Chasing Aubrey by Sennah Tate

locked with mine and we were the only two people in the world. My heart fluttered in my chest and I was dying to hurdle across the stands to get to her.
    Her head tilted to the side; she wasn’t expecting to see me in the crowd, but surprisingly, she didn’t look upset about it. I’d mulled over all of the possible reactions she could have to my stalking her and showing up at her event. None of those possibilities that I considered involved detached amusement. Despite the thinly veiled anger that seethed just below the surface, I could see a little twinkle in her eyes that reassured me that she was happy to see me.
    I felt a weight lift off of my shoulders that I wasn’t aware was pressing on me. Throughout all of this, I had convinced myself that she had a right to be angry with me, that she would probably feel violated and somehow twist this to make me seem like a creep. Hell, maybe I deserved that reaction. I couldn’t explain my motives for any of this beyond my insatiable desire to see her again and find out who she really was.
    Regardless, it was a relief that she didn’t scowl at me. After a brief announcement, she was free to leave the track. There was still one more race after hers, so she had to move her car, but I flew out of the crowd as quickly as I could to follow her. I hoped that she wasn’t planning on running off again. I didn’t know what I’d do if that happened.
    I found her still in her car, quietly stewing with a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. The car was parked, so there was no need for it other than her own frustration. I rapped my knuckles against the window and she rolled it down half an inch.
    “Get in,” she commanded. I heard the doors unlock and sprinted to the other side of the car to climb in.
    I closed the door behind me and we were off before she said a word.
    “You were great out there,” I commented, hoping that she would hear the sincerity.
    She scoffed and rolled her eyes, peeling out toward the highway.
    “I got cocky and it bit me in the ass.”
    “You didn’t lose,” I tried to reassure her.
    Her ice cold gaze met mine.
    “I didn’t win, either,” she said without an ounce of mercy for herself.
    I didn’t know how to make her feel better. I didn’t know what to say to someone that obviously had such high standards for themself. I wanted to comfort her and convey how amazing I thought she was, but it didn’t seem like anything was going to calm her.
    “Well, you’ll have your re-match,” I offered, realizing how futile the platitude was.
    She rolled her eyes and glared at the road like it had wronged her.
    “What a pathetic display that will be.”
    Her phone started buzzing non-stop and she directed her death glare to the blinking device.
    I raised a questioning eyebrow, but she tossed it out of the window without a word. I took that as my cue to keep my mouth shut lest I be the next thing sent hurtling out the window at highway speeds.
    “How did you find me?” She finally asked the question I’d been waiting for.
    I cleared my throat, trying to figure out the right way to phrase what I was going to say.
    “Well, I told you I have a certain set of… skills. It wasn’t that difficult.”
    It was my turn to receive the evil eye. It was unsettling to say the least.
    “How much do you know about me?”
    An understandable concern.
    “Enough to know that you’re not really Aubrey, but not enough to know who you really are. Why all the secrecy?”
    She exhaled and I saw some of the tension slip away from her shoulders.
    “I have my reasons.”
    “I don’t doubt that,” I answered, “but I had hoped that I wasn’t the only person that felt… whatever it was.”
    Those slightly-tilted eyes framed by impossibly long lashes traveled to me, surprised and at a loss for a response.
    “What… what did you feel?” She asked, training her gaze back to the road. I didn’t think she knew where she was driving. She was just going, trying to flee