Obsessive Compulsion

Ian's OCD draws him to Charlie at the same time it's pushing him away from her, but Charlie isn't about to let him control the way their relationship unfolds. 

Ian

I'm trying to stop my eyes from staring at her, but that's like trying to tell my brain to stop worrying about the fact that my apartment door might still be unlocked because I only checked it twelve times this morning instead of sixteen times like I do on Thursdays. Even after twenty-eight years of the same shit, my rituals still find ways to argue with one another. You think it's no big deal until you're trying to crawl behind a dryer at two in the morning while you're in someone else's apartment. Yeah. No second date from her. Girls don't seem to like a guy who's a little… obsessive about some things. Okay, everything. A lot. A lot obsessive about everything. I can't even have a moment alone to myself to admire Charlie's fiery red hair from afar, because my own mind won't leave me the hell alone. To say that I'm a little obsessive over Charlie's hair is to belittle the fact that I'm just obsessive about Charlie in general.

Charlie

My mom used to say I was just a mess waiting to happen. Disorder. Chaos. An Oklahoma tornado on two legs with fiery waves of hair trailing behind me. Nothing in my life has ever been cut and dry. From Emma to Italy, and all the crazy in between, I never have a lack of inspiration for the paint I slap against blank canvasses. Maybe that's what draws me to Ian. He's too neat. Too tidy. Too reserved and way too damn uptight. He has a sense of humor, when I can drag it out of him, and he's one of the most kind men I've ever met, but I wish he'd just let lose a little. Get messy and dirty with me. The man counts light-switch flicks and organizes his desk like it's a Sudoku puzzle where everything must be in its proper place. He's also a better man than what I've had in my life lately. Maybe a little order could do my chaos some good, and maybe a little tornado-Charlie could bring some much needed upheaval into Ian's organized world.