I was just thinking about work.”