I’m buried behind three partition walls, but I still snap my gaze around like someone might be snooping.
About how you wrecked it?
Twice.
I watch the three dots appear on the screen, distracted completely from finishing the reports James wants in the next thirty minutes.
CASEY
I want you wrecked, baby. I want you so wrecked every time you move all you think about is me fucking you.
My lips part.Holy mother of…
Not fair to say these things when I’m stuck in a dystopian corporate hellscape with no escape for the next seven hours.
His reply comes back almost immediately.
CASEY
Fuck it. Come home. I’ll give you an afternoon you won’t forget.
I consider it. Really consider it. It would be so easy to just walk away, tell James to shove his reports up his ass. We don’t need my paycheck. Casey has money. He doesn’t even take any of it off me when I get paid. In the early days of our relationship, I wanted to contribute, but every time I tried to give him my share of our bills, he would give it back to me.
As tempting as that is, I do like my job. Usually.
I put the phone down as the information I need from production comes through to my email. I open the doc and start transferring what I need into my spreadsheet.
My phone vibrates a moment later and I quickly check it.
CASEY
Who am I killing?
I pause. From anyone else, that would be a funny joke. But Casey isn’t playing. If I give him the word, he’ll make my problem disappear without leaving a trace. And that’s why I say nothing. James is a dick, but he doesn’t deserve to die.
No one. It’s fine. I can’t wait to see you later. I love you so fucking much.
Less than a heartbeat later, his reply comes back.
CASEY
I love you too, sunshine.
And for a moment, just a breath of a moment, I forget about James and his bullshit because that right there is all that matters.
THREE
LEXI
For the next week,I feel like I’m walking through molasses. I’m exhausted down to my bones. There’s a lingering feeling that I’m coming down with something that never seems to materialize.
At work, I try to avoid James as much as possible. He pulls me up on every minute infraction he thinks I’ve committed. My stress levels are through the roof, because my job is meant to be my slice of normality outside of bikers and overbearing husbands.
It’s ruining my peace.
The only thing that keeps me from losing my mind is Casey.
I’m sitting at the breakfast table in our apartment, my head fuzzy, a slow, unrelenting pulsing behind my eyes. Everything feels off, even the smell of the coffee twists my stomach.
