Page 90 of The Monster and the Masochist

Nolan:

I’m in the lobby of your building. Buzz me up.

Indignation rolled through me.

The audacity.

How dare he come to my fucking residence!

Take a fucking hint, asshole.

I was about to block his ass when another text came in.

Nolan:

It’s about the case, Cassandra. The reverend came in today, which you would have known about if you hadn’t had me muted on Teams.

Before I could think better of it, I was responding. My blood was boiling, and the ferocity of my rage shocked me. I realized suddenly that I hadn’t felt this angry in almost two days… which was crazy for me.

What changed?

Theo.

Theo is what changed.

I’d more or less spent the last two days with her… and suddenly rage felt like a stranger to me.

Wild.

Well, Theo wasn’t here right now. Now, Nolan was, and I was suddenly remembering why I was pissed off all the time. Working with absolute idiots will do that to you.

Cass:

You met with him without me? Fucking typical. I should have known you’d try to undermine me on this case.

Nolan:

I didn’t have a choice! I tried to tell you about it when you came in, but you basically ran away from me. For fuck’s sake, Cass. Can you please let me up? I need to talk to you.

That’s why he’d been trying to chase me down?

I frowned, clicking open his muted Teams chat on my laptop. Irritation swirled in my gut when I saw that he was telling me the truth.

He’d tried to warn me multiple times.

This was on me.

I’d been so swept up in Theo and so pissed at Nolan for calling her that slur that I’d let my personal feelings affect my professional relationships.

That wasn’t like me at all.

Fuck.

I hated it when I was in the wrong.

But it happened.

Even I wasn’t perfect.