Page 5 of Unleashed

Hadley nods but twists her fingers. “It’s good to see you.”

“Um, yeah.” I nod back while every nerve itches. I cross my arms, and it’s awkward with my lunch. So I prop my hand on the doorframe since Shasta left the door open. When that doesn’t feel right, I shift my bag and shove my hand into my pocket again.

Hadley watches me, possibly wondering if I’m stroking out. She smiles and motions to a chair in front of her desk. “Sit down. I don’t bite.” Her smile then drops when she maybe thinks of something else.

“No, I’ll gab all day.” I nod behind me. “I should assess the damage. I bet my office is a storage room now.”

“No one has used it. And Amos was with you.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Hadley’s hesitant gaze meets mine as she lets out a playful giggle. “You look different.”

I laugh and dig the tip of my shoe into the worn carpet that now resembles artificial turf. “Looking in a mirror, I see the same old jackass I’ve always been.”

“Your hair isn’t as short, and you haven’t shaved. You didn’t sport scruff at work before.”

I shrug. “While I was gone, I removed the stick up my ass.” Now I’m the one cringing at how idiotic and sexual that sounded. I never had this much trouble talking to Hadley, and it’s my fault.

Hadley sighs. “You’ve done a lot of different things.”

I wave my hand, panicking. I didn’t come here to rehash my dumpster fire life. “Everyone has a sob story.”

“Don’t downplay it. I still don’t know what happened to you and—”

“Nothing happened. It is what it is. Not much more to tell. We never got along. I don’t know why it’s a shock to anyone. It was more of a shock when we...” I shake my head and swing my lunch back and forth. “I just want to forget it.”

“Well, I haven’t seen her much. She’s been back in school.”

“Good for her. Aim high, shoot for the moon, and all that shit.”

“I know it’s weird, with me being her sister-in-law and you being...” Hadley clears her throat and fiddles with her cardigan hem.

“A horrible life decision? I’m nothing to her, so let’s not rehash the hash. I’ve moved on. She can do whatever she wants. Don’t care.”

“You can’t be like that. She’s your—”

“Don’t. So please, drop it, Phil Collins, because I don’t care anymore.”

Hadley makes a face, confused, as is everyone else around me who only listens to aging boy bands and moody chicks with guitars.

A muffled squeal batters my ears before dry, cracked hands that smell worse than any Humane Society strangle my eyes. “Guess who?”

I squirm, but the reprobate hangs onto me like horse shit in Central Park. I whine, “Betsy?”

She laughs, but it sounds like a pig choking on a log. “How’d you know?” She shouldn’t want to hear me answer that one.

Since her flippers still assail me, I peel them off. As I scowl at Hadley, she frowns back, silently scolding me to be civil. I should’ve gone back to bed instead of needing to prove Vaughn a dumbass. The joke’s on me. I roll my eyes and turn to face the firing squad. I wish.

Betsy’s swamp-colored eyes light up, still eye-fucking me before she commits two felonious assaults. “Oh, my Lord!” She gawks at me as I continue her prayer, begging God to strike me dead this second.

Thanks a lot.

“Uh, what?” The look on her face is rabid, so I step back, bumping into Hadley’s desk.

“You! Look at the hot Rod! Damn! Where’d you go? Did you get cosmetic surgery or something?” Now, a harassment charge. She racks up the misdemeanors better than anyone.

Hadley admonishes, “Betsy...”

---