The day after, they had a video chat, which I rigged up in the downstairs ‘man cave’ so she could have Lissa on the big screen. Her face when I showed her that space was a picture. I started by showing her the blank wall, then poked the latch. Her eyes widened as she watched the door appear as if by magic.
“This is my secret space, a panic room almost, I guess. If you ever feel unsafe in here, you can let yourself in and pull it closed behind you. Nobody but me will be able to get in, but you can still get out. Okay?”
She nodded, and I led her down into my space, once again wondering what the new eyes saw when they entered. This time I worried it was too masculine, or even childish, but Glory hadn’t seemed like she disapproved. She’d smiled, and settled on thesofa with the fleece blanket she’d adopted, and I left her to her call.
Today? Well, today, Lissa was coming over again, and I had to work, but I was doing that from my home office, so I was at hand in case she needed me.
I led Lissa to the hidden room, for the third time in as many days showing off my secret to another person.
“Oh very cool. Ice couldn’t stop raving about your ‘secret spy cave’ as he called it, although he said he’d have a tech suite down there too.”
The thought had never occurred to me, but then I wasn’t as much of a techie as him, so it probably wouldn’t.
“Bottom of the stairs, Glory’s already there, and I set the coffee machine running for you guys. There’s some snacks too. I didn’t know what-”
“Stop, Henley.Breathe. You’re doing great, thank you.”
I dragged a hand through my hair, embarrassed to see it tremble.
“Am I? I feel like I’m treading on nails here, like everything I do is going to make things harder for her. I’m shit scared, Lissa.”
She nodded. “That’s to be expected. Why don’t I have a little chat with you when Gloria’s all talked out? I get that you’re feeling a lot of things right now, and trying not to let them out around her. You might also find… what was it Ice called it? Um… club fisticuffs… yes, that’s it. Something physical might be a good release for you too. Let that stress out safely.”
Huh. She made sense, but I didn’t think getting my nose broken was necessarily the way either. Still. I’d been missing my Muay Thai classes since Glory was here, so maybe going back to that would help.
“Thanks. Uh… take as long as you need. I’ll be in my office at the opposite end of this hall if you need me.”
She smiled serenely and headed down the stairs, while I pushed the door closed behind her. It was easy enough to open from inside, but I figured Glory would always feel safer hidden behind it.
I spent the next hour working through contracts and other complex documents relating to running my own business. I swear, when I got into this it was because I had investment money, and wanted to do more with it than let it sit in bank accounts. Now though, it was taking up so much of my time that I wondered if I’d made the right decision back then. It was my nest egg, my future, but now that I’d found a club to hang with, it felt more like a burden weighing me down.
I’d always had a solid work ethic, but I was nearly thirty and I wanted to enjoy downtime more. Was I just being a spoiled rich kid? Or had I proven to be otherwise by putting in years to build this little empire of mine?
Someone tapped on my door and I called out to them to come in.
Lissa stood there, smiling gently at me.
“We’re all done down there, and Gloria’s staying there to watch something for a bit. Did you have time for a chat?”
I nodded, gesturing to the spare chair beside me. My desk was against the wall, so it wasn’t like I was presiding over it at her. It felt like the right decision in this moment.
“How’s she doing?” I knew she couldn’t tell me details, and I didn’t want her to, but I needed to know if this was working for Glory.
She elegantly crossed one knee over the other, her smart trousers crinkling a little, the only crease in her otherwise impeccably dressed appearance.
“She’s fragile,” she finally said, which wasn’t news to me, of course.
“Is it helping her? Your visits, I mean? Not that I’m denouncing your skills or something, I’m just… Jesus… babbling like a fucking idiot.”
She simply smiled. She was making me feel calmer just by being in the fucking room, when I didn’t even realise I’d been on the edge for so long.
“She’s talking more now about the things that happened to her, and I’m not going to lie to you. It’s bad. It’s… she’s lucky she got out, because she wasn’t safe. Henley, she will never be safe while he’s alive.”
Whoa. Straight to the point, huh…
“Yeah. We’re working on it.”
She tilted her head at me. “Are you? Because it appears to me like you’re burying your head in work, rather than focusing on what should happen next.”
