It was Monday, and I was back at work. I tried covering my black eye with foundation, but it was an angry shade of dark blue that wouldn’t be covered despite my many attempts. I felt like shit, having slept a total of three hours over the last two days. We were all rattled from the events that had taken place and everyone had been on edge the whole weekend.
Freddie hadn’t left the house at all and had refused to go to school this morning. She followed me around like a lost puppy, toilet stops being the only break she allowed. If I was honest with myself, I didn’t want to leave the house either. I was still too freaked out at what had happened and scared Dickhead would try and get revenge. He knew where we lived, having picked Freddie up many times, but at least we could lock the doors and clutch our phones. Just in case.
Josie was her usual bubbly self, thankfully not picking up on the tension. Oma tried to deal with everything by cooking up a storm, not only making her famousApfelstrudel, but alsoNusshoernchen,and a cheesecake. I did end up telling her everything that had happened, and she was furious. She wanted us to go to the police, but Freddie refused. She was scared out of her mind and didn’t want to piss Dickhead off even more. There was no convincing her. In the end, she started crying again so we left it alone.
Now I was back at work and wondering what to do. I got curious stares from Claire and Martin, the other two people working for Cassie. Claire had just graduated from Virginia Tech and was a genius. I didn’t know how Cassie had convinced her to come work for us. Martin was in his late twenties with a brown mop of hair that desperately needed a trim. For the last few weeks, he had been trying to grow a beard but the fuzz on his face didn’t promise much success.
I liked working with them; they were friendly, knew their stuff and never got angry at me for screwing up appointments. The last one I was especially grateful for. I just wasn’t made to organize someone else’s life. And to be honest, I was in the wrong job, but I needed the money and Cassie wanted to help so she’d offered up the assistant position. There wasn’t enough baked goodness I could bring in to ever make it up to them.
Claire gasped loudly when she saw my eye and fussed over me until I told her to give me some room to breathe. She grudgingly left but shot me looks from her desk. Martin asked me if I was okay in his calm Martin way and gave my shoulder a squeeze once I assured him that everything was fine. He wouldn’t push. That wasn’t his way.
I felt their eyes on me all morning, so when lunchtime rolled around, I shot out of my chair and offered to buy lunch for everyone.
The small deli down the road was our usual go to and after assuring Berta who worked the counter every day that I was okay, I placed our order. I got back to the office with two sandwiches, for me and Martin, two salads, for Cassie and Claire, and four coffees, for all of us. I plopped it all down in the front area that we deemed our lunch room for the lack of one and called out to everyone, “Lunch is served. And I’m not waiting for you all to get your asses over here to start my sandwich. So if you don’t want your food to be half gone by the time you get here, you better move it.”
Everyone knew this was no empty threat. I had stolen more than one lunch, having learned from the best. Nate used to be a master at eating other people’s food, mainly mine since I had been around the most. I’d quickly learned to scoff it all down in record time to make sure he didn’t steal it. Something I still seemed to do, but since I was usually short on time it was a great skill to have. Speed eating for the win.
I sat down on one of the beanbags that we made Cassie buy and unwrapped my sandwich. I took my first bite and hummed in pleasure. Dino’s did the best sandwiches in town. Just the right amount of cheese, meat and salad ratio. And to top it off, they made their own aioli sauce.
Nobody emerged and I peeked around the corner to find out what was taking so long. I saw Claire and Martin standing next to their desks, staring at Cassie’s closed office door. That was odd behavior, even for them.
“What’s going on?” I whisper-hissed and their heads shot around.
“Nothing. Maybe you should go out and get some ice cream,” Claire whisper-yelled back.
No way was I missing the excitement. Something was clearly going on or they wouldn’t look so freaked out. My brows shot up when there was shouting coming out of Cassie’s office and the door opened. Claire and Martin dove back to their desks to hide.
I watched a very angry Rhett stomp out, pausing briefly to look at my empty desk right outside Cassie’s office. This did sound like a good time to get some ice cream. He hadn’t seen me yet so I could probably sneak out. I put my sandwich down and got up.
I made it two steps before I felt him.
Three steps before the back of my neck prickled.
Four steps, and he was behind me, grabbing hold of my elbow and turning me around to face him. I hissed at the sudden movement, my ribs protesting at the sharp turn. They weren’t broken as I found out when I went to the doctors on Saturday but the bruising would take a while to heal.
I kept my head turned down and tried to pull my elbow back. Rhett getting in my face right now was not what I needed. “Let go of me.”
The urge to wrap an arm protectively around my middle was strong, but the last thing I wanted was for him to ask questions. Hence the downturned face. I wiggled my arm again in another attempt to get free but he held on. It wasn’t painful but firm, and there was no way I would get out of it if he didn’t want me to.
“Rhett, please,” I pleaded.
“What’s wrong?” he asked and stepped closer.
“Ever heard of personal space?”
“Emmi, I asked you a question. Why are you hunched over like that? And don’t bullshit me. I know all your tells.”
And didn’t he ever. I was never a good liar but Rhett was particularly good at calling me out. Apparently I had a ‘tell’ but he never did say what that was.
“You do not. And I forgot I have a meeting so I really need to get going.”
“Look at me,” he demanded.
I ignored him and tried getting out of his grip again. He pulled me towards him in response, and I collided with his chest, crying out in pain. He immediately let me go. “Emmi, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t think I pulled that hard.”
“It’s fine,” I said and tried to make my escape, not planning on him stepping in front of me. I looked up in surprise and wished immediately I hadn’t. His eyes went dark, his face turned into a scary mask of fury the second he saw me.
“What happened?” he growled and reached out a hand but stopped when I flinched back. “Who did this?”
