CHAPTER 5: Alison
872 Words
CHAPTER 5: Alison
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Alison paced in her office. She wasn’t working tonight. She’d done everything Harker had asked her to do—late nights, weekends, holidays—but that stopped now. She hadn’t had a date in over a year, and it’d been longer since she’d had s*x. Harker could get as mad as he wanted. She was meeting Randy for dinner tonight.
She glanced at her watch. It was six o’clock. She’d been here since six that morning. She was done. She closed her laptop and slid it into the bag.
“I’d reconsider if I were you.”
She jumped at Harker’s deep, raspy voice. The man sounded like he’d swallowed sandpaper. She hated that his voice made her think of cool sheets and hot naked bodies. She pushed the image aside and stood. She’d step in front of a bus before she’d let him know how his voice affected her. “Well, you’re not me.” She slipped her laptop bag over her shoulder. “And I need time off. For the last ten months I’ve worked every holiday, weekend and late every night. I’m here almost as much as you are.” That was saying a lot because his office was inside his home.
“You’re really willing to give up this job, all this money for a date?” He leaned against the door frame. “This guy must be something pretty special.”
“He is.” She jutted out her chin. At least she hoped he was. She was tired of having no one in her life. During the day she was too busy to notice but at night, alone in her bed with her vibrator, it was pathetically obvious.
“How do you know? Didn’t you say this was a first date?”
“Yes, but we’ve been talking for weeks now.”
“When did you find the time? From what you claim, I’ve been working you every waking moment.”
“I haven’t been doing that on your time if that’s what you’re worried about. I can’t believe you’d even think that.” It hurt that he’d accuse her of cheating him. She worked her ass off for this man. “I thought you knew me better than that. I thought we were friends.”
“Friends?” He smiled his lopsided smile that made him look like a mischievous boy. “Hardly. We’ve never been friends.”
“Oh.” That hurt more than she’d ever admit. This had happened to her all her life. People pretended to like her, so she’d help them with a project or their grades. She’d thought it’d end when she’d finished school, but work had been about the same. She was always the one people came to for help but never the one they invited to go out for lunch or drinks. She’d thought it was different here with Harker. The second day working here she’d forgotten her lunch and had realized that Harker hadn’t eaten either. She’d ordered a pizza and had taken it to his office. They’d eaten lunch together almost every day after that and more dinners than she could count. But apparently, he was no different than everyone else. “Silly me. I have no idea why I thought that.”
“Me either.”
Oh, he was worse than the others. He wasn’t even ashamed of using her. “Oh, we’re being honest?”
“Of course.”
“Then let me tell you why I thought you were my friend. We eat lunch and dinner together almost every day.”
“We do.”
“You got me tickets to the hottest night club around for New Year’s Eve.”
“A bonus for working Christmas Eve.”
“You insisted on going with me.”
“I had business to attend.” He stepped into the office. “Plus, I assumed you’d need someone to look out for you and I was right.”
“I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”
“You could barely walk by the end of the night.”
“I was having fun.”
“Oh. Right. That car ride home was a great time. You drunkenly mumbling about all your failed relationships and”—his dark eyes seemed to almost glow—"your lack of recent s****l activity.”
“I apologized for that.” Her face still warmed. The fact that she hadn’t had s*x in months was embarrassing enough but telling him had been the worst thing she’d ever done when drunk and that was saying something. “I never would’ve opened up to you if I’d realized you were using me.”
“Using is an interesting term.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Come to my office and we can talk.” He moved aside to allow her to proceed him.
She took one step and stopped. She hated that her body obeyed this man without hesitation. “I can’t. I have a date.”
“Cancel it.”
“No.”
“Alison.” He shook his head. “Don’t push me on this. You won’t be happy with the outcome.”
“Don’t push me, Gus.” She didn’t do well with ultimatums.
“Do not call me that.” His jaw tightened.
She tried to stop herself, but her lips lifted in a smirk.
“I will fire you.”
“Then do it because I’m going on this date.” She pushed past him. He wouldn’t really fire her. He needed her to meet his deadlines. Sure, he could find other application developers, but it’d take time for them to come up to speed and that’d put him way behind schedule. No, she was making her stand against his tyranny tonight. Life was too short. If he did fire her, she’d find another job. She’d done it before; she’d do it again.
- Writer
