I never knew him.
Ally walked forward in a daze, tearing her eyes from the sight on the bed, crossing the room to pick up the jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers that she wore for her job at Sully’s.
“Ally,” Rick gasped heavily, finally noticing she was in the room.
Ally held up her hand. “Don’t mind me. I just need my clothes to go to work to support you while you’re screwing another woman. Do proceed. I’ve heard coitus interruptus is terribly uncomfortable.” And she should know. How many times had Rick either stopped or left her unfulfilled back when they’d actually had sex? More times than she could count, but she’d always made excuses for his actions before. After seeing the sight she’d just observed, she knew what an idiot she’d been. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted sex; he just hadn’t wanted it with her.
Ally didn’t look in Rick’s direction again. She didn’t want to see him or the slender beauty he’d just been screwing. Her clothing in hand, Ally walked out the bedroom door, closing it behind her. Tearing off her conservative daytime attire as fast as she possibly could, she yanked on her bar attire, gathered her dirty clothes and dropped them in the second bathroom hamper on her way to the stairs, her sneakers in her hand.
“Ally, wait.”
Ignoring Rick’s voice as he shot out of the bedroom, she quickly pulled on the comfortable canvas shoes in the foyer.
“You can’t just leave like this. I can explain,” Rick yelled desperately from upstairs, hanging over the railing.
Like there was really any reasonable explanation for what she’d just witnessed? Raising her voice just loud enough to be heard, she answered, “Get out. I want you gone by the time I get home from work. If you aren’t, I’ll call the police.”
“We’ve been together for five years. That has to count for something,” Rick appealed.
It did count for a lot, and none of it pleasant. Ally had worked her ass off every day, and had missed her chance to finish college because of those five torturous years spent working to make sure Rick had a career. She’d made a plan, stuck to every single thing she vowed to do so she and Rick could have the perfect life together. She’d always told herself if she could just hold things together while he was in school, she would have her chance. And now, that carefully planned outline had been erased like it had never happened, leaving her nowhere. Just years of empty space.
Ally didn’t respond, nor did she look up at the man to whom she’d given five long years of her life. He didn’t deserve it.
I have to keep moving. I’ll survive.
Exiting the house, she closed the door behind her. She was in her car and on her way to Sully’s before she could see Rick come bursting out the front door in only a hastily donned pair of jeans, cursing because she was already gone.
Ally arrived at Sully’s ten minutes late for work, but she did her job, no one even suspecting that her entire world had just tumbled down around her, her plans for her future gone.
When she arrived back home, exhausted, Rick was gone. She dragged her tired body to one of the extra bedrooms, her body and mind completely drained. Ally knew if she stopped for even a moment to think about what had happened, she’d lose it entirely, and that wasn’t something she could afford to do right now.
Blanking her mind, pushing all thoughts of the past aside, she let her worn-out body succumb to a mind-numbing sleep.
One Month Later
Ally Caldwell never needed to actually see her boss, Travis Harrison, to know he was making his way to his office. He was like a force of nature that everyone shied away from, the whole upper floor of the luxurious high-rise Harrison building going from a buzz of activity to absolute silence whenever Travis the Tyrant entered the top floor from the elevator, every employee freezing like a deer in the headlights until he passed, each one breathing a sigh of relief as he moved by them without acknowledging their presence. Nobody wanted to be singled out by Travis Harrison, because it usually meant trouble.
Ally sighed, beleaguered. Most days, she thrived on doing verbal battle with one of the most obnoxious men on the planet. But today just wasn’t one of those days. Since her world had collapsed last month, she didn’t have the energy or the desire to do battle with Travis anymore, but she did it anyway, just because he could be such an asshole.
Pushing her glasses back onto her face and turning back to her computer, she murmured to herself:
“Five…
“Four…
“Three…
“Two…
“One…”
“Coffee, Alison,” Travis’s booming voice demanded right on time as he strode through the automatic doors to his spacious private office, walking purposefully into the reception area without even looking at her.