Bound to the Fallen (Prophecy #2) (9 page)

Brooke

June 30, 2014

The next Monday I woke up five minutes before my alarm went off, thanks to Simon’s sandpaper tongue licking my fingers. I ran into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee, then danced into my bathroom and jumped into the shower. I carefully lined my eyes with charcoal gray eyeliner, brushed several coats of volume plumping mascara over my lashes, and painstakingly wrapped each strand of hair around a curler.

Reaching around, I
zipped up my black work dress, smoothing it out over my hips before slipping my feet into my red pumps. I latched my silver Tiffany’s necklace, admiring myself in the mirror as I adjusted the flat silver pendant between my small cleavage.

“You’re doing this to look professional, not to get the attention of that ridiculously sexy man
,” I said to my reflection.

I was fifteen minutes early
to work and the only other person there was Sherry. I put my stuff down and followed the hall to the front office.

“Hey
, Sherry, do we have any extra binders up here?”

“I might,
” she said as she stood, reaching above her to open the cabinets.

I watched the back of her head as she fumbled through the office supplies. Her
brown hair didn’t budge while she moved her head up and down scanning the shelves. I could see her large breasts poking out from her sides and she’d already slipped her flats off under her desk.

“Here you go
, honey,” she said as she handed me two small binders.

“Thanks,
” I paused. I hadn’t really had a chance to talk to anyone except Ashley and Dan and thought now may be a good time to see what Sherry was about.

“How long have you worked here?”
I asked, resting against the corner of her desk.

“Oh, this is the only place I’ve ever worke
d. I guess I’ve been here going on nineteen years.”

“Do you like it?”

“Like it?” she laughed and pulled her glasses off, wiping the lenses on her striped cotton shirt. “It’s a job, it pays the bills, and it gives me a chance to surf the internet most of the day.”

She held her glasses out in front of her to examin
e if they were clean enough before she pushed them back onto her face. “There are quite the personalities here, but I don’t want to taint your opinion of anyone just yet. I’ll let you decide for yourself who’s a complete whack job.”

The door to the main office opened and we both looked out the window to see who was coming in.
A short man who looked to be in his early fifties was propping the door open with his foot, attempting to drag one of those rolling cases over the threshold. He was thin and had rough, weathered skin. His salt and peppered hair sported a drastically receding hairline that accentuated the wrinkles in his forehead. His face contorted into a grumpy scowl as he yanked at the cart behind him. The man glanced up, looking at us through the glass, and forced a smile. His thick unruly eyebrows arched as he gave one last yank to the cart and made his way to the hallway.

“That’s Dr. Knight. He
’s such a charming and warm man,” Sherry said as she peered through the glass at him with a look of contempt. “Complete and utter dick.”

I heard the door
to Dr. Knight’s office shut and I looked back over at Sherry.

She sighed and twirled her pencil in her fingers. I could tell she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if I could be trusted.

Lowering my voice, I said, “Dan told me Dr. Knight was an ass. Why does everyone think he’s so mean? What’s he do?”

“He’s just arrogant and
never
wrong. He thinks everyone in this office is an idiot and beneath him.” She paused and raised one of her thinly drawn eyebrows. “If you make one mistake and he catches it he’ll make you feel like a worthless piece of crap. It’s not just people in this office that hate him. People all over the campus think he’s an ass. Just wait, if someone outside here asks you where you work and you say for Dr. Knight, they’ll immediately ask you how you stand it.” She threw her hands up and said, “I’ve seen so many people come and go from this office just because of that stupid man. I didn’t think it could get any worse — until Dan got here. Oh, Lord! Dan is almost as bad, but in a passive aggressive way. The two of them are constantly in a pissing contest.”

The phone rang and Sherry
peeked over at the caller ID. “They can just leave a message. It’s too early for me to be bothered with work.” She hesitated, trying to remember where she’d left off, “Oh, and Nicole, have you met her yet?”

“No
. Her door’s always closed when I’ve passed by her office. The only time I’ve seen her was during the staff meeting last week,” I said.

“Well, she’s a bitch
!” Sherry cut her eyes over at me to see if her profanity had offended me. “She’s Dr. Knight’s little tattle tale. Don’t ever let her see you do something you’re not supposed to be doing, and whatever you do,
don’t
step on her toes.” She lowered her voice and brought her face closer to me, “I’m pretty sure the two of them are doing some hanky panky on the side. Oh, did I mention the bastard is married?”

I scrunched my face up and tried to act like Ashley hadn’t already informed me about their gross affair
. “He’s so ugly though.” I paused briefly. “Surely she could do better than that nasty man.”

“
Well, she’s one of those kind. What do you kids call girls like that, gold diggers? She wants a man with authority and money. She’s not had any qualms about letting that be known.”

Due to the topic I couldn’t help but think about my father and his string of interoffice affairs, I already didn’t like Nicole just because of that.

Sherry got quiet, placing her finger over her mouth as she strained to hear something.

There were footsteps in the office outside of Sherry’s door. Nic
ole trotted in and my heart pounded. I was terrified she had heard us talking about her, but she didn’t acknowledge either one of us as she thumbed through the medical charts on the back wall. Her brown hair was neatly pulled out of her face with a dainty, silver hair clip. Nicole turned around and shot an accusatory glare at Sherry.

“Do you know where Mr. Thomp
son’s chart is? I can’t find it,” Nicole asked in an airy, snobby voice.

Sherry looked at the charts she had i
n a bin at the edge of her desk. “He’s not here.”

“Hmmm
. I guess some idiot misfiled his chart. Just what I need.” Nicole let out a frustrated sigh and directed her attention over at me. “I’ll just get one of the students to find it. They don’t have anything better to do anyways than file. They’re such a waste of resources.” She sighed again and walked out of the office.

I heard her stop a
t Dr. Knight’s office and cheerfully say, “Good morning, Dr. Knight. May I come in for a moment?”

Seconds later the door to his office shut.
The lock clicked. I cringed as I was reminded of Trisha and my dad.

Sherry’s round face
grew red. “See? She’s such a bitch. What do you think I do all day? File! She’s just like that jackass she’s shacking up with. A pompous, arrogant, and conceited crusty little asshole!”

The phone rang again and Sherry
snatched the receiver up. “Neurosurgery,” she hissed into the phone.

I took that as my
cue to exit. On the way to my office I heard Gavin’s voice coming from the conference room. I spun around and headed toward the conference room. I figured it wouldn’t hurt for me to get a cup of coffee and sneak a peek at him.

“Good morning,
” I glanced at him as I picked up a cup and reached for the pot.

“Good morning,
” he replied and continued to read over the papers in his hand. He didn’t even look up at me.

Shaking
the pack of sugar, I turned around to ask him how his weekend was, but he was walking out of the room. I was disappointed. I thought we would stand there and make small talk at least for a minute. I’d anticipated him complimenting me on my dress, or smiling at me, or something to acknowledge me. My ego was hurt, I felt like an idiot, and now I had a stupid cup of coffee that I didn’t want to drink.

I
sulked on the way down the hall and stopped at Ashley’s door. She had just come in and was pulling things from her bag.

“Hey,
” I said, swirling the coffee around in the Styrofoam cup.

“
How’d you feel yesterday?” she asked.

“Pretty shitty. I was afraid I was
gonna have a hangover today still.”

She
groaned. “Yeah, I felt pretty shitty myself.” She paused and a smug smile tugged the corners of her mouth up. “Colton’s your friend’s brother, right?”

“Yea
h.” I narrowed one of my eyes at her and snarled my lips in disgust. “Oh no — did you go home with him?”

“Uh-huh.
” Ashley bit down on her glossed lips and twirled her hair around her finger. “He’s pretty cute. I’ve seen them play a few times before.” She opened a bottle of Tylenol and dumped two capsules in her hand. “Can I have a sip of that?” she asked and reached for my cup.

My arms crossed and I let out a dejected sigh as
I handed the cup to her. “Drink it all. I don’t want it.”

She
peered at me over the rim of the cup and swallowed the medicine. “Damn, you need some more sugar in that. Ugh!”

I turned to
leave, but Ashley stopped me. “Hey, you ever slept with Colton?”

A
nother disgusted look fell over my face. “No. Gross. What kind of sick question is that?”

“What? You act like he’s nasty
or something. I’m tellin’ you, you’ve been missing out. That man has one of the most amazing penises. It’s perfect, and huge — and he absolutely knows how to use it. I think I had three orgasms that night,” Ashley said as she leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms out.

“Oh, no, no, no
!” I made a slight gagging expression with my mouth. “I don’t want to know about his penis.” I threw my hands over my eyes and groaned. “Great, Ashley, now I’m just gonna be trying to make it out in his jeans every time I see him. Thanks! I’ve always imagined him just having, like one of those blurry censor things down there.”

M
y hands were still plastered to my face because now I had a mental image of Colton spread out on some red velvet sheet, ever so slightly biting his lip with one arm behind his head, his left knee bent up and his other hand grasping on to some monstrous weiner.

Ashley snickered, still obviously pleased with herself for sleeping with him. Her eyes quickly
scanned up and down my body. “You look hot. Why are you so prissied up today? Trying to impress Dan the Man?” She spun her chair around like a five year old, kicking her legs out in front of her.

“You’re sick, you know it?
” I said, flattening my dress out. “I just like to dress up.”

“Uh-huh
, sure. You’re dressing up for
somebody
, and seeing as how the only person worth dressing up for is Dr. Hunter,” she paused and a wide grin formed on her face, “Umm-hmmm.”

“I’m not dressin
g up for Dr. Hunter,” I said with an overly defensive tone to my voice. She glared at me and I knew that I couldn’t fool her.

“Okay. I’ll be watching you in staff meeting
,” she shot a smart ass smile at me before turning back to her computer monitor.

I
left her office, pissed that I even cared what Gavin thought of me. I could see the light coming from Dan’s doorway and I hoped that he wouldn’t see me as I walked into my office. I didn’t want to entertain him.

“Well, good morning there
, Brookey,” Dan called out as I flipped the light switch.

“G
ood morning, Dan,” I grumbled. I didn’t do too well hiding my agitation that morning.

I pulled one of the charts and opened it on my desk.

This is my life. Sitting in an office with charts and papers everywhere. Forced to work in the dark and try to avoid a pervert… eight hours a day, five days a week. Fuck me!

I finished my moment of self-loathing and input data. My eyes glazed over as I stared at the screen. I was systematically typing away in the dark when
my office phone rang. The sudden break in silence startled me and I jumped.

P
icking up the receiver, I let out a sigh. “This is Brooke.”

“OMG! Come down here now,
” Ashley excitedly whispered into the phone and hung up.

I didn’t know what the big deal was, but Ashley sounded like she was about to have a fit.
I hurried down the hall to Ashley’s office and found her with her face smooshed up against the wall. She waved her hand ordering me to come over next to her. Her mouth made an “O” shape and she closed her eyes, pulling in her lips to keep herself from erupting in laughter. Whatever it was had Ashley near tears.