Page 4 of Never Always
He claps once. “I fucking knew it! I mean, I didn’t know, it was a strong guess, but you are so desperate, it was an easy leap.”
Tears sting my eyes. “No wonder your fiancée found someone else. You truly are a repulsive man.”
He seems to have realized he’s gone too far, because his joyful smile vanishes. “You don’t know anything about my life,” he counters.
I shake my head. “And you don’t know anything about mine.”
He stands to his full height and I’m hit with the wall of his masculine presence. “I know you read by yourself on the weekend. Science textbooks. You probably don’t have any friends or do anything other than work. You don’t care about what you look like. You’ve given up.” He waves a hand at my body—my disheveled shell. “You try to talk a big game with the gossip you heard about me, but you don’t know the truth. No one does. I also know you are so weak you can’t hear the truth about yourself without breaking down into a million pieces.” He leans down, an intimidating gesture. “Am I close? Tell me.”
My breaths come quicker as I try to control my emotions. I can’t let him see how his words have hit home.
“I have news for you, Fire. The world is a mean, cruel place, and only the strong survive. I’m doing you a favor. You want that doofus of a man outside? Grow a pair of balls and tell him.”
It’s so easy for men like him and women like Sue-Ellen. It’s so easy for everyone else except me. Grow a pair. Say what’s on my mind. It’s easy to say what’s on my mind to Corrick because he sparks fury inside me. “Women don’t have balls, Mr. Granger, they have brains. Go mop the deck. You’ll find everything you need in the red shed at the back of the building.”
He shakes his head. “He could be yours by the weekend.”
I point to the door. “Go.”
His steps are heavy as he makes his way to the door. “You know where to find me when you change your mind.”
What have I done?
Chapter Three
Tennyson
I’M SHAKING WITHa self-conscious rage as I watch him mop the docks from my eagle-eyed perch. I’m never distracted at work. This is my happy place, where I can revel in self-satisfaction and fulfillment. My sanctuary has been breached by an infiltrator who speaks hate-filled truths about me. His words are laced with vitriol, but the sentiments spoken were in fact the truth. It makes them hurt more. I am weak, I have given up, and I don’t have any friends. Do I think Corrick Granger can help me fix those things? No way. He’s too… barbaric. In all ways.
When I realize I’m tugging at my ear, I snap my hand down by my side. “Get it together, Tennyson. You’re an adult now. This isn’t middle schoolers teasing you for your freckles, this is a felon who can’t even drive his own life without getting into trouble. A villain in the story, not the hero.” Who cares if he’s right? It doesn’t mean I have to do anything differently. I love myself. I love myself.
After a brief pep talk to gain my confidence back, I sit at my desk and begin working on my reports again. I put on the noise-canceling headphones, depress the do not disturb button on my phone, and focus on my work. Hours pass easily this way and a tiny beeping alarm in my headphones alerts me to the fact that it’s seven o’clock. Grey didn’t even say goodbye before he left. He must have known I’d retreated to the sacred place. He came to work at the lab from Florida about the same time I did, straight out of college. He’s sort of an enigma, always surprising me in his peculiar habits. Like his dual reading, or that time he walked around the office with earbuds in, not speaking to anyone. Still to this day, I have no idea what he was listening to, if anything. He’s smart as a whip and cares about the same things I do. He’s never spoken about his family and it almost draws me to him even more. Perhaps they’re like mine, and he’s the black sheep.
The lab is cleared out and the lights are dimmed in the main area of our building. Shrugging out of my lab coat, I hang it on the back of my chair and grab my bag. The lobby is cool and as I pass by a large mirror in reception, I look. Not because I care what I look like after a long day, but because I always avoid the glance. I stare just long enough to say I did and begin fishing my keys from my bag.
A light by the dock catches my eye as I scan my key card to exit the large glass doors. It’s not unusual for a tech or a vet to be here this late on a Wednesday. On Thursdays, they have classes from the local public schools here for learning sessions or field trips. They’re probably out back making sure everything is as it should be. I make a snap decision to see who it is and if they need any help before making the short walk to my condo.
My ballet flats make a scuffing sound when the terrain changes from cement walkway to wooden deck. “Hello,” I call out, scanning the immediate area for the light again.
“Shit,” someone growls. The spoken curse comes from around another storage building next to the outdoor sea mammal holding tank. The flash of light breaks the darkness again.
“Who is there? Do you need help?” I shout. The hair on my arms stands on end and a chill runs up my spine.
The flashlight falls on my face. “Oh, it’s you.”
His voice cuts through the dark effortlessly this time. A familiar terror rises as I shield my face. “What are you doing out here? It’s late. Pretty sure community service hours end at five.” I wave at him to extinguish the blaze in my face. He lowers the flashlight to shine a bright orb on the dock.
“I’m trying to finish as quickly as possible. Hours end when I say they end.” He closes the storage door and turns to face me. “Was tidying up. It was a mess. I’ll head home now.”
I don’t believe him, but I’m in no place to challenge him. Alone. In the back of a building where not another living soul can help or hear me. The ocean air would muddle my death cry. I swallow hard and wrap my arms around my body. “Lucky I was here to confirm your hours then,” I reply.
He shrugs. “You’d really tell me no? That I can’t work when I want to?”
I bristle and say, “I’ll always tell you no.”
Grange stalks toward me, a menacing swagger in his step. “I wanted to apologize for the things I said earlier. We got off on the wrong foot. Well, you really got off on the wrong foot the day in the park.” His face makes it seem like the half-apology tasted like cow manure. Corrick blusters on, “You shouldn’t be out here by yourself. Haven’t you watched the news?”
Of course, I have. There has been a string of disappearances in the town next to the Cape. No bodies have been found, so they haven’t labeled it a serial killer on the loose or anything, but things like this don’t scare me. The odds are in my favor.
