Page 14 of King of Justice

She softly gasped, placing her hand over her chest. “My God! Nobody says it like that except my mom.” Her face then suddenly straightened back to an expressionless state as she dropped her head, clutching a mug. “Smooth. But I’m not falling for it.”

Before I could object, she handed me my mug and let her shoulder brush against mine as she walked past me out the door.

five

Goodbye

Sophie

On Saturday morning, I woke up on the couch alone. Everything hurt from the position in which I’d slept in, so I stretched my arms and cracked my neck, my eyes searching for Nathan. Feeling slightly warmer, I pushed aside the coats and got up. The faint light from outside flooded the space, revealing the empty wrappers on the floor next to my feet.

Bending over, I grabbed them one by one. “Nathan?” I called out. He didn’t respond, so I got up, tossing them into the nearest trash can underneath a colleague’s desk. “Nathan! Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I walked toward the meeting room, which was empty. I then turned and went over to Alex’s office. The door was closed, so I knocked and opened it.

My laughter preceded anything else as I saw him planking on the floor, sans tie. “Now that’s what I call dedication.”

Without breaking his pose, he looked up at me. His reddened face glowed with beads of sweat all over it, matting the hairs on his forehead and the sides of his neck. “And… sixty.” He pushed himself up to his feet and I saw his shirt sticking to his body, revealing a ripped chest.

“Uh—” I shook my head. “How long have you been doing this?”

“There aren’t any clocks around here.”

“And still no power.”

“I’d say a half hour?”

I dipped my head. “Of planking?”

“Are you kidding?” He started doing jumping jacks in place. “There’s also cardio.”

Raising my eyebrows, I nodded before spinning on my heel. “Well, we only have cold water, then. Iced coffee?”

“Sure!” I heard him say.

In the kitchenette, I wondered what his sweat smelled like. We didn’t have any other clothes, and the shower upstairs didn’t sound like an option. With no power, the water heater was useless.

How could he do this to me?

I rinsed the mugs and started stirring the instant coffee, grateful that it dissolved in cold water. Hoping that the fridge still held some coldness, I opened the carton of milk and smelled it. Hallelujah, it was still drinkable.

Walking out with two cups, I hollered, “Your coffee, master!”

He emerged from the room, wiping his forehead with his shirt sleeve. “I am forever grateful.”

I handed it to him and quickly stepped away, examining him from a distance as I took a sip. Gesturing in his general direction, I curved my lips upside down. “How are you gonna handle… all this?”

He casually shrugged. “I saw a shower in the bathroom upstairs.”

“You’d be lucky if water came outta there instead of ice.”

“I’ve taken ice baths before.”

I snorted. “Why?”

“They help when you work out too hard. Muscle recovery,” he explained.

Nodding, I forged a comical face of exaggerated knowledge. “Sure, sure. If you weren’t coming down with a cold last night, you most definitely will tonight.”

“Or they may come for us before you have to deal with my corpse.”

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