“Don’t put your hands on me ever again,” I warn him. I can’t keep the tremor from my voice.
His lip curls.
Looking away from him feels like turning my back on a hungry wolf.
“You understand how confused I must feel, don’t you, Corrine?” His voice is oddly gentle considering the violence that seems to simmer beneath the surface.
“This was completely my fault. Mr. Chambers is not at fault in any way,” I say in a rush. “It was...is inappropriate of me and a gross—”
He barks out a hard, sharp laugh. “You think I’m angry about the impropriety?”
My gaze bounces back and forth between his eyes. “I...well, yes.”
He leans forward. His breath whistling through his nose. “What does that skinny, bumbling idiot have that I don’t?”
I’m too shocked by Richard’s vitriol toward Wesley to fully register what he’s said. “I thought he was your... I thought you liked him.”
My phone chimes in my hand. I catch a glimpse of the area code, 612—a Minneapolis number. Probably my dad or brothers calling for an update on my flight situation. I want nothing more than to benot here. I want to be with my mom. My heart aches with how far away she is. None of this feels like it’s worth salvaging if I can’t be actively working my way toward her right now.
He grabs my arm before I can see more and I stand, the chair falling onto its back. It claps against the hardwood.
“What iswrongwith you?” I hiss. My arm throbs under the echo of his hand.
“What is wrong withyou?” he yells back. “I gave you your time. I gave you your chances. And you threw them away.”
I shake my head. He’s raving. “It’s never going to happen, Richard. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
He throws his head back, laughs again. “Let me lay it out for you. I pursued you and you turned me down and decided to sleep withhim. So here are your options.”
His voice lowers and it sends a chill down my spine. “If you want me to keep quiet about what I saw tonight. You end it with him.”
“I already have.” I cross my arms over my chest to keep it from cracking in two.
“And you give me exactly what he got.”
I blink. I blink as if blinking will somehow help me hear. And then I shudder.
“You’re sick,” I tell him, my anger shaking my voice. My skin feels grimy and unclean and I crave a shower to wash away whatever invisible taint he’s left from his gaze. Everything about this man, just being in the same space as him, breathing the same air, makes my skin crawl.
“I wouldn’t touch you to save my own life,” I spit.
“What about to save your job, Corrine?”
I think he’s taking joy in this. The corners of his mouth curl upward, his eyes gleam. “Everything you’ve worked for. All of the whispers, the doubt you’ve had to endure. All of that for nothing?”
“Get it through your decrepit, old brain,” I say. “I will never fuck you for my job.”
“What about for his?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You seemed upset, Corrine, when you first walked in.” He puts his hands behind his back, walks around me slowly, like he’s taking a nice stroll through the park.
“Of course I was upset.”
“Will you miss your little...boyfriend?”
I close my eyes. “He wasn’t my boyfriend.”
