Love Under Construction (The Love Under Series Book 1) (15 page)

Time was flying by, and I need to go check on things back at home. I needed to at least pick up some of my mail. Now that the weather was changing, I would also be needing some of my cold weather clothes. I still had plenty of time left of my vacation, and my income from the office had been enough to cover my rent and expenses. I had barely touched my vacation paychecks besides the auto drafts that came out of my account for my cell phone bill and my PO Box. Monday was a slow day at Stocks and Plots, so I decided to head back to Dallas and take care of business.

Somehow, the bus ride back seemed quicker than last time, and before I knew it, I was pulling into the station. My car was waiting where I left it, and amazingly, it started right up. My first stop was the post office. 

I waited in line for the next teller.

“I'm here to pick up my mail; it’s on hold.”

“May I see your ID, please?” I pulled out my driver’s license from my wallet and handed it to the clerk.

“Is this is the address the mail is on hold for?” she asked pointing to the address on my license.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“One minute, please.” She when the back room to look for my mail. When she returned, she had quite a stack.

“This is all of it. Will you be taking it off hold now?”

“No, I will need to put in a change of address please.” She handed me the form; I filled it out and returned it to her. 

“You're going to have to give it about a week to take full effect. Some mail is already in transit here, but it will catch up.”

As I looked through the stack of mail she handed to me, most of it was junk. “I'm not worried; it doesn't look like I missed anything anyway. So I'm sure it'll be fine. Thank you for your help.”

It was midday and there was too much stuff back at the apartment that I had left behind. As I passed the apartment complex, I didn't see Bill’s car, so I stopped in. I walked up the stairs to our entrance and took a deep breath as I put the key in the door, constantly looking over my shoulder. I had to make it quick and just grab as much stuff as I could carry and get out. I didn’t want to run the chance of running into Bill. 

I opened the door and stepped inside, giving one last look down on the parking lot. The complex was quiet, and the only sound was my blood rushing through my ears. 

The living room looked the same, everything in its place, and I proceeded to the bedroom. I just wanted to get my clothes and get out. I made a beeline for the closet and when I opened it, nothing. Hanger after hanger filled with Bill’s suits. My breath caught in my throat, and my chest tightened. My things were gone. I went to the bedside table and pulled open the drawer. Only the TV remote and some matchbooks for candles were inside. I closed the drawer and the sound of a slamming door outside startled me. 

I looked around to make sure everything was as I found it and hurried to the door. I opened the front door, poked my head out, and looked around before hurrying out and closing the door behind me. I ran down the steps to my car and locked the doors once inside. I took a deep breath and tried to stop shaking before turning the key and pulling out of the lot. 

There was officially nothing left for me there, and I felt secure in leaving it all behind. I stopped at the Quickie Lube and waited while the mechanics changed all the fluids in my car. It was far from new but it had been reliable. If I was going to drive back to Centerville, I wanted my car running at its best, so an oil change couldn’t hurt. When the mechanics were done, I paid my bill and hit the road. I had one more stop to make. I had to sign some vacation paperwork at the office, and then I could be on my way. 

I pulled into the parking lot of my office building. Human resources was on a different floor than my office or Bill’s, so as long as I could get through the lobby and short elevator ride, I was pretty secure I could avoid most colleagues and get in and out quickly. I made my way to the sixth floor and looked around; it was lunchtime. Crap, they might be out to lunch. Marie rounded the corner carrying a stack of crisscross papers in varying soft pastels. She saw me waiting by the front counter. 

“Hey, Suzie. How are you feeling?"

"I'm well, thank you. You said to come in when I had a chance to sign some papers?"

“Yes, let me put these copies down and I will grab your file. Come on back.”

I followed her beyond the cubicle divide to her cluttered desk. Marie dumped the stack of papers on an already ominous-looking stack threatening to topple.

“Have a seat. I will be right back.”

I heard the clank of the filing cabinet opening and the subsequent slam of the drawer as Marie retrieved my file. Pictures of children were plastered on every inch of space that was not occupied by a mandatory labor notice or payroll calendar. I smiled at the picture on the top of her computer monitor of Marie and a group of children all making goofy faces.

“Sorry about that. The phone in the front rang,” Marie apologized as she took a seat in her little sanctuary.

“It's all right I was enjoying your photos."

“These two are my daughter and my son. And these goofballs are my grandchildren,” she said, pointing to the picture next to her monitor and the one on top.

“How many do you have?"

“Altogether, six."

“It looks like a lot more,”

“My daughter-in-law has three sisters, and they have children too. I love them all. How is your family doing?"

“They are okay.”

“Sorry, I don't mean to pry. I was just worried about you. I saw Bill the other day and asked how you were doing. He asked how long you'd be able to stay away. I told him I sent along all your vacation information. I found it odd that he wouldn't know, he said you have been busy.”

The sound of his name made me immediately on alert. Bill was asking for me. But he threw away all my stuff. My head buzzed with feverish thoughts and hackles raised with possibilities. He wanted to know how long I could be gone. Maybe he put my stuff in storage. Maybe he figured I was going to be gone that long I didn't need it. No, he erased every trace of me. He hit me.

“Just sign each one of these. I can only authorize one week at time, so each sheet is for one week of vacation.” Marie's voice brought me back to the present. She placed the short pile of forms in front of me. Marie extended a pen in her hand, and I was forced to focus on the task at hand. Taking the pen from her hand, I signed each form securing the four months to figure out what to do with my life. I clicked the pen to the papers before handing them back.

“Thank you, Marie. I appreciate all your help. You have my number if you need anything more.”

“Take care of yourself, Suzie.” The phone on her desk rang, and she promptly answered it with her canned greeting. I left with a wave, and she waved back as she helped whoever was on the line. 

 With the paperwork signed, I had no reason to return to the office for the rest of my leave. I felt like a huge weight was off my shoulders as I got into the elevator. The doors opened, and I stepped out into the lobby and looked in my purse for my car keys. Of course, they would find the deepest darkest recess of my bag, and I had to dig deep to get them. I wasn’t paying attention and walked straight into a suit. 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” I looked up and was face to face with Bill. 

“I was wondering when your ass was going to decide to show up,” he said through gritted teeth as he grabbed my arms.

“Let me go!” I hissed at him as he tightened his grip.

Another colleague came up behind him, slapping him on the back, “Hey, Bill, you ready? Meeting in fifteen minutes. Oh, hey, Suzie! How are you feeling? Are you back?” Tom, the junior executive said with a smile. 

“No, not yet, Tom, but thanks for asking. I was just leaving,” I said over Bill’s shoulder shooting daggers at him with my eyes. I tried to free myself from his tight grasp and winced as he squeezed even harder.

“Are you okay?” Tom asked with concern as pain shot across my face.

“She is always falling down. Really, you have to be more careful, babe, before you really hurt yourself,” Bill interjected. He released his grip and rubbed up and down both my arms. 

“Come on, man. Showtime in … twelve minutes … and you know the elevator is slow as molasses. Gotta go. Nice seeing you, Suzie. Feel better!” Tom said with another slap to Bill’s back, and they both walked to the elevators with Tom yammering on about their sales pitch presentation in the next few minutes. 

I stood in the lobby, stunned, as the elevator doors closed behind them. I released the breath that was stuck in my tight chest and bent over with my hands on my knees to take a few more steadying breaths. The elevator dinged, and I was on high alert and ran through the front entrance without looking back until I reached my car in the lot. I fumbled with the keys in the car door as I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. I finally got the key in the hole, unlocked, crawling into the driver’s seat. I locked the door and rested my head on the wheel. 

The ‘what ifs” raced through my brain of all the possible horrible scenarios that might have happened should Tom have not shown up right then. As I sat in my car trying to calm my racing pulse, I blinked past my welling tears. The worst was over. I was done. I never had to come back again.

 I started my car taking once last look around. Leaving Dallas in my rearview mirror, I drove to my future.

I took a slow ride back to Oklahoma from Texas. My poor car was not used to long drives, and it already had over 100,000 miles on it, so I was doing the speed limit and taking my time. It felt good to be behind the wheel again. It would make things a lot easier when I got back to town because I wouldn’t have to depend on anyone to get me anywhere anymore.

Kelli came off the porch and met me at the car. “Hey, you’re back. Need any help with anything?” I walked with her empty-handed back toward the main house.

“Nope, just got my purse and some mail.”

“I thought you were going to get your stuff?” she said, confused.

“Yeah, well it’s gone. There was nothing left.”

“What do you mean, all gone?”

“He got rid of it. I went back and there was nothing, not even a toothbrush.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. Come on inside and tell me what happened.” I followed her inside to the kitchen where she started pulling out lunch meat and cheese from the fridge. 

“Well, I have been gone over a month already. I don’t know what I expected.”

“You expected him to be a human being, but I guess that was giving him much credit. But now we have an excuse to go shopping! We will hook you up!”

“I suppose it is truly a fresh start. All I have is whatever I brought with me.”

“Sometimes it’s best to start over fresh anyways.”

She put her arm around me and gave me a side hug, and I winced in pain.

“Are you all right? Did you hurt your arm?”

I lifted up my sleeve, and the outlines of Bill’s fingers were visible around my bicep and wrist.

“What the hell, Suzie? Who did this?”

I felt defeated. Kelli never questioned the bruises on my face when I arrived, but now there would be no avoiding a direct question. 

“It was Bill. I ran into him, literally, at the office.”

“Holy hell, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere else?” She looked me over to every part that was visible.

“No, it’s just my arms. He grabbed me, hard. We were in public so it ended there.”

“Well, thank heavens! No man should ever lay his hands on a woman except in love. I would rather see a wall full of holes than a bruise on a woman,” she said sternly. 

Mike and Max came into the kitchen at Kelli’s raised voice to see what was the commotion. 

“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” Mike asked, concerned. Mike was usually very quiet, and the deep bass of his voice soothed me, like a low growl. 

“Look at this, Mike. Look at what that animal did to her!” Kelli was furious, and I didn’t want them to make a big deal out of it. 

“It’s nothing. I bruise really easily. I get marked up all the time.” I lifted up my pants leg to show a fading bruise on my shin. “See, I did this just last week on the coffee table.”

Mike lifted my sleeve again to take a look as Max looked on from behind Kelli. 

“That is not ‘nothing’. Hell, I bet we can pull fingerprints off this mark if we tried. Who did this? Did you report this?” Mike urged on.

“No, I just came home. I don’t plan on going back, so I don’t have to worry about running into him anymore.”

“We should still report it, right Mike?” Kelli looked to her husband for guidance.

“Please, just let it go,” I pleaded. “It’s over, and I never have to see him again.” Kelli stared at me looking for any doubts why she shouldn’t drag my ass down to the police station and file a report. I stood firm, and her facial expression slowly softened.

“Well, are you hungry, then? I have some biscuits. I can fix you something.”

“Lunch would be great, Kelli”

“We are headed out to south fence. Call me on the walkie if you need anything.” Mike kissed Kelli on the forehead and left with Max in tow.