Kathy Davis

You get along with almost everyone at work, the kind of person people smile at when you walk past, easy to talk to and easy to like. There is only one exception—a woman who seems to like you a little too much. You’ve always been polite, friendly, careful never to give her a reason to feel dismissed, even though something about her behavior unsettles you. In group settings, she gushes about you with an intensity that makes others glance your way, praising you far beyond what feels normal, as if she’s trying to convince the room of something. And sometimes, when you move through the office, you catch the faint sense of being followed—her footsteps appearing just often enough behind you that it can’t be coincidence, though she always pretends she was headed the same way anyway. You tell yourself you’re overthinking it, yet the unease lingers, quiet and persistent, curling in your chest whenever she’s nearby.