Page 4 of Start With A Slap

“Well, for starters, you have a...” She pointed toward his giant door, and the woman waiting beyond it. She was pretty sure she’d heard him say ‘Stay’ before running after her. The girl was probably still on all fours, whip in her mouth, drooling onto the rug.

God, he was sickening.

“Good as gone,” he said, waving dismissively in his pet’s direction, because of course. “You’re my daughter-in-law, I should get to know you, yeah?” While he said ‘daughter-in-law’, he shot his well-read guard a meaningful look.

She followed his gaze to see the man hold a shocked expression, saying, “Oh damn.”

This bystander commentary made her snap back into her body, and her brain. “I think we’ve gotten to know each other enough, Mr. Mark. I’ll see myself out.”

As she made haste to the exit, he called out, “Have it your way, Ivy Tyler.”

Right after she slammed the door, she heard a self-satisfied chuckle, amplified by all the marble.

He thought this wasfunny.

“It’s fine,” she said aloud in her car as she slowed for a hairpin turn. “Just gonna close that giant door to another dimension and never open it again.”

Unfortunately, that’s when she began to process what had [never] happened in that dimension: He yanked off her clothes! He covered her mouth! Hetweakedher nipple! He pushed herto the floor andshoved his cock in her face!And he wanted her to stay fordinner?

Who thehelldid he think he was?

And how could she haveletthat happen? She could have yelled it out at the beginning!I’m your daughter-in-law, I’m married to Jason!

Oh god, Jason!How could she face him now? She didn’t trust herself to look him in the eye and pretend she’d had a normal evening—but then she remembered he was working late. “Thank god for the Alvarez trial...” in which exploited workers were suing a huge corporation. “Nope, that’s a terrible thing to say. Do I have to lie to Jason now?” Hehatedliars. Almost as much as she hated secrets...

But is it a secret ifshebelieved it never happened?

She went over possibilities: what would happen if she told him?

It would most certainly make him freak the fuck out, would most likely make him feel like utter shit, and it was possible that he’d never look at her the same way again. He would wonder what his father did to her, exactly. He would wonder how it made her feel.

And how it made her feel was... not something she could handle right now. Or ever.

Distraction, that’s what she needed. Preferably a 12-episode podcast so fascinating it would drown out all self-reflection for the next few days. At the bottom of the hill, she pulled over to find the perfect one.

The farther away she got—in miles and in musing—the farther away she put it.

Ivy nearly criedas Huey bounded to the door and licked her face. Coming home was a relief, an antidote to the jarring surreality she’d just experienced. Here, in the lovingly decorated nine hundred square foot loft she shared with Jason, filled with the comforting presence of a slobbery pit bull, she knew who she was and what truly mattered to her. Although what mattered most at this particular moment was getting out of her dimension-hopping clothes.

Podcast still in her ear, she stripped naked. Balling up the entire tainted ensemble, she regarded it with detachment and pressed it to her nose — cigar smoke.Gross. She considered throwing it down the trash compactor, but that felt like an admission of its importance. Instead, she stuffed it deep down into the hamper to deal with another day.

The next two hours consisted of methodical bullet points: Change into sweats. Walk dog. Take shower. Reheat yesterday’s saag paneer, pour glass of Sauv Blanc, dine on couch while watching Kusama documentary. Return texts from Cousin Mal, write the next day’s checklist, brush teeth, moisturize, go to bed before Jason comes home.

Once she was under the covers, the day’s events felt like someone else’s life, like something she’d seen long ago in a movie. A movie she deeply hated.

Fellini, she thought to herself sleepily.A weird-ass Fellini movie.Complete with misogyny and delusions of grandeur hidden behind great sets, pretty cinematography...

...And a smokin’ hot leading man.

She closed her eyes and saw his face again. Smelled his cigar, his cologne and underneath it, his natural genital musk. Thatscent always reminded her of fresh-baked sugar cookies with aje ne sais quoizest, and cookies plus zesty sex? She was there for it.

Not in this situation, of course.

God, it almost touched herlips.

We talked about this, Ivy,she scolded herself while turning in bed.It didn’t happen, you were never there.

The room was silent. That was the problem. She considered getting her phone for more distraction, but she had a strict rule against screens in bed. She even tried to get Jason to stop working in bed, but she lost that battle. Bedrooms were for sleep. And sex.

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