Patti couldn’t believe her ears. They couldn’t afford her? “I thought you said the company was growing?”

 “It is,” he stated simply. “But the rules of the game have changed. We’re no longer required to hire in full-time and the benefits we used to give no longer apply.” Standing, Mr. Peterson made his way around the desk. “I understand this may be difficult for you to absorb. If you’d like, you are welcome to take the rest of the day off.”

 He held his hand out in a silent plea for her to get moving. Patti rose stiffly to her feet, the envelope in her hand burning her skin like molten lava, and allowed him to lead her to the door. “Do I get to at least finish out the week?” she asked quietly.

 “If you’d like,” he agreed.

 “Okay.” She nodded solemnly. “I think I’ll head home for the day, though.”

 “I think that’s a good idea.”

 Mr. Peterson observed from the doorway as Patti cleaned up her desk, shut down the computer, and gathered her purse. He nodded to her as she passed by on her way out. She couldn’t even muster a smile.

* * *

“Rise and shine.” Jon leaned over the blonde who pretended to still be asleep and whispered in her ear. “I’ve got fifteen minutes left before I’m late to work. It’s time to get up.” For the life of him, he couldn’t recall her name, but it didn’t matter anyway since she wouldn’t be sticking around much longer.

 “Mmm.” Rolling over, his after party snack from last night’s bar crawl raised her arms over her head and stretched, pushing her bare breasts toward the ceiling. “Can’t I just hang out here until you get back?”

 Jon gave her a placating smile. “It’ll be late when I get back.” Her lips pursed out in disappointment, and Jon just couldn’t stand the idea of sending a woman away unsatisfied. He had to uphold his reputation, after all. Lowering his head, he wrapped his lips around one pert nipple and sucked. 

“Ah, baby, yes!” she shouted dramatically, grasping his head in her hands. 

Tunneling his hand under the duvet, Jon let his questing fingers slip between her legs and into her slick heat. In no time flat, he had her writhing and praising his name to the god above.

 “Call me?” she asked hopefully, as he guided her out the door.

 He glanced at the clock, noting he had five minutes to spare. Why couldn’t women just have sex and leave it at that? It couldn’t just be a man thing, could it? Opening the door for her, he took a moment to pull her up against him, enjoying the feel of her firm breasts crushed against his chest for the last time. Framing her face with his hands, he leaned down and covered her mouth with his. It was a crying shame that he would never see this one again, because the way she sucked on his bottom lip was making him have flashbacks to last night when she had her mouth fitted around his cock.

 He felt himself get hard again and before he dragged her back into the bedroom, he drew back, disengaging himself completely. She looked up at him with heavy-lidded eyes and a drunken smile on her face.

 “I have to go,” he told her, pushing her outside and following behind her. After closing the door and locking up, he led her to her car with his hand pressing firmly against the small of her back.

 Before she got in, she turned back to him, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his lips once more. “Call me?” she repeated.

 “Maybe,” he said with a playful smile, one that he knew would get him off the hook and get her out of his driveway. Apparently, his answer was good enough for her because she left before she could realize that they’d never exchanged numbers. Oops.

 He made it into the office ten minutes overdue, but it didn’t matter anyway since he owned the place. He wasn’t there but a couple of minutes before there came a knock on the door.

 “Come in,” Jon barked as he flipped through his stack of mail.

 The door cracked open to admit his favorite person in the world: his accountant. “Good morning, Mr. Bradshaw,” Jenna said meekly as she crossed the room and took a seat in front of his desk.

 “Morning, Jenna,” Jon said brightly. He tossed his mail down with a slap and settled into his chair, folding his hands over his stomach and swaying side to side. “What brings you by? I trust the accounts are all in order. No sudden crash in the market I should worry about?”

 “Oh, no, sir,” she said with a soft smile.

 That’s what Jon liked most about Jenna. She was shy and timid, but she could crunch numbers like Shaun T crunched abs. If not for her, he’d be a rich man living in a trailer with an Escort parked outside on the curb, instead of the million-dollar condo with a BMW parked out front. He admitted it. He wasn’t the best with money, but having a team of experts to keep him in line definitely helped.

 Jenna proceeded to place several file folders on his desk and he leafed through them mainly for show, since he had absolutely zero interest in whatever was inside. If she said everything was good, he trusted it was good.

 “Stocks are up two and a half percent, which more than makes up for the recent rise in overhead costs,” she explained, keeping it short and simple like she knew he preferred. “Our sales rep reported to me this morning that Mr. Larson’s latest project has broken through to the Times Best Sellers, which is already showing promising numbers, but we won’t know how well it’s truly done until the last earnings report comes in at the end of the month. And, I’m leaving.”

 Jon was on such a high from all the good news that he almost missed her little bombshell. His hands grasped the armrests and he sat forward, his back ramrod. “Excuse me?” He laughed. “I’m not sure I heard you right. You said you’re leaving?”

 Jenna’s expression was full of fear and uncertainty. “Yes, sir,” she said, her voice trembling. “I’m getting married this weekend—”

Jon held his hand up to stop her. “You’re engaged?”

“For two years, sir,” she said, her voice growing stronger.

“Why am I only now hearing about this? I would have gotten you a gift or whatever they do for this kind of thing.” He waved his hand through the air and grabbed for the phone. “I’ll tell Poppy to pick something up for your wedding then.”

“That’s not necessary,” Jenna rushed out. Jon set his phone down gently and stared at her, waiting for her to continue. “I’ve really loved working here with all of you. It’s been a great learning experience. But I am giving you my notice.”

Jon was not pleased. He was actually pretty irritated, but he tried to keep his emotions under wraps so he wouldn’t scare the poor thing. Already she looked like she might faint from the stress. “Why not take a few weeks off,” he suggested. “Get married, enjoy your honeymoon, and when things settle down, come back. Why quit? You said it yourself, you love working here.”

 “I do. I did.” Jenna sighed, as her head dropped down so only the rim of her sophisticated glasses were visible through the curtain of golden brown hair. “Tim is old school, you know? His parents raised him to believe that the wife should stay home with the kids, while he works to take care of them.”

 Jon didn’t like the sound of this, and he let her know it.  “This is the twenty-first century, Jenna. Women work to help contribute to the household, too. Why go through years of school and training to get where you are today only to give it all up?”

 The thin line of her lips and downcast eyes let him know he was getting to her, but whether it was a good or bad thing, he couldn’t be certain. “I appreciate your concern, Mr. Bradshaw, but I’m getting married and I respect my husband’s wishes. I’m sorry you find that difficult to understand, but it is what it is.”

 Jon watched her silently for a moment longer, meeting her eyes dead on. No, he didn’t understand it, nor did he ever want to. He was raised in a home where his mother and father both held jobs and pursued their dreams outside of the house and family, with the notion that a person needed to fulfill themselves before they could be truly fulfilled in life. He had never been able to grasp the nineteen fifties housewife ideal.

 “So that’s it? You’re leaving me?”

 “Yes, sir.”

 With a resigned sigh, Jon stood up and extended his hand. “Well then, Ms. Houseman, congratulations on your marriage and good luck.”

 “Thank you.”

 He walked her to the door, pausing just inside of it. “If you ever need anything, just call.”

 Jenna nodded. “Okay.”

 “And I trust you can cut your own severance check without robbing me blind?”

 “That’s a pretty tall order, but I’ll try.” She smirked.

 “Good, and make it double. I don’t want people thinking they’re working for a scrooge.” He closed the door on her shocked face and plopped back down behind his desk. It sucked royal ass that Jenna was leaving. He was just boasting to his parents the other night about how well things were going for him and how much he had planned for the company’s future. Now, he was out an accountant, and a damn fine one at that. If he didn’t get another one soon, he’d be closer to living in that trailer than he’d ever imagined.

2

Patti finally understood the term going stir crazy, because she was one silent moment and two soap operas away from becoming completely bat shit, out of her mind, loony tunes.

 She’d finished out her week at Peterson and Wendle yesterday—a day early because she just couldn’t stand being somewhere she wasn’t wanted—and without a single idea of how to move ahead, she felt lost. She knew she needed to start looking for a job and putting in applications, but her heart just wasn’t in it. Maybe it had something to do with the shock of having her livelihood yanked out from under her, or maybe she was just having so much fun sitting at home, alone, with nothing to do but stuff her face with sugary snacks that she’d completely lost her drive to continue being a productive member of society. Okay, so it’d only been a day, and maybe she was being a tad overly dramatic, but she had loved her job. Without it to help keep her occupied, she had nothing to distract her from her memories.