Kyle and Donahue both spoke, but I shook my head at them, not really hearing them.
“What happened?” Kyle asked, and I got the idea he’d said it more than once by the way his forehead scrunched. The cleft in his chin went deep, and I kinda understood how he kept hooking up every night of the week. It made him cute. Humiliation washed through me, made even worse by my stray thoughts.
How did they all think that shit with Mr. Uhlig was funny? My entire body quivered. He was scary.
“I have to go,” I murmured, snagging my hoodie from the back of my chair. “I have to.” I jammed my hands through the sleeves. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Tell them….” Nausea swamped me. “Tell them I’m sick.”
Kyle stepped in front of me, and I zipped up my hoodie, staring at the floor between us. “What happened?”
“He told me to get out,” I whispered.
“You’re being too sensitive. He’s just an ass when he’s pissed off.” Kyle’s hands drifted into my line of sight and I darted back away from him. I knew he’d only wanted to be nice, the way he always was, but I couldn’t take him being all handsy. Irritation blazed to life in me, and all at once I was able to snap my attention to his face. He stepped back.
“Do not tell me I’m being too sensitive,” I hissed. “He yelled at me. How is that okay? We’re at work. I’m not supposed to have to deal with that shit at work.”
“But don’t you need the money?” Donahue asked from his workstation as I took off toward the door, shoulders slouched, feeling both vindicated for leaving and stupid at the same time.
“Yeah, I do,” I grumbled. “Don’t let them fire me. Tell them I’m sick.”
My stomach did an unhappy barrel roll. It wasn’t a total lie. The look on Mr. Uhlig’s face reminded me of all the times I couldn’t run away, and I couldn’t take it, couldn’t stand it. Terror and humiliation wrapped around me again as I snatched up my messenger bag from beside my desk and then swung left out of the door to our small office, instead of right, and pushed open the double doors of the Emergency Exit we weren’t supposed to use. Right now, I didn’t care. I ran out into the cold winter sunshine of New Gothenburg’s business district. Tall buildings towered around like giants ready to stomp me.
All I could think about was my dad and how he yelled, nonstop, the second I stepped foot in his house. Thank God I didn’t live with him anymore. I sank into the dread that I’d have to go over to his place later tonight to check on him. My heart wouldn’t slow down as I hurried for my apartment and the promise of safety—at least for a little while.
2
Casey Uhlig
“You know what you have in common with a pig?” Raven wagged a finger at me and paced—spine ramrod straight—in front of her desk. Her heels clacked on the tiles and made each of her steps louder than gunfire. It had been a long while since I’d managed to rile her up this badly. I stood there with my hands behind my back and let her get it out of her system, otherwise she’d call my sister Nevaida, and all hell would really break loose.
No one had time for sister-rage in their day.
“Let’s see. Me and a pig? We’re both cute?” I went for a smile.
She compressed her lips and drew in a long breath through her nose. “That’s how you want to play this? Wrong! You both think your shit doesn’t stink.” She whirled to jab her finger in my direction, squinting one eye in a way that made her diatribe less effective because it had my lips curling up against my will. She was one of those people, like the man who’d run out of here earlier, who were just beautiful, and nothing she did made a difference. She couldn’t make an ugly face if she tried.
“I… I really don’t think that highly of myself. I know, okay? I know I haven’t been paying as much attention to how I’m reacting to people lately. I know everything you’re going to say to me is true.” I practically begged her, hunching over to put my hands on my knees to talk so I was more at her level. I didn’t need her dressing me down to feel bad that I’d made a stunning, punk-pretty man literally flee from my office like I was a troll about to eat him.
Tech would have my balls for this, but they hadn’t come up to add their two cents yet. I knew it was only a matter of time. Those guys were too weird to be scared of me, and they made the whole office work, which meant they could make everything come to a standstill.
Raven stomped her little self right in front of me and slapped a hand to her hip. Her neck got in on the action as she hitched her chin my way, and I knew she was really upset. She only ever got her whole body irritated when I was a top-tier asshole.
“You go find him. He was all sunshine when he came in here. Sweet as could be. Now you hike your ass on out of here, and—”
“Apologize. I know. Christ, why do I do these things?” Carefully, I straightened, keeping her in view because I knew those fingernails she kept sharpened to daggers hurt if they jabbed a sensitive spot. My back tensed and ached as I rolled my shoulders to loosen the knots.
She crossed her arms and shook her head. The tinny blare of death metal from her headset caught my attention all the way from her desk. How she didn’t go deaf was anyone’s guess. “Casey, you wouldneverhave gone off on me. You ever notice you only seem to yell at men?” She lifted an eyebrow and fiddled with the pearls at her throat.
I chuckled weakly. “Can we save the psychoanalysis?”
“Just sayin’, it’s strange, Case.”
“And it’s bad that I do that flipping out crap. I know.”
She slapped her hands at her sides, I suspected to keep from trying to strangle me. “Course, but your poor reactions are something foryouto ponder. Scoot!” she said, voice rising. “I have real work to do.” She grumbled under her breath, something that sounded like “idiot men” as she went back around her desk, giving me the evil eye the whole way. I left before she set me on fire with her mind, because if anyone could figure out how, it would be her. I could die tomorrow and she’d run the company better than I ever have, and she wouldn’t yell at anyone, either. I slunk toward the elevator and then climbed aboard after an interminable wait while she still glared at my back. I smiled at her as the door closed.
It had been a while since I visited the boys in tech, but there were worse things I could take ten minutes of my day to do than apologize to someone I’d scared. After all these years of being the boss, I still didn’t really know how to behave like one. The man I’d frightened was compact, I’d have even called him dainty, which most guys wouldn’t appreciate. He’d had huge doe eyes and a pouty mouth, which under normal circumstances would have made me want to touch….
I’d seen him standing there in my office and just fucking snapped on him because I’d been feeling dumber than a box of square wheels, and he’d had the presumption to breathe near me. And point out that Iwasstupid, at least in this instance.
