Page 32 of Loathing My Boss
Call her Cupid; I’m in love.
Viktor
Crisis lied to me. I don’t know why she lied to me or what wasreallymaking her cry, but I do know that Crisis is particular enough to not use the wordtextunless she means exactlytext. As in a message sent on her phone.
And her phone?
It was laying dormant on her nightstand on the other side of the room when I came in to find her crying.
She could not have read a text from Crimson and returned her phone to the nightstand within a period of time that feels natural.
The woman…she…she boggles my mind and makes my head hurt. I don’t know what to do with her. I want so badly for her to trust me enough to confide in me, but I know we’ve not had anything close to that kind of relationship up to this point.
“Straight pull to the anchor point…” she murmurs, lifting her bow and drawing her arrow back to the line of her mouth. Completely relaxed, she exhales past her lips. “Release.”
For the fourth time in a row, her arrow flies, hitting the bullseye on a target positioned thirty feet away.
She reaches for the fifth and final arrow in her quiver, then nocks it.
I lift my hand to my mouth, feeling parched. “So…Crisis…” I begin.
“Hm?” Pull. Release. Bullseye.
A swear takes up space in my skull as my feeble heart trembles. “Have you shot an arrow before?”
“No. Why?” Lowering the bow, she turns to me, as though she’s oblivious to the surrounding audience. In the line of guests shooting, half have stopped to watch her.
Upon her agreeing to come with me for archery tonight, I deluded myself into thinking I might get toshow her how it’s donepool cue style. Up behind her, gently guiding, whispering insipid littlelower your shoulder, that’s it, good jobcomments in her ear.
Instead, the cosmos vetoed that idea. They boomed their heartless laughter and mocked,You want a chance to appear attractive to the girl you like? Hilarious! No, you must fall pathetically further under her spell at every juncture, no mercy.
Why is a woman effortlessly handling a weapon sohot?
Finding it quite difficult to breathe, I say, “You’re just…very good at it.”
“I did a little research earlier. It’s not really that hard. The targets aren’t very far away.” She passes off the bow and quiver to me, then makes like she’s going to retrieve the arrows herself.
Instinct takes hold, and I grip her shoulder, stopping her before she can set a foot on the grass. “I’ll do that. I’d prefer you not go anywhere near the line of targets.”
Her arms fold, and she lifts an eyebrow. “Nothing we’re shooting could possibly be fatal.”
It is with great skill that I employ a flirtatious comment: “Losing an eye might not be fatal, but I’d still prefer it ifyou keep both of yours.”
Huffing, she lets a lip jut and does not at all seem swayed by my playful repartee implying I like her eyes. All the same, she lets me fetch the arrows. But she isn’t standing where I left her when I return.
She is in the lane over by the redhead I met this morning, gripping a young man’s ear, twisting it sharply down, and gritting between her teeth, “You wanna say that to her again, huh? Come on.I dare you.”
“Cri—” I attempt.
In practical tears, the early twenty-something says, “Y-you look good, getting nocked up…mind if I introduce you to a different definition of that word?”
Crisis digs her nail into his flesh. I think…I see blood. “Yeah. That’s what I thought I heard.Definition,” she hisses. “N-o-c-k-e-d andk-n-o-c-k-e-d are completely different words, so of course they have different definitions. You were probably suffering to workhomophoneinto your pathetic excuse of a pickup line. Didn’t your mother train you better? Like, I don’t know, by teaching you not to try and pick up strangers by making lewd suggestions?”
Be still my heart.
Crisis tosses him away, like he’s trash. The image replays in my mind while my breaths weaken. Planting her hands at herfabulouships, she glares down her nose at the man, resulting in tilting her head back, because she is several inches shorter than him. “You’re done here today, and if I hear or see anything about a second offense, you’redonein Sunset.” She lifts one finger, whirling it. “All this land’sprivate property, and you will be escorted off it for harassment. Am I understood?”
He swallows. “Yes, ma’am.”
