Total pages in book: 37
Estimated words: 35197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
They blink at me in unison.
My boss uses her forearm to keep the elevator door from closing. “My God. Look at you. Did he hold you hostage in some…some warehouse last night?”
“You’re a mess,” Dierdre says, pursing her lips while she peruses me, top to bottom.
“You’re thirty-one minutes late and you have the presentation of your life on Friday,” Vikander says. “This man is not good for you.”
“Really?” I say, without any forethought, my lips curling into a dazed smile. These two women who always make me feel so silly and small are not going to best me today. “I feel…great.”
Dierdre reaches into the elevator and yanks me forward by the wrist. “This man assaulted one of my friends, then he has the nerve to walk into a work function and just drag you out of there like a caveman? It’s only going to get worse, July.”
“We’re not just your co-workers and boss,” adds my boss, clicking along in her heels to keep up with us. “You need us to guide you! You’re so gullible!”
I stop in the middle of the hallway, ordering myself to be patient with them. From the outside looking in, Theo must look like a walking red flag. I’m operating on a gut feeling about him and I can’t expect Dierdre and my boss to understand that, can I? Even if their refusal to treat me like a smart adult is beginning to rankle. “I would be concerned, too, but you’re going to have to trust me. Theo is going through a lot, he’s been through something unimaginable…and he’s rough around the edges, but he makes me happy.”
“Theo,” Dierdre spits. “Sorry, but you sound like a woman blinded by good sex.”
“That’s a fair point,” I sigh. “The sex is really, really, really good.”
“How good?” my boss asks, throatily, before waving off the question. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. The point is, we’re saving you from yourself.”
I frown, not liking the direction of the conversation. “How exactly are you doing that?”
They exchange a glance that verges on guilty. “I’m keeping you here working late tonight,” says Vikander, briskly. “You need to focus on the Yerbi presentation, July. Not a man. Maybe refocusing your energy on work will remind you what’s important. Your health, your career, your safety. You can’t put those in jeopardy.”
“I can’t stay late tonight,” I protest, remembering my promise to Theo. Not to mention that fact that I don’t want to work late. I’m just beginning to enjoy my personal life for the first time. Now it’s being stifled?
“You will if you don’t want me to pass off the presentation to someone else,” my boss says with only a slight air of regret. “I need to see a clean draft in the morning, complete with illustrations. And a clean backup plan, too.”
My heart sinks into my stomach. “But my deadline was Friday morning. Tomorrow is only Wednesday.”
“I want to be prepared.”
Heat prickles my eyelids. I’m starting to wonder if I was asked to take on this project simply because my boss and Dierdre didn’t feel like doing it themselves. “This feels illegal,” I mutter under my breath.
Dierdre sniffs. “Assault is illegal. Ask your boyfriend.”
Eat a dick, Dierdre.
I don’t say those words out loud, but honestly, just that fact that I’m thinking them is a small victory. Right? And I desperately need a victory right now, because I’m being manipulated and railroaded by two people who think they know what’s best for me. I want to walk out. I want to stand up for myself and tell them to shove their weird intervention up their butts, but I don’t quite have the courage. Despite the confidence I walked into the office with this morning, I’m still exactly the same girl.
Aren’t I?
Wishing desperately that I was back in Theo’s arms…or better yet, basking in the warmth of his contagious admiration, I swallow hard, my shoulders hunching on my way to my desk.
Theo
After leaving July’s, I go buy a cell phone. My first one since returning from active duty. I need to be able to get in contact with July. No more leaving our meetings to chance or wondering if something happened to her if she’s running late. There are features, too, that I’d forgotten about until now. Such as tracking. I want to know where the fuck she is at all times. I want her to know where I am, too.
I want pictures of her stored in my phone.
Text messages from her that I can read back, whenever I want.
The fact that I have none of these things is suddenly a very pressing problem.
Looking down at the shiny new device in my hand, I vow to fill it with pictures of my girlfriend tonight. I’m going to take pictures of her being cute, like when she cleans her glasses with the hem of her shirt and has to squint for those eight seconds, because she can’t see. Or when she comes out of the shower in a nightshirt. Or when she presses her nose into my jaw and nuzzles it around. I want a goddamn picture of that.