Page 73 of Making Home with You
It’s sick, but the worst part is the faces of these women.All of them having been replaced by someone cutting out and sticking Sarah’s photo over it.It’s clearly a shot of her when she was unaware her picture was being taken and that alone should piss me off, but to see her superimposed over these pictures.
Now my blood is fucking boiling.
It’s one thing for Carla to come after me.To be pissed that I’m not interested in her or that it’s not her I’m sleeping with or whatever.
But to go after Sarah, a woman who has absolutely nothing to do with any of this, now I’m fucking livid.
Shoving the pictures back into the envelope, I quickly go through the rest of the trash to see if there’s anything else.Thankfully, this is all there is, so after I drag the cans to the curb, I head back inside, slipping the envelope into my work bag so there’s no chance of Sarah seeing it.
Then, taking a deep breath and forcing myself to calm down, I head back to my bedroom and the only thing keeping me sane right now.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sarah
I take each day at my job one day at a time, one hour, one minute, to just get through it.I call it a success if Andrew doesn’t speak to me and today is one of those days, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on ruining his life.
I’m still trying to find Eliza Anderson; all the while holding out hope she quit for all the reasons I think she did.Why would she leave after only working here for a few weeks?
The girl is basically invisible and that leads me to believe shit went down and she just wanted to disappear.She has no social media pages, no LinkedIn profile, no mortgage records or apartment rentals.The whole thing is weird, and while I’m no detective, I do know one.
Finn is working late tonight, so when my train comes in I head over to Erin and Ryan’s.I haven’t had a chance to thank Ryan for sending Joe by the office the other day, and I feel like I’m totally neglecting my relationship with him.
Since hooking up with Finn, I haven’t seen Ryan at all, and I’m beginning to wonder if I’m intentionally avoiding him because of his past with Finn.Like I don’t want to hear about how much he doesn’t like Finn.
Ryan is honestly the reason I’m in Rockport and the reason I even met Finn, so I need to suck it up and stop worrying about if he’s bothered by my relationship.
I have bigger things to deal with now and I need Ryan’s help.
I walk in and the house smells like home, like our mother’s cooking and while I can cook, Ryan can cook like no other.
“Ryan!”I scream as I walk through the door and he and Erin both laugh loudly.
“She’s back,” Erin shouts out melodically and I skip toward the sound of her voice in the kitchen.
“So you just come back for the food, huh?”Ryan says while standing at the stove stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce.
“Never,” I say swatting at him playfully and stepping over to give Erin a quick hug.“I’m here to pick your brain about my sleazy boss and some detective shit.”
“You are just using me then.”Ryan lets out a pretend annoyed huff and returns to the pot on the stove.“And explain to me why I had to find out about the sleazy boss through Erin?”
“Because I can handle myself.”
As I say it I know it’s not exactly the truth.I can generally handle things myself but this shit is really throwing me for a loop.
Ryan fires off a deep guttural laugh and he leans back against the counter, “I’m not worried about you handling yourself.Fuck knows the only person who can handle you is yourself.I’m worried about your creepy ass boss putting his hands on you.”
I try to brush Ryan off, but I know he wouldn’t have sent Joe to my office if the whole thing didn’t concern him too.There are moments when I absolutely despise Ryan’s overprotective tendencies, but now isn’t one of them and I need to stop acting like this shit with my boss isn’t terrifying.
I have no idea how far he could take it, and the way I let my mind wander while thinking about Eliza Anderson and her reasons for quitting, her reasons for disappearing, are exactly why I’m here talking to Ryan.
“I know, Ry, and I owe you a thank you for sending Joe to meet me at the office.I talk a big game but my boss is creepy as fuck.”I run a hand through my hair, trying not to give away just exactly how scared I am.
I’m not just scared of Andrew, I’m scared of what might happen when I begin to get the ball rolling; when I finally find Eliza, when I report Andrew to HR, when I finally find a way to end what he thinks is completely normal office behavior.
“So hit me with it,” Ryan says, sitting down at the table next to Erin.“What’s going on?”
I fill Ryan in, leaving out the part where he cornered me in the elevator, because if Ryan knew Andrew put his hands on me, he’d be hunting Andrew down and kicking his ass.
