AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Goddamnit. I’m falling for my wife all over again.
“Fuck!” I yell, and throw the ring across the room.
It hits the far wall, bounces off, and rolls away under a chair.
That’s it. Tomorrow, I’m calling a lawyer.
I need to end this fucking fantasy, once and for all.
23
RORY
Rogue drops me off at Dad’s place early in the morning before anyone else is up. I slip upstairs to take a shower, and after almost an hour of artful makeup application to hide as much of my facial bruising as possible, I deem myself presentable for work.
I get dressed and go down to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. Gina is already there, and offers to make me a plate of eggs, but I tell her I can get some cereal for myself. I catch her a few times giving me subtle glances when she thinks I’m not looking — probably to check out my face.
“Where is Dad?” I ask, to distract her. Growing up, he was always awake with the sun.
“He hasn’t come down yet,” she tells me. “He sleeps later these days.”
“Do you think I should wait for him to go to work?”
She frowns. “Maybe let him go in on his own time. He has good days and bad. It might take him a while.”
I agree that she’s probably right, and leave for the office in time to arrive at eight. Joshua is already there. He spends the morning helping me get up to speed on some of our most important accounts. He’s really nice: ambitious, but not in a way that he feels threatened by the boss’s daughter potentially coming in and taking over. Or if he is, he doesn’t show it.
We work in companionable tandem. Once or twice, I see Joshua studying my face, but he quickly glances away when I meet his eyes.
Dad shows up a little after ten, looking frail but alert. He doesn’t notice my face at all, thankfully. He calls me into his office just as Joshua is leaving to prepare a pitch for a potential new client.
“I expectedyou home at dinner last night,” Dad tells me, sounding irritated, just as I’m sitting down across from him at his desk.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. I, um… had a date.”
“Really?” His eyes cut hopefully toward the door. “With Joshua?”
“No, just, ah, some guy I met. It’s nothing.”
I don’t know why I don’t just tell him I was with Brody. Well, Idoknow, actually. I’m just not in the mood to try to explain what I was doing with my estranged husband when honestly, I don’t even know myself.
And then, there’s the part where I would have to explain that Brody is still technically my husband.
Dad has me go to my office and come back with a presentation he’s having me prepare for a local chain restaurant we’re pitching to bring on as a new account. I know he’s testing me, which makes me nervous even though I’m not actually sure I want this job in the first place. He asks a few pointed questions, nodding his approval from time to time at my answers. It’s clear he’s satisfied with my progress.
Dad looks very tired, though. More than usual — andoff, somehow. I ask him if he’s okay, but he brushes me off with a wave. “Don’t infantilize me, Aurora,” he says in a brusque tone. I know my father better than to push it. He hates not being in complete control, of anything. Still, he looks relieved when the meeting is over, and slumps back in his chair when I get up to leave.
I shut the door behind me quietly, and mention to Tonette on the way out that he might not want to be disturbed for a while. She nods in understanding.
Toward the end of the day, just when I’m thinking about heading home, I get a phone call from a number I don’t recognize. When I answer it, Tori’s voice comes over the line.
“Hey! How are you doing?” she asks. “I haven’t talked to you since the craziness at the clubhouse. I wanted to check in.”
“I’m fine. My face is a little bruised, but I used some makeup wizardry and it’s not that noticeable.”
“Look, I’m so sorry about that whole thing, Rory. Dante has been chewing my ass nonstop about putting you and the club in danger. It was a really dumb thing to do. I should have known better.”
“It’s okay,” I assure her. “Honestly, I shouldn’t have agreed to come to the pig roast in the first place.”
