Page 34 of Corporate Bondage

I was done listening to his bullshit. I hooked my arm around his neck, not hard enough to actually hurt him but for him to desist trying to keep me here.

“Let go!” The change in him was instant. I had seen him mad before but nothing like this. He elbowed me in my stomach like I had done him earlier, only harder. I grunted, my grip loosening around his neck. He escaped my grip and slammed me hard against the door, my left cheek hitting the surface. Pain flared up in my cheekbone, and I grunted from it. He gripped me by the neck, pinning me against the door. He was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling as though he had just run a marathon. As hard as he had slammed me into the door, it didn’t warrant him blowing so much.

“Keith!” I cried his name, terrified of what was happening to him. It was like he had transformed into someone I didn’t know. I also felt ashamed because I had started it.

“Gio?” He sounded bewildered.

Keith released me, and I turned against the door to look at him. His pupils were so wide, and his nostrils flared. He dragged shallow breaths that seemed to cause him physical pain, yet I knew I hadn’t hit him hard when I’d elbowed him.

“Fuck, Keith, I took things too far,” I acknowledged. He didn't look at me but past my shoulder. His chest continued to rise and fall rapidly. It was like he was present in body but his mind was elsewhere. “Keith, please say something.” I grasped his hand which felt clammy and cold. He pulled it away, blinked a few times, and his eyes shifted to me. His eyes widened in horror and he reached toward my face to cup the sensitive side he had slammed against the door.

“It’s okay. It’s a minor bruise,” I told him. I was freaked out at his reaction to everything.

He turned and rushed off. Stunned, I spurred into action and hurried after him. Something was horribly wrong. He had been triggered by something, and it was all my fault for pushing. What we had been fighting about seemed insignificant to what was happening to him right now.

“I followed him to the bathroom where he had disappeared. I shoved the door open and found him retching, his stomach heaving. Seeing him like this fucking killed me.

“Get out of here, Gio. Go home.”

“No, I can’t leave you like this. I’ll be back.”

I left him to go to the kitchen to grab a cup. I returned to find him sitting on the floor, cold sweat washing him and his body shaking. I had never seen anything like this before. He groaned as though in physical pain.

“Here.” I handed him the cup either for him to rinse or drink, whichever he needed most.

He hit the cup out of my hands, his eyes opening to fasten on me. They were tortured eyes that made me want crumple in anguish at what I had done to him. I still did not understand what was happening.

“For God’s sake Gio, go home,” he grunted, covering his face with his hands. “The car keys are on the hook beside the door. Take the car. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Keith.”

“Go, please.”

I loathed leaving him, but I feared being there only made things worse for him. I stepped outside the condo and leaned against the door. I had a feeling I had just made a big mistake accusing him of something he hadn’t done. If that was the case I had ruined the night for us. Everything had gone well at the charity cocktail party at the country club. All that had been left was for us to have sex and fall asleep in each other’s arms. That was the way the night should have turned out. Instead, I had accused him of cheating then started a physical fight that might have just caused an irreparable rift between us.

“He was being truthful, you know.”

My eyes flew open to find the guy leaning against the wall some feet away from me. I was tempted to blame him for the night’s events but no more blaming people for what my mistake.

“What the fuck did y’all expect me to think?” I growled at him. “The Keith I knew before we got involved would have fucked you, no questions asked. I’ve no idea if he’s changed simply because we are together.”

He frowned at me. “You don’t know if he’s changed and you got involved with him?”

I glared at him. “Not everything is black and white okay? Sometimes you meet somebody special who lives mostly in the gray. When it gets black it’s ugly but when it gets white it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve experienced. You stay for the white.”

He didn’t look like he had a clue what I meant. I wasn’t certain if what I had said to him sounded sensible to normal people, but Keith and I were far from normal. We had private hells that made us into the people we were today. We struggled with right, and we struggled with the wrong. Sometimes we got them mixed up but I had to believe that one day we would reach the point in our lives where we were a little less dysfunctional. Otherwise, nobody else was going to understand our shit.

“What are you doing hanging around here anyway?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “I want to check on him that he’s fine. He was extremely kind to me. Twice. And, he asked nothing in return. I think he’s a nice man but with a very sad past.”

I didn’t like the idea of him hanging around Keith’s condo, but he sure as hell didn’t want to see my face, and I’d feel better if he wasn’t alone. Still, just to be on the safe side, I collared the boy, raising him so his feet dangled off the ground,

“Fuck, man what’s wrong with you?” he cried out.

A door opened next door and a man poked his head out. “What’s going on out here?” the man bellowed. “Let him go now or I’m calling security. Too much goddamn noise around here tonight.”

I ignored him and kept my eyes trained on the guy I had collared. “You make one move on him and you won’t like what hit you, kid,” I warned him.

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