Page 20 of Fated to Them

I feel my lips tug up at hearing his voice. We have been friends for a few years, the sort of friends with sexual benefits yet not in an actual relationship; neither of us wants that, but the sex is good, and there are no strings attached. We’ve met through a mutual friend and hit it off. We used to meet up each week before he left the county to go overseas for his job.

“I can see that, or you wouldn’t be ringing,” I tell him.

“Tomorrow night, Morgan’s Diner, the usual time?”

“Sounds good. I will see you then. I gotta go. My boss is coming,” I tell him quickly, hanging up before I get in trouble for using my phone.

“Personal calls aren’t allowed,” Cyrus says, eyeing me with a strange look.

“Yeah, that’s not going to work. What if my mother needs me, or my niece’s school rings? I won’t ignore those calls,” I tell him.

“Give them the office number then,” he says, staring at my phone before picking it up.

I go to take it from him when he pulls his hand away, clicking my phone screen on.

“Tell me who you were on the phone to,” he says, looking down at me.

I don’t bother, knowing he is going through my call log anyway.

“I don’t get why I can’t use my mobile up here,” I tell him, shaking my head.

“It doesn’t matter. You should be working, not chatting to this Sam person,” he says, locking my phone screen and handing it back to me.

I take it, placing it in my bag.

“File these, and then come to my office, please,” he says, handing me some papers.

I grab them, looking them over before nodding and walking to the printer to scan them into the system and put the hard copy in the filing cabinets in the printing room. Going back to my computer, I put the scanned document into its designated file.

* * *

Going to his office, I knock, and he tells me to come in. Walking in, he is standing by the window looking down at the street below, the city bustling at this hour of the day.

“What’s up?” I ask, and he motions for me to sit down. I do while he remains standing, folding his arms across his chest, looking down at me.

“We will be moving to Soya City soon. Eli and I want you to come with us,” he says, my mouth falling open at his words.

I am not leaving, though my job will sure be easier without them here and their antics.

“I’m not moving,” I tell him, and he raises an eyebrow.

“If you say this is in my contract, I will be fleeing the city,” I warn him.

“It’s not, though we should have had that added,” he says before sitting on the end of his desk in front of me.

“Great, glad we cleared that up,” I tell him, getting up from my seat when he leans forward, putting his hands on either side of it, stopping me.

“We aren’t leaving without you. You will be coming with us.”

I shake my head.

“Probably won’t be for another month to give you time to come around to the idea,” he says.

“I’m not leaving. You can use that month to come around to that idea,” I tell him.

He sighs, sitting back, and the door opens behind me. Eli walks in.

“We will pay off your mother’s mortgage, all her debts, including the debts you have from your sister,” Eli says, making me look at him. “Just think about it, Addie.”