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Chapter 37: Everything is Definitely Not Okay
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The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 38: What Does Furniture Have to do with Sex?
Next, he passes me a napkin and I manage a small thanks. Against my best efforts, a small tear works its way past my eyelid and I hurry to wipe it away. I hate throwing up, especially around other people. No one wants an audience. Car sickness isn't something that should happen to adults. My doctor promised my mother I'd grow out of it, but I never did."I'm sorry. I think I got the tire dirty." I contemplate throwing up again as Davis leans his body in the front seat, trying to see out the door and the damage I've done."It's okay. I have a subscription to the car wash.""I don't normally get carsick," I lie.As if he senses my fib, he doesn't even nod but holds open a small bag for me to throw my napkin and empty water glass into before he folds over the top. "Would it be better if you rode up front?"I nod. "If you wouldn't mind.""Not at all," he says patting the seat beside him. "Just let me know when you think you're safe to go."I wait a few more minutes, breathing
The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 39: He Gives Couches as Gifts?
Ashley's been impulsive in the past, but I can't see her going out and charging this to a credit card. Hell, I don't see a furniture store needing sales enough to approve her for a credit card with her student loan debt.I find my way into the room and stand at the end of the couch where Ashley flips the channels on the television.She grins. "It matters because this is from your loverboy." Without looking in my direction she passes me a small white envelope with my name scribbled in hasty masculine penmanship across the front.I take the card from her slowly, concerned it may burn off a finger when I touch it. Because if it's from Vincent it might."Movie night tonight. He hooked us up with all the streaming services," Ashley says as I step away from the couch and find my way into my bedroom. It's been a long day already and I need privacy. Time to reflect and process.My door is closed in the short hallway, but when I open it, I catch a similar sight as the living room. An
The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 40: The Guy From Marketing
I shrug still chewing. Lunch needs to end so I can get back to the office and continue my stalking behavior in private. I don't want witnesses."The guys from marketing make really stupid jokes from old people TV shows I've never watched. They call each other steak sauce or something. It's so stupid."If what he said was a pickup line, it's the weirdest one I've ever heard, but it brings a smile to my face so I suppose in a way it works. "I'm Mackenzie," I say reaching out my hand and shaking his."Levi." He mixes up a small carton of chocolate milk like they served in high school and opens one end.I bet Vincent loves the milk here. It hits on his love for childhood food.No, Mackenzie. Don't think of that jerk now."Chocolate milk?" I ask.He laughs and takes a large swallow. "Some things are worth bringing into adulthood. You can't judge a man for his drink choices."It was so far from the coffees Vincent forced me to get him every day. I couldn't see my stuffy boss
The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 41: Vincent Did What?
"My boss said something?" Vincent spoke to Levi? When? How? With whom?He shakes his head twice and his easy smile returns. "Forget about it. I probably misunderstood."But I can't let it go. Vincent hasn't spoken to me all day, but he talked to Levi? Why? "You had a conversation with Vincent Valiant today?" I ask as together we walk down the steps and make a right once we hit the sidewalk."Yeah, he stopped by marketing and said it was extremely busy in his office. He and his assistant had to worry about the priorities. Work came first for top notch employees."Vincent was in the marketing department today but never stopped in his actual office. Interesting. "I have no idea what he was talking about," I say honestly. Today I played sixty-seven games of solitaire. There's nothing busy about my work day.A few clubs, bars, and other establishments dot downtown Lansing. One of them is Omar's, a strip club, which probably has more secrets than the national archives. If you keep
The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 42: The Nerve of the Man
The runner stops, his chest rising and lowering, but only when he lifts his gaze do I recognize his features.Vincent shakes his head, looking at me puzzled, as if I'm a mirage he's not quite sure is real. "What are you doing out here alone?" he asks.I look at him just as puzzled. "I didn't see you today. You said I'd see you Friday. Where were you?"The jerk smiles, his breathing slowing. "It's still Friday and you're seeing me right now."This man could drive a woman insane. His old assistant didn't have a baby. She fled the country to be away from him."That's not what I meant and you know it. Why didn't you come into work? Levi said you were in marketing."Vincent crosses his arms. "So, you met with him," he says, emphasizing him like it's a dirty word.A-ha! He was checking up on me. Wasn't he?"Why are you out here alone?" He's a bazillion-zillianaire or something. It can't be safe for him to always be wandering around unguarded.Vincent rolls his eyes and poin
The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 43: Family Crisis
The phone rings again and I shake my head. Vincent would never let me call him V or refuse a telephone call regardless of how excited I might have him.Another ring fills the space, and I roll over, getting caught up in the comfortable sheets. My eyelid cracks open and I feel lower, noticing I'm still wearing pants. Speckles of light shine through the large bedroom windows of the apartment, and Vincent isn't in bed beside me. The side of the bed where he lay a second earlier in my mind is cold. City lights twinkle under a starless sky, and with one hand I reach out and find my phone on the dark wood nightstand that came with the bed."Hello?" I say into the phone, not checking to see who is calling."Mackenzie," my mother's voice screams into the phone and I sit up, clutching the covers to my chest as an icy chill causes my muscles to flex."Mom?"She sobs into the phone so loudly I'm forced to pull it from my ear."What's going on? What happened?" My body grows heavy with
The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 44: A Rescue
Yet, for some reason I don't put my car back in gear and return to the highway. Instead I shut it off and sit in the driver's seat in the far corner of the Price Road park-and-ride waiting for my jerk of a boss and his driver to get here. It takes less time than I expect for the black car to stop in the open spot next to me.Vincent gets out of the front seat and approaches and opens my door. I turn to him, the tears starting again, and wrap my arms around his middle. With heavy but safe hands, he draws me from my seat and walks me over to his. I slide into the smooth leather bench and nod once at Davis who looks at me in the rearview mirror with sad eyes.Once the doors close, Davis starts again, and Vincent tucks me under his arm in a warm embrace unlike anything I'd expect from the man. Where's the cold heartless jerk I spoke to on the phone twenty minutes ago?"I'm sorry I'm crying." This isn't the way a boss should see his employee. Especially my boss."Take all the time y
The Valiant Trilogy Chapter 45: It's Not About the Chips
For the first time since we've met, he doesn't bite. He only shakes his head and points to the revolving door at the front of the hospital. What a wonderful time for him to become the bigger person and leave me standing on the sidewalk looking like a fool alone.With slow steps I walk past him and into the cold white building. As I follow the signs for intensive care, my steps pick up until I'm almost running when I barrel through the large metal doors to the unit where my mother said my father has a room. A small lobby with chairs and vending machines is to the right and a woman, my mother, with a tear-stained face steps out."Kens," she says grabbing onto my arm while clutching a small cup of coffee in her other. "Have you heard from your brother?""No," I say and her face falls. There's so much sorrow in the lines of her face and I don't know how to fix the problem.My mother wraps me into a deep hug squeezing tightly as if she can somehow suck the life out of me and return
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