It took two steps before my victory march across the carpet came to a halt. In front of me, the crown of a blonde head rose above the desk like the sun breaking over the horizon on an unwanted dawn.
“Saylor. Leave. Wait for me outside,” Rex snapped.
I couldn’t move. I was stuck to the carpet like a pillar of salt. Amber rose to her feet and ran the back of her hand across her mouth. Her blouse undone, one tit in full view, the nipple pinched and angry. Rex’s hips jerked as he tugged his pants over his still-hard dick and carefully raised the zipper.
Although she should have been embarrassed, mortified even, Amber looked triumphant. Without bothering to adjust her clothing, she stood behind Rex’s chair, placing a possessive hand on his shoulder.
Behind every successful man, there stands a woman…ready to suck his cock.
My mind was a void but my heart was black with rage. I wanted to say something clever and cutting but if I opened my mouth all that would come out would be a fuck you, and I was better than that. Worth more. As my future crashed around me, my body no longer felt like something I was familiar with. At some point, I tugged the engagement ring from my finger. My fist around it was tight, and it cut into the palm of my hand.
The room stayed eerily silent, everyone aware that the first person to speak would unleash chaos. In the corner of the office was another door which led to a private bathroom. Cheating eyes followed me as I stepped past the shameless couple and entered the bathroom. It was small, a vanity sink, shower and toilet. I avoided the mirror working fast, wrapping the ring in a wad of toilet tissue, dropping it into the bowl and quickly flushing. The water swirled, the ring spun within the vortex and was gone.
It was a fitting metaphor for my present state.
Back in the office, Rex and Amber were still positioned as though waiting for a photographer to show up to take their portrait.
“Are you okay?” Rex sounded angry. Not contrite. Not guilty, but angry that I’d caught him in this tacky, sleazy, compromising position.
I slipped on my coat and buttoned it, staring pointedly at Amber’s open blouse.
“Say something, Saylor,” Rex demanded.
There was the pattern I’d missed until now. Rex wanted me to open up, to attack, to accuse, so that instead of apologizing, he could twist my words and turn everything back on to me. He played his hand close to his chest. Usually. But I’d caught him cheating, counting the cards, trying to stack odds in his favor so that life was a win-win for Rex. This was a glimpse of my future if I chose to stay and become his obedient wife.
“I’m relieved, and you’re a sad cliché.” My voice, like my body, was foreign. It cracked, the way everything inside me cracked and fell in on itself. When I marched from his office I left the door wide open. One final invitation for Rex to stand up and be a man. My stocking seams, my heels, my lingerie all mocked me as I passed the receptionist, alone, to the bank of elevators.
“Have a nice day,” she called.
You’d have thought Rex would have come after me, but I guess he’d chosen to let me calm down before tackling this “little situation” as he’d call it. Like father, like son.
Yeah. No, thank you.