Overthinking

Her morning went more peacefully than she had expected, the rain held off until she entered her building so she was able to avoid getting wet. Considering the contradicting weather in Canada there was no certainty that this luck would last. In the morning it could be a sunny day but by the end there would be a full hail storm with the sun still up in the air. In the beginning of this job she wanted to keep spare clothes at the office just in case but hated the idea of it being accessible to anyone. At most, she kept a pair of heels under her desk for her to change into every morning.

Her office itself was a private business firm that mainly did consulting and took care of legal issues. It was tough work and included lots of reading but she enjoyed the fast face environment. There was also a fair bit of variety, in the morning she could be negotiating a simple licensing contract and in the evening talking to high profile criminals. She grew up watching crime documentaries and tv shows, it wasn't a hard decision when she went into law. It was partially a selfish decision, becoming a lawyer would award her a certain status and protection. The pay was also nice enough to stop her from being a complete stay at home potato. She liked to skim over her law school years because those were painfully long and were the darker times of her life.

It was quite ironic to her that she was spending so much time worrying about a potential stalker when she was in contact with bigger criminals everyday. The topics would range from money laundering to sometimes murder, yet she was never afraid of them because she held the power. They needed her for their trial so it would not do them any use to get rid of her. Her success rate was very high so she never worried about revenge after she failed either. There was a clear contract and discussion with the clients about her probability of success and what they would have to accept if they wanted her. All of this experience and interactions that part of her was surprised it even took that long for her to gain some criminal action in her life. Not that she hadn't had run ins with the law but after she had started working here there was nothing. So for around five years she was peaceful and that is why she took this incident more seriously.

If there was one thing she learned is that to forgo an incident as a one time incident could lead to death. Especially as a coloured woman in this society she was already at a disadvantage. Finishing up her lunch she quickly refreshed herself before picking up her phone. There were at least twenty more minutes left of her break and she could use it to research. Pulling up Reddit she typed in "I think someone is stalking me" into the search bar and hundreds of different threads appeared. She knew a generic statement like that could trigger so many other posts but it was overwhelming how many there were. There were even posts from yesterday from a woman in the UK. What was nice that on Reddit you could post your problems and only really need to give age and sex as identifiers. It helped the readers understand better what was going on and the age dynamics at play.

The first thread she saw was a thirteen year old girl describing her getting stalked at a local mall. Thought nothing of it, person did not look harmless till he went to the fake school name she gave and researched about her. She found out through a friend and in the middle of the night received a text message from this stalker saying "why did you have to lie about where you go to school."

'Oh my, this is what I mean when I say there is no real privacy anymore. That's so creepy.' The comments below were just telling her to keep records and tell her parents so that they can contact the police. Yet, while that was great advice for a thirteen year old it wasn't the same for a twenty-six year old lawyer. She already knew what they had advised but she was looking for something more. On a behavioural analyst perspective or self defence basis was her main intention. It was annoying that in Canada there were laws against weapons and the hidden variety so a pen knife for example was illegal. She couldn't carry anything inconspicuous without risking her job, even if she had it and no one knew it was fine. The issue was that she wanted to keep it and use it if need be, however the damage she does to them would be under question too.

'This is so frustrating.' Switching in and out of different threads she began to skim them for any similar situations and any advice that would work from her. After 30 or more posts she closed her phone and rubbed her eyes in irritation. Her brain hurt from all the back and forth in her mind from both thinking she was doing too much and doing too little. The best test would be to carry her umbrella like a weapon and hope that no one follows her back home. If they do then she can confirm that she is being followed for sure and probably stay over at a friend's house. She did see that a lot of people asked their friends to take them to their car, she could enlist a couple of her coworkers until the subway at least. 'Okay that's enough I'm done thinking about it for now.'

Pushing her personal phone back into her work drawer she went back to her work. There was a pile of contracts sitting on her desk and all were new cases she hadn't seen before. Just as she was getting into the rhythm she felt a coworker tap her on the shoulder. Looking back it was one of the secretarial staff in the building. They weren't close friends but definitely on friendly terms since Jane and her started around the same time.

"Hey, Jane what's up?"

"There's a package for you in the front, I was going to bring it to you but the mailman insists you sign off."

"A package for me?"

"Yeah....but its a bit weird."

"What do you mean?'

"Well....come see for yourself."