“I toldyou, I was doing you a favor taking you on that date. Why can’t you women ever be grateful?” He wraps his fingers around my arm and jerks me roughly to the side.
Pepper lunges again and grabs onto his ankle, sinking her teeth through the thin fabric of his white socks.
Red blooms there as he shakes her off, yelling, “She bit me! Your dog bit me! I’m bleeding. I’m calling the pound. I’m having that dog put down.” Spit flies out of his mouth.
“Give me that,” he rages, swiping for the leash.
“Leave my dog alone! You’re not hurting her.” I swing my arm, and Jaxon takes the bag of food to the face. Cake and freshly grilled scallops explode on his overpriced designer shirt, unbuttoned to show too much skin.
“You’re going to pay for that, stupid female. And that fucking dog is going to get it.”
Dropping the broken take-out bag, I take off at a run down the street toward the Rainier Equity office. Pepper sprints as fast as her stubby legs can take her. To be fair, she keeps a better pace than me.
My lungs burn. Snot and tears run down my face as I push through the annoyed crowds of office workers out on their lunch break. Wheezing and gasping, I fumble with the keycard, swiping, swiping, until the side door finally opens and we’re safe in the Rainier Equity offices.
My phone chimes. Is it him?
I drop my phone, trying to fumble it out of my purse with shaking hands.
Jess:Where you at?
Jess:Salinger is hangry.
Jess:Better hurry.
“Shit. Shit!” My hair is snarled and tangled under my fingers. “I don’t have his lunch. Oh my god. He’s going to be so mad.”
I can’t take it.
I can’t do this.
At my feet, Pepper whines and licks my shoe. Bending down, I scoop her into my arms, squeezing her tight, too tight. She grunts and wiggles in my grasp.
“I’m sorry.” I bury my face in her soft fur. “I need a lawyer. I’m going to hire a lawyer. I have extra money saved up. Jaxon’s not going to hurt you, I promise.”
Pepper’s warm tongue licks my face.
But what am I going to do about lunch? Salinger is going to scream at me if I don’t show up with something. I can already hear him.How can you fail at the easiest part of your job? You’re so fucking useless, Mandy!
The simple thing to do would be to go out and buy more food. If I call now and hustle, I might not be too late for curbside pickup. It’s already too late for delivery. TheSeattle lunch hour is in full swing—it would be ninety minutes before a delivery person arrived.
I’m going to puke.
I’m such a wreck that I’ve lost my appetite for my own lunch.
That’s it! I’ll feed him my lunch. I have casserole and a salad. Shoot, I think he has a call coming up. He won’t even notice that it’s not his usual, right?
The office is mostly empty. A lot of the more enterprising employees work out at the office gym on their lunch hour then eat at their desks while they work in the afternoon.
My Hello Kitty lunch box is tucked under my desk. Salinger’s back is turned as he yells into the phone.
Crouching down, I scurry to the break room. Trembling, I carefully plate the cold cube of casserole.
My family is honest midwestern stock, and nothing beats the Seattle chill like casserole. Though this is slightly more upscale version. Pastitsio takes hours to make—you have to stew the meat, make a béchamel, broil the eggplant separately, assemble it all, then bake.
Half an hour ago, I was looking forward to my lunch. Now, I just want to survive the rest of the day without a panic attack.
After arranging both mine and Pepper’s portions neatly on the plate, I place it into the microwave and set it for two minutes.
