“Mike!”

“Barbara! Come clean up the mess Effi made, please.” Viv genuinely looks irritated.

“Good morning, Effi.” Mike sits in a chair on the side of Viv’s desk. The chair is usually in front of the desk for employees. His face definitely looks like it got hit with a baseball bat. Internally I’m smiling but externally I’m trying my best to look stoic.

Barbie comes in with a broom and dustpan, scoops up the shattered cup and then wipes up the coffee with paper towel. That delicious coffee that was supposed to help me get through this day. I’m almost desperate enough to suck the coffee out of the paper towel.

As Barbie walks through the door, Viv sits in her white leather chair behind her desk. “Close the door, Barbara.”

Barbie fumbles as she tries to balance everything that she’s holding onto and close the door. I feel bad for her, so I rush over to close the door behind her. She looks up at me and mouths “thank you” before slipping out.

The door clicks and I dread turning around. I have no clue what this would be about and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know. I should’ve called in sick.

“Effi,” Viv snaps her fingers from across the room, “please have a seat.”

When I turn around, I see Viv motioning to the lone chair that is in front of her desk. I quickly walk across the floor, wishing I had put more effort into my choice of shoes this morning as my comfortable loafer’s scuff across the floor, but I also didn’t think I would be in Viv’s office today.

“Um, sure.” The chair stutters against the marble tile making a horrendous noise. I quickly sit down and cross my legs, trying desperately to act normal. I try to keep my eyes on Viv, but I find myself glancing at Mike, who’s staring at me every time I look.

Viv rolls closer to her desk, places her elbows on her luxurious black walnut desk that must’ve cost more than I make in a year, and then looks at Mike. “Mike, dear, won’t you please go get me the files for today. Effi and I have some business to talk about.” She motions toward the door that goes out to Barbie.

Mike looks surprised, grabs his cell phone off Viv’s desk, and stands up quickly, almost knocking over the chair he was sitting in. He glances down at me with a smirk before walking out of the room.

As he closes the door behind him, Viv looks at me. “Can you believe it? He looks terrible! Mike got jumped in an alley last night! Some crazed loon came up behind him and hit him with a baseball bat. He said that he never saw the person, but they took off with his wallet.”

My throat goes dry and when I fake a gasp, a piece of dust sticks in my throat, making me cough. “Oh, I’m sorry. Excuse me.”

“It’s fine dear. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so callous. You two were married after all. It must be strange coming in here to find him sitting next to me.” Viv leans back in her chair and smooths the hair on the back of head that winds its way up and around into the perfect bun.

“Yes, I mean, it’s not something I enjoy but who am I to tell my boss who she can and can’t have at her business?” I shrug my shoulders and wish that something, anything, would get me out of here. An earthquake, tornado, someone setting the place on fire.

Viv laughs. “I knew you would understand. The reason I called you up here is because I need you to accompany Kendra on a little trip.”

“A trip? I don’t know…”

“It’s not up to you. You either do it or you’ll need to find other employment.” Viv sits up straight in her chair, her dark brown eyes drilling a hole in my head. “Kendra needs to follow up on an author in Connecticut. The author is behind on his chapters and since it’s Kendra’s author, she needs to go see what’s going on.”

“Can’t she call him? I mean, why spend all that money and time…”

“She’s tried calling him. He won’t answer which tells me that he knows he’s behind and he’s ashamed. Or scared. We’ve already paid his upfront costs but if he doesn’t deliver, we will need to get those back one way or another. First step, though, is going to his house and see what’s going on. So, you will go with her. I don’t want her going alone. This world is no place for a woman to travel on her own. Look at Mike for goodness’ sake. And he’s a man!”

“What about my dog? I can’t just leave her.”

“Can’t you board her in a kennel or something? Isn’t that what people do?”

Before I can answer, the door to Viv’s office opens and in walks Mike, arms full of submissions and follow ups. He places them on the corner of her desk and sits down. The left side of his face where I hit him is very black and blue and the bruise seems to be spreading to his left eye. It must hurt, and yet, I would do it again.

Viv reaches over and grabs the folder off the top of the pile, sets it down in front of herself while she picks up her gold pen that has “McLeigh Publishing” engraved on the side. As she looks down at the open file, she says, “Very well, then it’s settled. You and Kendra can work out the details.” When I don’t move fast enough, she glances back up to me, and makes a “shoo” motion with her hand before going back to work. Mike just sits there and smirks like he’s her pet.

I don’t say anything but instead get up and walk out of Viv’s office, closing the door behind me. Barbie hangs up the phone and smiles at me. “Have a good day!”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Ugh. I can’t even look at her. I just close the door behind me and make my way down the stairs to Kendra’s desk.

The sea of cubicles is buzzing with phone calls and keys clacking on keyboards. It can be hard to focus on editing, so Kendra usually has ear buds in her ears. When I reach her desk, she’s leaned back in her chair, feet on the desk, ear buds in place, and her eyes are closed.

“Isn’t it hard to edit with your eyes closed?” I move her feet off her desk, and they hit the floor with a thud.

“What? I’m working. I was just taking a break. Where’ve you been?” Kendra pops her ear buds out and places them back in their charging case. She sets it back on her desk and rubs one of her eyes.

“Did you know about me going with you to Connecticut?”

“Oh, yeah. Viv said something to me about it. Why?”

“Because she just pulled me up to her lair where her pet, Mike, was sitting and informed me. You could’ve given me a head’s up.”

Kendra leans forward in her chair and places her hand on her mouth. “Oh whoa! I’m so sorry. I didn’t know she would do that. I just figured I would catch you later or she would send you an email. She never pulls us up to talk. In fact, she just sent me the email about the author and told me arrangements were being made for us to leave on Friday.”

“Wait,” I really needed some coffee this morning but even in my un-caffeinated state, I know Friday is way too close. “That’s this Friday?”

“Yeah, is that going to work?”

“What am I going to do with Squeakers?” I can feel panic seeping through my veins at the thought of leaving her with anyone.

“Uh, I don’t know.” Kendra picks up her pen and twirls it around her fingers. “What have you done with her in the past?”

“Nothing. I don’t leave Squeaker. I don’t travel.” My voice is climbing octaves the longer I think about this.

Kendra leans forward and places a hand on my knee. “It’s okay, we’ll drive. We can take her with us. I know how much she means to you, and it looks like you’re not going to be able to breathe without her. Am I right?”

I take in a deep breath and try to blow it out slowly a couple of times. It’s a trick my therapist taught me. Really, it’s the only trick that seems to work. “Yeah, you’re right. But didn’t Viv already buy the airplane tickets?” I’m only assuming that we were flying. Viv doesn’t like to waste time on anything, let alone driving.

Kendra leans back in her chair and spins a little. “I’ll talk to her minion, Barbie. I’ll come up with something.” Kendra smiles at me and turns to her computer to look up rental vehicles.

“I better get back to work before Mike rats me out to her highness that I’m not doing anything.” I roll my eyes and walk around the cubicle so that I’m directly on the other side of the half wall from Kendra. I can still talk to her. We do it all the time. Sometimes I wish we could take the wall down between us though.

Hours go by and I’m heavily involved in re-editing a piece that Kendra gave me to look over. My eyelids are so heavy. This author, while at times he shows promise, sometimes he just goes on and on about too many details. I feel my face slipping down the hand that’s propping it up when a breathy whisper warms my left ear.

“You do know that I have more copies of that key.”

I whirl around and come face to face with Mike. I glance up to Viv’s office, but the light is off. “Where’s your sugar momma?” I try to act like he doesn’t scare me, even though I know my face is giving me away. It always does.

“Viv had an appointment. I was just about to leave when I thought I would stop down here and say a friendly goodbye.” Mike stands up and yanks over the chair from the cubicle behind me and plops down.

And that’s when I notice that nobody else is here. I must’ve been so focused on the book that I didn’t hear anyone leave. Or notice the lights being turned off. The only light that is still on is the one over my cubicle and the exit sign over the door. “Where is…”

“Everyone? Yeah, you don’t know what time it is, do you?” Mike leans forward and jangles his gold watch in front of my face. I don’t know if he’s showing off the new Rolex Viv bought him or if it’s because I did lose track of time.

I turn around and close the document I was reading. I reach down into my lower drawer and grab my purse just as Mike spins my chair back to face him. He grabs a hold of the arms on my chair and scoots so close to me that our knees touch.

“You really didn’t think I was going to let you get away with your little batting practice, did you?”

His breath is so hot and sour that I almost throw up in my mouth. I press my toes into the floor and try to push my chair away from him but I’m up against my desk and I have nowhere to go.

“Mike, I wouldn’t do this. You know there’s camera’s in here. Viv makes sure she can see everything all the time. You know she’s like that.”

“Mike, I wouldn’t do this,” he mocks in a whiney tone. “Well, what you don’t know, Effervescent, is that I know how to turn them all off.”

My heart races in my chest so hard I’m sure Mike can see the veins in my neck dancing. My palms are sweating puddles onto the arms of my fake leather chair. I turn to see how far it really is to the exit when he grabs my chin and forcefully turns it back to face him.

“Ow, Mike, let go! Let go please!” I can feel his fingers denting my flesh, popping tiny capillaries underneath, making new bruises I’ll have to cover up tomorrow.

Mike stands up, his chair rolls across the floor behind him. He never releases my face, but instead, turns it upward so that I have to follow him with my eyes. “You want me to let you go? You want me to let you go?!?”

His hand drops from my chin, I blink and take in a single breath just as his wide hand slams across my cheek. He hits me so hard that my chair flips out from underneath me, and I land on the floor. My purse scatters across the room ahead of me toward the exit sign, leaving a trail of its contents. One of my shoes flips off and lands just under Kendra’s desk. A tear betrays me and slides down my cheek as I scramble to pick up my things.

Mike walks over to where I landed and kicks the make-up that I had brought with me today. The concealer and color corrector bounce off the wall and skitter even further away. He bends over and reaches for my arm. I know all too well where this is going. We’ve done this dance too many times.

I turn my head and try to protect myself when I see the “McVeigh Publishing” pen I got for Christmas last year instead of a bonus check. It’s a fancy pen with a screw-on cap, and it’s super heavy. I’ve screwed and unscrewed that cap probably a million times in the last year. Long after the blue ink in it dried up.

I reach out, grabbing the pen in my right hand as Mike yanks me to my feet by my left arm. He balls his free hand into a fist and just as he’s about to knock me unconscious for yet another time in my life, I decide that he’s not going to do this to me ever again.

The momentum from him yanking me to my feet allows my right arm to gain even more speed. I unscrew the cap, letting it rattle on the floor just as I feel the pen slide in through the side of his neck like a warm knife through butter.