Revision (COMPLETE)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Delaney was exhausted—staring at the ceiling while lying in bed seemed to be her new pastime the last three nights. Ever since she received the notification from Fin she'd been restless, antsy and agitated. These attributes were becoming more pronounced as she became increasingly sleep deprived as the week tore on. What could he want? It was driving her insane and no matter how hard she tried to push it aside, it boomeranged back to the forefront.

Tonight she lay on her left side, counting the shadow lines caused from the streetlight shining in through the cracks in the window blinds. She kept losing track at around fourteen, her mind bouncing back to the waiting notification on her computer. Finally, at two o'clock in the morning she decided to put an end to it. Reaching for her laptop, she fired it up and promptly crawled back under the covers.

It was just curiosity, she reminded herself. She had a solid plan. She was going to log in, accept his friend request and after procuring any personal information she could from his home page she would block him before he was the wiser. Yesterday she'd attempted to access his profile without accepting his request, only to learn that it was accessible exclusively to his friends. Well, she would become a friend—for a couple minutes, that is.

Her heart raced as she logged on, navigating to her current notifications. She clicked to accept his request and waited with baited breath as his personal page materialized on her screen. The first thing she noted was that in lieu of a profile picture he'd posted a painting, an acrylic, maybe. It was a lovely seascape with a Caribbean flair, and for a moment she wondered if he had settled on a tiny island where he raised his children along with his stunning wife, who sunbathed nude while he painted on the veranda.

She poked around his page, attempting to find a current photo of him. She clicked on the photos tab only to find more of his work categorized into sketches, oils, acrylics, watercolors and failures. Failures...what an odd category, she mused as she clicked on it. Her eyes quickly scanned the thumbnails before maximizing them and looking at them in depth. She was pleased to see how much his skill had improved over the years, especially if he considered these works to be failures. Obviously though, Fin was just as hard on himself as he'd always been—minimizing his amazing talent.

She was really enjoying this whole cyber-stalking thing. Settling back against her headboard, she clicked on oils, and was drawn into a library of diverse paintings ranging from seascapes to portraits, the colors vivid and brush strokes bold. The acrylics surprised her, with some looking more like watercolors. The paints appeared to have been diluted with water, and blended and flowed creating the most captivating sunsets she'd ever seen. Yet, he used opaque colors to highlight the glistening waves. They were amazing. She thought watercolors were her favorite, back a lifetime ago when she and Fin were friends, but these took her breath away.

She had always loved the ethereal feel that watercolors provided when the bright colors overlapped, creating new shades and the way the colors faded gently away as if evaporating. Finally, she ventured a look at his watercolors, which she had been saving for last. She felt like a peeping tom, rifling through his personal things without his permission—however, technically he did grant permission when he sent her the request. She savored the watercolors, remembering why they were her favorite even though the acrylics could easily vie for that title now. She smiled slowly, relaxing back into her pillow as she perused the rest of his page. This was fun, she thought, wishing she had tried this before enduring all of the sleepless nights.

His personal information gave nothing away, except his location was listed as being Miami. He must've settled down there after working on the ships or possibly the cruise line still employed him. Curiosity burned through her. Feeling greedy for more information, she clicked on every available tab and read everything that was posted on his wall. Unfortunately, it gave her nothing—nothing but heightened curiosity.

She also noticed he only had fifty-two friends on his page, which blew her theory that he was a 'friend whore'. She assumed when he sent her the request that he was probably one of those that had a couple hundred 'friends' including friends of friends he'd never even met. She began to scan through the list looking for familiar faces from college, and wondering if she could identify any of the women that Fin was more than friends with. She never would've considered herself the voyeur type, however, something in the freedom of digging around in his world was positively invigorating. Her nerves buzzed in response. She hadn't felt this alive in...well, a very long time.

A window popped open towards the bottom of the screen with a quiet pinging sound. As she quickly went to close it, her eyes fixed on the box in the split second before she clicked the X. Her hand trembled over the mouse pad as her nerves burst, sending fizzy tingles everywhere.

Her eyes froze on the message.

"Hi." The greeting was simple and paired with Fin's profile image.

She'd been caught red handed.

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I hope you liked this chapter. It's short, but I liked the pacing and ending of it. I love how Delaney is trying to stay so tightly in control of things and it starts to crumble so very quickly...  This chapter shows how her control slipped in a matter of moments.