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"Noyoujustwantmetoquitmyjob,movemyapartmentto one you find suitable, then maybe, you’ll put some feelers out and get me a job you’re comfortable with."
"Whydoyoualwaysdothat?"
"Do what?" she asked since it was the second time he’d mentioned it.
"Try and push me away by finding something to be mad about."
"What are you even talking about? Landon, even if I let you screw me right here in the stairwell, it won’t change the fact that nothing has changed! Everything I’ve said from the beginning of this whole…whole…shit show are still facts, even if you refuse to hear what I’m saying!"
The words hung out in the enclosed space, reverberating way too long in the silence.
"Shit show, huh? Wow, so I guess everything you said the other night still stands?"
"Ofcourseitdoes,"Katiesaid,exasperatedbythequestion. The only scenario in which they could be together involved her quitting her job and any woman with half a brain would tell her what a stupid idea quitting her job for a man she’d known less than two months would be. Wasn’t all that obvious?
"Fuck it!" Landon’s yell bounced off the high walls of the stairwell. "I’m over this shit. Have a nice life."
For the third time that night the heavy metal door banged against the wall. Katie was staring at the floor and she saw only the bottom corner as it swung back closed. But it was enough. Just that fragment—that two-inch triangle of gray metal— triggered a whole flood of flashbacks.
Another door corner, this one wood. This one swinging inward, the incoming air swirling the curtain hem above the beige carpet. And shoes. Tan loafers. Boat shoes. Not leaving like Landon’s, but coming in. And not Kyle’s. He never wore boat shoes.
Katie fell back against the stairwell wall and slid down to her butt, the air knocked out of her and replaced by Kyle’s voice, swirling in her head and right up against her ear.
"You did this, Katie. You have to learn how to treat people. You did this. Do you think I want to do this to you? To punish you? Why? Why did you make it come to this? Don’t you dare play the victim, Katie, don’t you fucking dare. You don’t get to toy with people’s emotions like that."
But that was all before the door. While she was on her stomach, on the bed, cheek smushed into the white bedding, unable to move. Unable to escape what came next.
The door. The door came next. She heard the knock, a soft hazy thud in the background. Heard the handle turn and spring back, the slightest creak of a hinge. Then the air, just a small gust, sliding in from the hallway and swirling the hem of the beige curtain above the beige carpet. The air sliding across her exposed skin as the loafers padded against the plush flooring.
"No, no, breathe,please no, breathe, just breathe." Katie pounded a fist against the stairwell floor, but the dull thud barely registered in the cavernous space. "Not here. Please not here."
Thevoicesstill didn'tstop.Shecouldheartheminherhead. Talking.Speakingthewordsshe’dbeentryingtorunawayfrom. Kyle’s voice and a laugh wafting in the background. A man’s laugh, but not Kyle’s. Definitely not Kyle’s.
"So this is where we’re at Holt? Daddy’s not going to cover you this time? So how much?"
"Hey,henevercoveredmebefore.Let’skeepfamilyoutofthis."
"Uh-huh, whatever you say big baller. You’ve got deep pockets whenyou’re betting against the spread, but where's all that cash now?"
"Hey are we doing this or not?"
"Oh yeah, this is definitely happening. She’s a gem, a real gem. Look at that ass. This is going to be fun."
"Now come on man, you better not leave any marks."
"You let me worry about that. How much?"
"I’dsaythiscoverswhatIoweyou."
"You’dbetterhopeshedoes,Holt.That’sallI’vegottosay.You’d betterhopeshedoes."
That was as far as Katie needed to go. The phrases had fallen into place like puzzle pieces, the picture displayed in full color Dolby digital with surround sound. All she could do was replay it, again and again, while rocking hunched over her knees in the stairwell.
She was there for five minutes or fifty, she couldn’t say with any true certainty, but eventually Katie peeled her cold, numb butt off the concrete floor and made her way back to the event with eyes glassed over. By the time she got there, Ellis had already done what she’d never of had the strength to do herself. He'd sent Landon and Layla off together in a limo with no arguments from either party.
chapter 37
The magnitude of what she’d said to Landon didn’t fully register with Katie until later when she was driving Ellis home from the banquet. Stopped at an intersection, shoulders slumped, eyes staring out the windshield, she didn’t even realize the light had turned green until Ellis gave her a gentle nudge.
