HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Bianca

“Do you trave plans to sleep there?” he said, pointing at my table.

“I will go home when I’m done,” I replied without looking up.

“Oh. Alright.

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I heard him walk toward the door again and then stop. The sound of his hand on the doorknob came and went and I did not look up because I already knew whatever was happening behind me was not going to be good for my focus.

“I will wait for you then.” I looked up.

He had walked back to his desk, sat down, brought out his phone and was scrolling through it like. I stared at him for a second and then looked back at my screen.

It did not help, whatever focus I had before he walked in had packed its things and left. I read the same sentence four times and each time I got to the end of it I realized I had no idea what it said.

The sound of him shifting in his chair, the faint tap of his finger against his phone screen, even the way he breathed was somehow louder than everything else in the room. After some minutes of this I gave up pretending.

“Can you actually just go, sir.” I said, hitting the table softly with my palm. “I was doing fine before you got here.”

He didn’t even look up from his phone. “When you are ready, let me know.”

I pressed my lips together, there was no winning this. He was going to sit there completely at peace with himself and I was going to keep pretending to read the same paragraph until one of us gave in and it was obviously going to be me because I was the one who couldn’t focus and he looked like he could wait for three business days without blinking.

“Arghh.” I shut the laptop. “Okay.” I picked up my bag and stood. “Why?” I said almost immediately.

He looked up at me then. Not surprised, not amused, just waiting.

“Why are you waiting? Why do you want to drive me? Why any of this?”

“I already said I will drop you when you are done,” he said simply.

I opened my mouth and closed it and decided I was too tired to push further. “Arghh. Okay.” I dropped the pen, picked up my bag properly and grabbed my jacket from the back of the chair. “Let’s go.”

He stood without a word, straightened his jacket the way he always did, and we walked out.

The building was mostly dark by that point, a few security lights and the elevator glow and the sound of our footsteps across the lobby floor. The guard at the front desk gave us a brief nod, Adrian nodded back and I waved because I didn’t know what else to do with my hands.

His car was one of maybe three left in the parking lot, he unlocked it, opened the passenger side and I got in. The inside of the car smelled faintly of an expensive perfume, I put my bag on my lap and kept my eyes forward as he came around and got in beside me.

He didn’t say anything, just started the car and pulled out of the lot. I watched the streets pass and kept my hands folded over my bag and tried to think about anything except the fact that I was sitting in my boss’s car at nine thirty at night.

My phone beeped. I looked down at the screen and it was Emma. “Thank you for the snacks, arghh, we haven’t had them in

a while I read the message twice, then I read it a third time because I wanted to be very sure I understood what I was

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23

Chapter 36

looking at.

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Thank you for the snacks? Which chocolates? I had not sent Emma snacks. I had not sent Emma anything, I spent the last several hours fighting a printer and reading financial projections and at no point in that timeline had snacks been on my

mind.

My eyes moved slowly from the phone screen to the man sitting next to me. He was looking at the road, completely neutral, both hands on the wheel, absolutely nothing on his face that suggested he had done anything at all. I kept looking at him.

“I know I’m edible,” he said, still watching the road, “but you might need to stop.”

I looked away so fast I nearly gave myself a headache. My phone was still in my hand, Emma’s message still open on the screen. I locked it and put it face down on my thigh and spent the next few minutes having a very quiet, very internal conversation with myself.

He definitely sent my little sister snacks. He had gotten her number from somewhere, which was a whole separate line of questioning I did not have the energy for tonight, and he had sent her snacks without saying a word about it and was currently sitting here pretending it was nothing.

I did not say anything, I stared at the road and pretended I had also not noticed and we stayed like that until the streets started to look familiar..

“The next turning.” I said. “Third building on the right.”

He nodded and took the turn without needing me to say is again. When he pulled up in front of my building I already had my hand on the door handle. “Thank you, sir.” I said.

I paused and I turned back.

“Thank you,” I said, “for Emma.”

He nodded once. The same way he nodded at everything, for him acknowledgment and dismissal lived in the same single

motion.

“I will pay back,” I said. “I assure you.”

Something shifted at the corner of his mouth, like he was trying not to laugh “How?” he said. “With that job?”

I shook my head before I could stop myself, the words came out before I thought about them. “I’m not going back there again.”

There was a small silence but I waited for him to react but he didn’t.

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“Good,” he finally said. “So shut up and don’t mention payback. Never again. This is the last time I will warn you.” He opened his door. Got out.

I blinked at the empty seat and then got out on my side. He was already at the entrance of the building, standing a step ahead, not looking at me, just waiting. Like this was his building too.

“Keep walking,” he said when I got closer and I kept walking.

We went up the short flight of steps and stopped at my door and that was where he stopped too while I got out my keys.

I found them, put them in the lock and turned it and the door swung open. I stood in the doorway with one hand on the frame and looked back at him, I don’t know why I did.

“Go in he said and I did, one step over the threshold.

He looked at me for one more moment and then said, very calmly and completely seriously, like he was confirming a

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