Despite having showered right before going to bed, I linger beneath the hot spray until my skin begins to wrinkle. This is my last shower in this spa worthy beast of a bathroom, and I’ll have to resume conserving water and electricity tomorrow. Kodiche can afford for me to nearly empty his hot water tank just this once.
Wrapped in one of the bath towels, I consider asking if I can have one as a memento of our week together. It’s as big as a blanket and softer than a robe, plus it actually soaks up the water from my hair instead of just allowing the drops to keep running down my body. My reflection in the mirror looks different somehow, and I don’t think it’s just from all the orgasms he’s given me. There’s something calmer in how I stand, perhaps more confident as I know that all I have to worry about is doing what he asks of me. It is a benefit to this relationship we’ve developed, and I will be sad for it to end. It’s been rare for me to know that I’ll be taken care of, and for it to be a constant reassurance has been such a relief this week. As long as I listen and obey, all my needs are met. In truth, they’re met even when I’m not as great at obeying, but then there are consequences as well.
There is one more outfit for me to wear, and I zip up the leather bustier and wriggle into the tight, short skirt without blanching. Cold at first, the material warms with my body heat and holds my breasts up and out like grapefruits on a breakfast platter. I’m finally getting used to his choice in clothes in time to return to my usual, modest wardrobe.
Despite my tossing and turning last night, the bedding is smoothed easily, and I move my duffel bag to the foot of the bed for packing my toiletries. Katie-cat, floppy and worn, supervises from the bedside table, and I tuck the stuffed animal into the bag as well. It’s damp from last night’s tears, but it’s not like it can spill my secrets.
Giving the room a once-over, I check that nothing of mine has been left behind. All of the new clothes from Kodiche have been folded into the stack of white boxes on the desk, and it’s hard to think that it was just seven days ago when he stripped me. I slip on the pair of heels from the first day as a peace offering over last night and cut through the bathroom to Kodiche’s bedroom. Finding the door unlocked, I turn the knob and open it slowly, trying not to wake him. It’s still an hour before he’s usually up.
His overhead light is on, but his bed is perfectly made, without him in it. “Kodiche?” I call softly. I check his closet and then out in the hall, but he’s not up here—not even in the office. The only signs that we fucked in here are a canister of cleaning wipes on the desktop and the fact that his monitor is off-center. He cleaned away all traces of me from his bedroom and office, as if he’s ready to get rid of me before our full week is officially up.
“If that’s the way he wants it,” I muse aloud.
I carry my bag downstairs with me and set it by the door. I can return this outfit to him tomorrow or change before I go home, whatever he wants me to do.
It doesn’t take me long to discover that Kodiche isn’t home. All the rooms are empty, and I can follow the trail of forgotten lights from whenever he had gone through putting away things last night or this morning. Knowing how he feels about them, I turn out each light on my way back to the kitchen. Something must have happened at work that called him in. He wouldn’t have left me here alone otherwise, would he?
I’m halfway through a mug of coffee when my cellphone rings, breaking the house’s silence. “Hello?”
“Vivian, this is Collette. Mr. Lamant wants to see you in his office first thing this morning. I know your calendar says that you’re still on vacation today, but are you available to come in?”
This can’t be good if he needs me there. Confused over why he didn’t just take me with him earlier, I promise Collette I’m on my way. I take a moment to change into my own clothing and brush my hair back into a loose bun. There’s no time for makeup or anything fancy, but with all Kodiche has seen of me this week, I don’t think he’ll mind that I don’t look ready for a photoshoot.
He’s facing the windows when I arrive, one huge arm up on the wall as he stares out at the skyline. His suit jacket wrinkles in taut lines around his muscles. His other arm rests loosely at his side. It’s hard to imagine that this is the room where I first knelt for him. If only I’d known then what I do now as I begged for my job, how foolish I was to think I could take whatever he asked.
What is it that I want now? Can I resume just being his employee? I don’t know if I can. I don't even know if it's an option, if all my effort was wasted.
I close his office door and turn the latch before dropping to my knees in the center of the room. “Sir, you called for me here?”
He hasn’t turned to look at me yet, but I can see by the way he tightens all over that he heard me. “Vivian, I’ve thought about everything.” He sounds so weary my heart aches. “I run a billion-dollar corporation; I have to put what matters most first in all my thoughts, always. It’s how my father created this company and why I’ve managed to keep it being a success. Last night, I spent hours making a list of what I want, followed by one of what I need. Then, I tried to reconcile how I can have both. When you got into the shower, I went into your room to leave you a note to come here to the office for the final lesson, and I saw something I didn’t think I would ever see again.”
My back straightens. What the hell did he see?
His hand touches his chest; where his heart rests. “Without her around, my life become so dark,” he explains.
I visualize the tattoo he has on his skin; the woman he must have loved in the past. I don’t want to hear about this right now. “You don’t have to tell me about your ex-girlfriend,” I snap. “That’s not why I’m here.”
He laughs bitterly, finally turning around. “Katerine was my sister.” He hesitates, locking his eyes with mine. “My twin.”
A buzzing begins in my skull. No, I think. It can't be her. On impulse I touch the scar on my hip, my world turning inside out.
He frowns, saying, “When she died, I gave away her beloved stuffed cat to the only friend my sister had. To a girl whom I knew only through my sister’s letters but had to meet even if it could only be the one time.” I watch, dumbfounded, as he pulls out his phone and skims through it, searching for something. “This is Katerine, although I think you knew her as Katie.” He grabs my hand and helps me to my feet as he shows me a series of old pictures.
There aren’t words for the revelation he just dropped on me, and all I can do is look at the picture of my friend, the girl I’d tried to keep sane in some of her worst moments. “You were her brother, that young boy?” I ask him. That was so long ago I don’t remember details. Only the kiss is clear in my memory.
Kodiche no
ds and pockets the phone. “I’d suspected for a while after my father hired you that you were the same girl. You had your degree, yes, but you didn’t have any experience to vouch for you. There had to be a reason he plucked your application up out of the graduate school list. My father kept tabs on the girl who tried to save his daughter's life. It was his way of keeping a piece of Katie alive, I think.” I watch his Adam’s apple bob when he swallows. Distaste darkens his face.
“The pieces started to fit together throughout the week, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure until this morning, when I saw that cat doll in your room. That’s what makes saying this so fucking difficult.” He looks away from me, staring out the window again. “You’re fired from this company. You’ll never work here again, Vivian.”
I’m . . . fired? “What?” My knees wobble, and I cling to Kodiche’s desk to stay upright. “Say that again.” I need him to repeat it, certain I had to have heard wrong. Betrayal shatters my heart, the emotions I’d had building through our week together flooding me with bitter regret. “How could you?” I sob.
I need to get out of here. Stepping away from the desk, my ankles tilt, going loose as my knees sway. Warm everywhere, my head swims as I feel like I’m going to faint. This is all too much. His name escapes me on a whimper as I start to fall. “Kodiche...”
He grabs me in a sweeping motion, and I don’t even register that he’s come around to my side of the table before I’m held tight to his chest and rocked. “Oh, my sweet, sweet Vivian. For such a good girl you are such a terrible listener.” Kodiche’s fingers undo my bun and grab my hair, slowly tilting my head back until I’m forced to look up at him. His lips cover mine, melting and slow in a kiss that makes me want to relax in his arms and enjoy being on his lap. But this . . . this is everything I feared.