Despite the tension in my gut, I chuckle. I realize no matter the circumstances or what kind of mood I’m in, Grace has the ability to make me laugh. I wouldn’t have slept with her that first time if she hadn’t been able to brighten my shitty evening with humor.
I ask for a slice of double chocolate lava cake and a couple bottles of the pear cider. When the order arrives, she takes aforkful of cake to her mouth and closes her eyes. “This is life. I almost feel human again.”
“After just one bite?”
“It’s the superpower of chocolate.”
Knocks. The door opens before I can answer, and Madison walks in, her strappy stilettos hitting the floor. Her unbound hair curls around her shoulders, her eye makeup smoky and lips cherry red. The dress she has on is cut low, but the skirt reaches two inches above her knees. Not exactly professional, but not something I can find fault with if she says she was out with friends.
She comes to a halt when she notices Grace. Then she looks at me, smiles and comes forward until she stands one and a half steps away from my side. “Good evening, Huxley. And you too, Grace. You both look very nice,” Madison says, all professional and proper.
I sniff, trying to get a whiff of her perfume, but all I can smell is soap and some generic fragrance from her cosmetics and lotion. Is my nose that insensitive? Just to be sure, I sniff again and cock my head. Grace takes another big bite of her cake, then raises her eyebrows at me and shrugs. I guess she’s not smelling it either.
Then it hits me.The perfume campaign we’ve been working on.The client sent us boxes of the new perfume to “help inspire us,” and many of the female staff used it, saying how lovely and floral it was. I personally don’t care for it that much—not my kind of fragrance—but I never said anything, since my nose became numb to it soon enough and I quit noticing.
Madison was one of the women in the office who fell in love with it, and she sprayed it around her desk more or less every day when I walked by. Was it so she could plant a seed of doubt into my wife’s heart? If Grace hadn’t had faith in me, she would’ve tormented herself thinking I was cheating on her. Afterall, it isn’t as though she has a better role model in life to believe otherwise.
“Is there anything I can do for you, Huxley?” Madison’s voice is smooth, but uncertainty flickers in her gaze.
“You’re terminated, effective immediately,” I state flatly. I feel the weight of my wife’s surprised gaze on my face. “Collect your things on Monday. You’re locked out of the agency network, so don’t even think about grabbing anything there.”
“What?” Madison takes a stunned step back, then stiffens. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’ve warned you more than once, but you’ve overstepped your boundaries.”
She clenches her hands. “I didn’t do anything!” She is speaking to me, but her glittering eyes are on Grace, who calmly polishes off her chocolate cake. Madison doesn’t seem to realize her reaction has betrayed her guilt.
“Didn’t you? Spraying me with your ‘favorite perfume’ isn’t your latest bullshit?”
A sickly pallor replaces the color in Madison’s face. She understands I’m too calm to be trusted. “I overheard you talking to Bryce!”
I give her a look. “Just to be clear—are you admitting to eavesdropping on a conversation with my attorney held in my office, behind closed doors?”
She flinches, obviously realizing her error. “I just wanted to understand you better so I could do a good job. Come on. We’ve known each other for so long. Longer than her.”
“It’s only because we’ve been working together for so long that you were able to fool me, undermine my marriage and hurt my wife.” I despise her for abusing my trust.
“You aren’t going to give me a chance to explain?” It’s comical how aggrieved she sounds.
“I don’t give traitors a chance to take another swing at my wife.” The possibility of Madison coming after me doesn’t bother me, but the notion that she might attack my wife? All bets are off.
Madison takes a step toward me, her arms coming up. “Huxley—”
“Come any closer and I’ll have security throw you out.”
Her already-pale face turns even more bloodless. She sways a little. I hope she doesn’t faint. She might crack her head open on the oak table behind her, and housekeeping will be annoyed if they have to get a bloodstain out of the ivory carpet.
“Get out,” I snap.
She turns to Grace beseechingly, but my wife is too busy quenching her thirst with the bubbling cider. If she weren’t pregnant, she would be chugging down a flute of Dom.
Defeat finally enters Madison’s gaze as it dawns on her there will be no mercy from Grace, either. She stumbles out, the door closing with a click behind her.
“So. She never gets to make excuses?” Grace says. “Try to tell her side of the story, so you can verify who’s being honest and who’s overreacting or whatever?”
“Trust should be repaid with trust. You trusted that I didn’t betray you with Madison despite all the signs that could have pointed to that. Also, I figured out why I smelled like the perfume and didn’t notice.”
“I’m all ears.”
