Page 84 of Brassy Bigwig

ILL FORGIVE YOU IF YOU FORGIVE ME

IVE BEEN FUCKING SOMEONE TOO

I DON’T WANT TO BUT I HAVE URGES THAT NEED TO BE MET

UNCONTROLLABLE URGES

DONT WORRY THOUGH

YOURE THE ONLY ONE I THINK ABOUT

WHEN IM VICIOUSLY FUCKING HER

SOON IT WILL BE YOU CHLOE

JUST ME AND YOU

I can feel the fear emanating from her as she reads the newest message from this sadistic fuck. Fire burns me from the inside out, and I’m finding it more and more difficult to channel my rage. I want to—no, I need to—find this motherfucker.

Slowly, Chloe walks the few steps back to her desk and takes a seat. Removing my phone from my pocket, I type out a quick email to Travis, asking him to call me as soon as possible. I need answers. Something. Anything.

I’m honestly at a loss here. There has never been a time in my adult life where I didn’t feel like I had complete control over a situation. I busted my ass from the moment I entered college so I would never feel this way again.

Fuck waiting. This unhinged lunatic isn’t going to let a few cameras stop him, and his latest demented love letter has accelerated my timeline. I’ll need to deal with Emilia as soon as possible now. I refuse to let that conniving bloodsucker come between Chloe and me.

“I think you should move in with me.”

Chloe’s eyes snap to mine, her shock evident in her features.

Before she’s able to speak, I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. Swiftly I pull it out thinking it might be the PI, but it’s not.

Emilia.

It’s as though the universe is warning me shit is going to blow up in my face the longer I wait to tell Chloe the truth.

Why is she reaching out to me now? I was over her before the ink was dry on our divorce papers. I moved on. She moved on. What is this about? Part of me wants to tell her to fuck off, but the other masochistic part of me wants to know what she wants.

My eyes shift back to Chloe’s, still looking like a deer in headlights, and I decline Emilia’s call for the second time in a week.

“What?” she finally questions, still looking at me as if I have three heads.

I walk to Chloe and drop down onto the floor in front of her. Her eyes grow wider still as she inhales a sharp breath. Suddenly, I realize what I must look like.

“No, no. It’s not that. I just, I want you to know that I care about you deeply. I don’t want anything to happen to you, and I think the best way to do that is for you to stay with me. At least until Blake is well and truly gone from our lives.”

She lets go of the breath she was holding on to, and a rush of air floats over me.

“Look, I want nothing more than for you to move in with me, not because of Blake, but because…”

I stop suddenly, realizing I almost told her I love her.It’s true. One hundred percent totally and emphatically true. But it’s too soon, and there is too much that hasn’t been said yet.

“Because of our relationship. I hate that he’s messed up the way in which I would have preferred asking. I had several other ideas in mind, each way more romantic than springing it on you in the middle of the office. But nothing is more important to me than you and your safety. Your well-being supersedes romance any day of the week.”

I watch as tears pool in her eyes, and her lips form the widest smile I’ve ever seen grace her face before.

“You may not see this as romantic, but I do. I see it in your worry. In your desperation to protect me. The fact that you didn’t hit the pavement running when things got hairy.”

“Believe me when I tell you there isn’t anything that would make me want to leave you. Especially now that we have a second chance. And don’t worry, I plan to ask you again, the correct way when the time is right.”

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