Page 13 of Monstrous Urges

“No… That’s okay,” I say quietly.

“Oh, you left your file cabinet unlocked, too. I made sure to lock it when I came in this morning, though.”

“Thanks,” I reply absently, turning away from her. “Actually, you know what?” I turn back and smile radiantly. “Total brain fart. Wow,” I force a laugh. “That was last night, wasn’t it?”

“You need to take more vacations!” she laughs.

“Seriously. Thanks, Amelia.”

“No problem!” she chirps brightly. “I’ll be at my desk!”

When she steps out, I swallow nervously.

Fuck.

This is bad. This…whatever this is…has been happening more and more. These episodes. Dr. Jesnick calls it “physical involuntary discordance”.

It’s sleepwalking, basically. One minute I’m asleep, the next I’m “awake” and moving around, even performing tasks. The kicker is, I have no memory of it later after I actually wake up.

But holy shit, I came here late last night? The episodes I’ve had before have involved things like leaving the TV on or making myself a snack and not cleaning up the sink afterward. I tried to reorganize my financial records and tax returns one night.

But I’ve never left my apartment before during one of the episodes. At least, I don’t think I have, but how would I know?

Maybe being in a new place last night fucked me up.

Or maybe what you did BEFORE bed…

I flush.

Fuck—I didn’t drive, did I?

I’m still staring at Manhattan out the windows of my office with a dazed feeling when there’s a knock on my door. It opens before I can even respond and Fumi walks in.

“You do get that knocking first is like asking permission to enter someone else’s space, right?”

She arches a brow with a curious smile on her lips. “Okay. Is this the part where you tell me I need to wait until such permission is graciously granted?”

I frown, exhaling. “Sorry, I’m tired and cranky.”

She shuts the door and walks over to my desk as I slump into my chair. Fumi sits across from me in a gorgeous jade green knee-length pencil skirt and a super-cute black top, her long black hair wrapped up in a topknot.

“So…” She smirks. “You’re tired, huh?”

I start to roll my eyes. “Fumi?—”

“Does this mean you went through with it?!” she shrieks, grinning widely at me. “Did you go to Venom?!”

My face burns. “Fumi, we’re at work.”

My friend sighs heavily. “We need a neon sign above your head to let me know when you’re my boss-Taylor, and when you’re my friend-Taylor.”

I snort. “What if we just say that while we’re at work, I’m boss-Taylor and we stick to professional conversations that don’t involve either your sex life with Gabriel, or my lack of sex life with anyone.”

Fumi grins. “Normal professional conversations like the one we had in the conference room yesterday when you were telling me what a shitty fuck Steven was, the like two times or whatever you slept together? I think there was also something about the diminutive size of his?—”

“Okay, that was inappropriate, and I apologize,” I say hastily.

Fumi laughs. “Apology accepted. Now tell me what the fuck sort of trouble you got into last night.”

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