AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bringing the bottle of whiskey between us, Ipoured us each another glass, asmaller, celebratory one. “Shut up with this shit. I’mhappy for you.”
We sipped from our drinks. Joel drummed the arm of the chair. “What I’mtrying to say is, we signed on big clients and we’re continuously growing without hiring more staff.”
“What do we need more staff for?”
“As Isaid, to be able to be at home in the evenings, at least two or three days of the week, work less over the weekends. The normal things.” He placed down the glass, laying both of his hands, palms flat on my table. “Zach, Ilooked over the budget, we can afford it.”
“Look, Joel.” Ileveled my tone, understanding his excitement and new worries. “If we don’thave any meetings or dinners with clients, you can work from home. That’spart of the benefits of being the boss.”
“Just…just think this through. At least one more partner, senior associate, and two or three more associates. More work would get done, faster and better.” He finished his second glass in one gulp and rose to his feet, buttoning his suit jacket.
“Will do.” Ifired up my laptop, ready to check all the messages I’dreceived while we had talked. “One last thing though,” Icalled to him as he pushed through the glass door to the office. “How come Caitlyn never asks if I’malive or not?”
“You idiot.” He shook his head, his laughter following him out of the room.
Joel cleared out at around ten that evening. The last of the associates, Christopher, stopped by to tell me good night at eleven. At midnight Idecided to call it aday and resume the endless workload tomorrow.
Knowing Kevin would give me hell for leaving my desk in disarray, Iput all the folders to one side, threw my laptop inside my shoulder bag, and headed to the elevators, switching off the lights behind me as Iwent.
The elevators arrived faster than they did in the morning traffic—they were empty too, and Ipressed on the minus two button where my Mercedes had been parked for the day. In the silence of the ride down from the seventeenth floor, thoughts of Laura infiltrated my mind.
Laura who Ihadn’tseen for two weeks. Two weeks, which, in one singular moment of remembering Laura, felt like an eternity without her lips, her breasts, her body dripping with sweat and need.
When the floor indicator showed we passed the third floor, my body reacted to these thoughts, brimming with energy and dreaming of getting my hands on her. On the lobby floor, Icontemplated whether or not it would be agood idea to go over to her place and rid both of us of said energy. On the second floor, Ilet out along exhale and shoved ahand through my hair.
Icouldn’tget to the car fast enough after that.
Throughout the entire ride to her house, the concept of asurprise visit appealed to me more and more, imagining how fast Icould get her wet. Hopefully pretty goddamn fast. Worst case, she’dbe asleep or kick me out, best case she’dlove it and I’dmake up for the shitty first kiss we had. And then some. And then some more.
The drive to her house took less than twenty minutes sans traffic, the family-friendly neighborhood silent that time of night. No one walked outside, despite the well-lit streets, and most of the curtains were drawn. Most, except for Laura’sstreet-level apartment where the lights were on.
Perfect.
My car squeezed into asmall parking space Ifound in front of her building, and Ijogged to the front door, ringing her bell.
“Hello?” Her voice came through, sounding weird. Ichalked it up to being muffled from the intercom and not understanding who’djust show up at almost one in the morning.
“Uh—hi, it’sZach.” She didn’treply, which led to astring of paranoid thoughts, that circled around an even worse scenario than Ihad imagined.
What if Erin dropped by for avery late-night coffee and Iput Laura in the impossible position of explaining what business Ihad coming here this late? And fuck atruck, the least Icould’ve done is used our nickname that we set exactly for these types of cases.
Thor, Thor, Thor,Irepeated to myself so it’dstick, unless Erin was on to us. Ihoped not.
“Hey,” Laura’svoice pierced through my anxiety when she buzzed me in.
Istopped at the entrance after opening the door, hesitant and staring at the door she cracked open without seeing her or anyone else coming from there.
“Zach? Where are you?”
“Coming.” Iforced myself to face her and whatever or whoever stood there with Laura. It would’ve been uncomfortable, but at the end of the day we weren’thaving an affair. We were friends who fucked, nothing wrong with that.
While Iprepared my speech in my head, Iwalked forward and then Laura came into view. As soon as Isaw her, Iunderstood that her voice wasn’tmuffled because of the intercom and she didn’ttake forever because someone was with her.
Something was off, and it had nothing to do with me. Laura lacked her normal upright stance as she slacked against the doorframe for support, clutching to acrumpled tissue with the other hand. Her hair was up in amessy bun with misplaced strands of hair cascading down her cheeks, her sharp eyes glistening, her nose red, and her body hidden behind alarge T-shirt and gray sweatpants that reached the floor.
My concern for her had me rushing forward, holding her shoulders while searching for answers in her eyes. “Are you okay? Have you been crying?”
“Not crying.” She stepped back from my hold and blew her nose. “Ijust feel like shit. Woke up sneezing and ended up like this.”
